Luke 18:1-17: “The
Importunate Widow / A Pharisee And A Tax Gatherer Pray At
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 20-37 of chapter 17.
1.1.1. Jesus responded to the question asked of Him of when God’s kingdom
would come.
1.1.2. Jesus told His disciples about the fact that one day they would find
themselves longing for His return, and then He began to teach them about the
events of His Second Advent (Second Coming).
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at verses 1-17 of chapter 18.
1.2.1. We will see that Jesus teaches about the importance of persevering in
prayer as He teaches the parable of the Importunate Widow And The Unrighteous
Judge.
1.2.2. Jesus will teach about a Pharisee and a tax gatherer who both went up
to the temple to pray, however it was the tax gatherer’s prayer that was heard
and who had his sins pardoned for he was humble and contrite in heart and
seeking God’s mercy.
1.2.3. Jesus’ disciples are rebuked by Him for disallowing some people from
bringing their children to Him.
2. VS 18:1-8 - “1 Now
He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and
not to lose heart, 2 saying, “In a certain city there was a judge
who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3 “There was a widow
in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection
from my opponent.’ 4 “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he
said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5 yet
because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by
continually coming she will wear me out.’ ” 6 And the Lord said,
“Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7 now, will not God bring
about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay
long over them? 8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for
them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the
earth?”” -
Jesus tells His disciples a parable about a widow who kept coming to a
judge to persuade him to give her legal protection from her opponent and the
judge was finally moved to help her out because of her continually coming to
him
2.1.
In a style unusual to him,
Luke introduces this parable by telling what it was meant to communicate,
namely that Jesus’ disciples ought ‘at all times to pray and not to lose
heart.’
2.2.
We Christians need to
understand how that prayer is meant to occupy such a central and vital part of
our lives in this world. Those who know
Christ are always those who also must grow in their understanding and practice
of praying for their own needs as well as the needs of others.
2.3.
In this parable, we first of
all see that there was a ‘a judge.’
He was a worldly man and is referred to by Jesus as being an ‘unrighteous
judge.’ He was a man who did ‘not
fear God’ and who also did not ‘respect man.’ This judge was probably a worldly Israelite
living in
2.4.
Secondly, we see that there
was ‘a widow’ who was in a quandary because of the fact that someone was
taking advantage of her. Perhaps a man
in town who realized that this woman having no husband was vulnerable was
trying to take away her property. This
widow desperately needed this judge to act justly on her behalf concerning her
adversary.
2.5.
There are many passages in
the scriptures that teach that it is the responsibility of God’s leaders to defend
and protect widows, orphans, and all of those who are helpless and vulnerable,
including:
2.5.1. Deuteronomy
27:19, “19 ‘Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien,
orphan, and widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
2.5.2. Isaiah 1:17,
“17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend
the orphan, Plead for the widow.”
2.5.3. Isaiah
1:21-23, “21 How the faithful city has become a harlot, She who
was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, But now murderers. 22
Your silver has become dross, Your drink diluted with water. 23 Your
rulers are rebels And companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe And chases
after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, Nor does the widow’s plea come
before them.”
2.5.4. James 1:27,
“27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God
and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to
keep oneself unstained by the world.”
2.6.
This widow has been called
the “importunate widow” and Miriam Webster’s Dictionary has the
following entry for this word “importunate” :
im•por•tu•nate \im-ˈpȯr-chə-nət, -tyu̇-nət\ adjective
(1529)
1 : troublesomely urgent : overly persistent in request or
demand
2 : troublesome
2.7.
As an example of how we ought to pray, this woman was
“importunate” in her coming to this judge and Easton’s Bible Dictionary
says the following about acceptable prayer, “Acceptable prayer must be
sincere (Heb. 10:22), offered with reverence and godly fear, with a humble
sense of our own insignificance as creatures and of our own unworthiness as
sinners, with earnest importunity, and with unhesitating submission to the
divine will. Prayer must also be offered in the faith that God is, and is the
hearer and answerer of prayer, and that he will fulfill his word, “Ask, and ye
shall receive” (Matt. 7:7, 8; 21:22; Mark 11:24; John 14:13, 14), and in the
name of Christ (16:23, 24; 15:16; Eph. 2:18; 5:20; Col. 3:17; 1 Pet. 2:5).”
2.8.
Jesus’ argument is yet
another one that He makes going from the lesser to the greater. He is saying that if a man who is an
unrighteous judge on this earth will finally give in and grant a woman’s
request because she is continually coming to him and driving him crazy, how
much more shall our heavenly father who loves us so greatly as His children grant
the requests that we bring to Him.
2.9.
Notice here as well that
Jesus refers to God’s people as being ‘His elect.’ The doctrine of ‘election’ is a very
important doctrine. Before all eternity,
those who will be God’s people in this life were “chosen” or “elected” to come
to salvation. The Lord not only knew who
would come to salvation (foreknowledge) because He knows the end from the
beginning in all things, He also chose those who would choose Him to be their
Lord and their God. Being God’s elect,
each of us have direct access to the Lord and it is expected and required that
we be people who come before the Lord with prayers and petitions for our needs
and the needs of the world around us.
2.9.1. Being ‘elect’
does not indicate that we deserve God’s favor, for the in Romans it tells us
that “none are righteous, no not one.”
2.9.2. Isn’t it a
wonderful thing for us as Christians to know that because we are God’s elect
that He has His eye and hand specially on our lives and that He is eager to answer
us and pour out His mercy and grace into our lives whenever we come to His
throne of Grace. Hebrews 4:16 tells us
that we Christians have assurance of being received whenever we come before
God’s throne of grace, ”16 Therefore let us draw near with
confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.”
2.10.
It is important also that we recognize the context
within which this passage and teaching of Jesus falls. Jesus has just prior to this been teaching
His disciples about His Second Coming, and this teaching comes out of that
teaching. The thing we need to realize
is that Jesus is saying that during this time while we are awaiting His Second
Coming that we need to come to the Lord and pray for His vindication and
justice to be carried out on our behalf when people have taken advantage of
us. This vindication and justice that we
request on our behalf will in time be carried out by the Lord when He returns
to the earth and executes justice in establishing His Millennial Reign.
2.11.
Jesus is not teaching here that God has to have His
arm twisted behind His back in order for Him to answer our prayers and
therefore that we need to pray them repeatedly in order to talk Him into
answering them. I believe that the
scripture is clear that we only have to pray for something once and that the
Lord will answer our prayer if it is prayed in faith and according to His
will. I believe that the point of this
teaching then is that we should never stop praying and stop interceding for
people in this world. God will answer
our prayers in His timing and according to His will.
2.11.1.
Have you ever prayed about something and then forgot
that you had prayed and then when the Lord answered your prayer you forgot for
awhile that you had prayed for this. We
have all done this. Sometimes we need to
remind the Lord as well as ourselves of the things that we are trusting Him to
answer.
2.11.2.
Prayer is to be specific. Sometimes when we are praying for someone to
say come to salvation we pray these general prayers for them and eventually
begin to lose heart in our prayers because we are praying so generally and
seeing no results. A key to persevering
in prayer for people is to remember to pray very specifically for things, not
in a general sense. This is how the Lord
wants us to pray.
2.11.3.
Never pray those big all encompassing prayers for they
are a waste of time. For instance,
sometimes I will hear someone pray something like, “Lord, I pray that
everyone will hear your voice and be saved.” The Lord isn’t going to answer this kind of
prayer. First of all, the scripture
tells us that many will not be saved.
Secondly, we don’t have the faith to truly trust the Lord for such a
huge prayer. Pray smaller but very
specific prayers for people, and always try to pray for God’s perfect will to
be accomplished in them.
2.11.4.
It is important also to remember that effective prayer
is God centered and exalts the Lord.
Many times people come to God and ask for things in a rude sort of way,
not acknowledging Him in His greatness and majesty, and with a reverent and
loving heart. True prayer ought to have
more to do with seeking that the Lord be lifted up and glorified than about
obtaining any results from Him. Any
parent is frustrated by the request of a child that does not acknowledge
him/her and only comes around when they want something. That “Give me, give me, give me” attitude is
something that we are repulsed by as parents and which we try to break from our
children’s lives. It must be the same
with our heavenly Father and us.
2.11.5.
The following poem by an unknown author speaks of how
much we need to be diligent to pray every day and in all that we do:
INTO THE DAY
I got up early one morning
And rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish
I didn’t have time to pray.
Troubles just tumbled about me
And heavier came each task.
Why doesn’t God help me, I wondered,
He answered, “You didn’t ask.”
I tried to come into God’s presence,
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
“Why child, you didn’t knock.”
I wanted to see joy and beauty,
But the day toiled on grey and bleak,
I called on the Lord for the reason—
He said “You didn’t seek.”
I woke up early this morning
And paused before entering the day.
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray.
2.12.
I found another inspiring
quote about prayer from Paul Lee Tan :
David Brainerd was a man of great spiritual power. The
work which he accomplished by prayer was simply marvelous. Dr. A. J. Gordon, in
giving a sketch of Brainerd’s experience, said,
“In the depths of those forests, alone, unable to
speak the language of the Indians, he spent whole days literally in prayer.
What was he praying for? He knew that he could not reach those savages; he did
not understand their language. If he wanted to speak at all, he must find
somebody who could vaguely interpret his thought; therefore he knew that
anything he should do must be absolutely dependent upon the power of God.
“So he spent whole days in prayer, simply that the
power of the Holy Ghost might come upon him so unmistakably that these people
should not be able to stand before him. What was his answer? Once he preached
and the interpreter was so intoxicated that he could hardly stand up. That was
the best he could do. Yet scores were converted through that sermon. We can
account for it only by the tremendous power of God behind him.
2.13.
The Christian Observer once
published this article:
One Sunday night in April 1912, an American woman was
very weary, yet could not sleep because of an oppression of fear. At last she felt a burden of prayer, and with
tremendous earnestness began to pray for her husband then in mid-Atlantic,
homeward-bound on the Titanic. As the
hours went by she could get no assurance, and kept on praying in an agony,
until about five o’clock in the morning when a great peace possessed her, and
she slept.
Meanwhile her husband, Colonel Gracie, was among the
doomed hundreds who were trying frantically to launch the lifeboats from the
great ship whose vitals had been torn out by an iceberg. He had given up all hope of being saved
himself, and was doing his best to help the women and children. He wished that he could get a last message
through to his wife, and cried from his heart, “Good-by, my darling.” Then as the ship plunged to her watery grave,
he was sucked down in the giant whirlpool.
Instinctively he began to swim under water, ice-cold as it was, crying
in his heart.
Suddenly he came to the surface and found himself near
an overturned lifeboat. Along with
several others he climbed aboard, and was picked up by another lifeboat, about
five in the morning, the very time that peace came to his praying wife! Supplication!
The prayer that will not take No for an answer, that storms the
battlements of Heaven, and brings confusion and defeat to all the powers of
hell, even death itself!
2.14.
Notice here that Jesus
intimates that when He returns that it will be a time of apostasy with not many
who are saved as He asks, ‘when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on
the earth?’
3. VS 18:9-14 - “9 And
He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up
into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The
Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not
like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax
collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even
unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying,
‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went
to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”” - Jesus tells His disciples a
parable about two men who went up to the temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax
gatherer, one’s prayer was accepted and the other’s was not
3.1.
In this parable, we see both
a good and a bad example of how to approach God in prayer. One man’s prayer is an abomination to God and
the other man leaves having obtained pardon and forgiveness for his sin.
3.2.
The irony of the two men chosen
is clear. Pharisees were the religious
fundamentalists and leaders in Jesus day, however the Pharisee in this story is
the man whose prayer is an abomination to the Lord. Tax gatherers were the most hated of all men,
and it has been said that because of fear for their own safety that not many
tax gatherers would even venture to the temple to pray. However, it was the tax gatherer whose prayer
was accepted by the Lord and his sin pardoned.
3.3.
The Pharisee’s prayer:
3.3.1. The Pharisee stood and was praying to himself, however his prayer
consisted of thanking God that he wasn’t like other sinful people, and then he
began commending himself to the Lord for his deeds, however his righteousness
was all on the external. The Lord only
required fasting once a year on the Day of Atonement, however this man was
proud of himself that he fasted twice a week.
This man also paid more in tithes than the law required and he thought
that God was impressed.
3.3.2. The Pharisee did not sense his need nor his unworthiness before the
Lord. He saw other’s sins but not His
own, plus he felt that he had somehow earned God’s favor and was therefore
deserving to have the Lord answer his prayer.
He had no humility and did not see himself in need of God’s mercy or
grace.
3.3.3. The Pharisees prayer was self-centered not God centered. He does not thank or praise God nor exalt the
Lord’s Name in any way in his prayer.
3.3.4. The Pharisee does not even pray for anything, and true effective prayer
moves to a request.
3.3.5. The Pharisee was judgmental towards others condemning them without even
knowing what was truly in their hearts.
3.3.6. The Pharisees prayer was not favorably received or answered by God
because his heart was in the wrong place.
His prayer was an abomination.
3.4.
The tax gatherer’s prayer:
3.4.1. The tax gatherer sensed his own unworthiness to such a degree that he
stood some distance away from the assembly at the temple, perhaps in the Court
of the Gentiles.
3.4.2. The tax gatherer was so aware of his sinfulness that he was beating his
breast and asking God in His mercy to forgive him of his many sins.
3.4.3. This man’s prayer was not self centered it was God centered for he was
crying out to the Lord for mercy. His
heart was humble before the Lord and his prayer earnest for God to answer him
and show him mercy.
3.4.4. The tax gatherer went home having had his prayer favorably received by
the Lord and his sins forgiven and atoned for.
3.5.
Jesus comments
upon why the one man’s prayer was rejected and the other man’s accepted saying,
‘everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself
will be exalted.’ Psalm 34:18
likewise tells us, “18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are
of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
3.5.1. We Christians need to recognize that what more than anything else that
we need to do when we go to the Lord in prayer is to always ask for His mercy
in our lives. We don’t want to ask for
justice in regards to ourselves but rather mercy because we have all sinned and
fallen short of God’s glory (
4. VS 18:15-17 - “15
And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch
them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. 16 But
Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not
hinder them, for the
4.1.
In this incident that is
recorded for us we see that people were bringing their young children (the text
states they were “infants”) to Jesus so that they might receive some
kind of a blessing by Him or from Him, however Jesus’ disciples saw the people
trying to do this and they were rebuking the people and not permitting them to
bring their children to Jesus. However,
when Jesus noticed His disciples doing this He rebuked them telling them, ‘Permit
the children to come to Me.’
4.2.
It must have been a
beautiful sight to see the Lord (He who is God of the universe) having little
kids crawl all over Him. It is wonderful
to realize that with all of Jesus’ spirituality and holiness that He was also a
man who was comfortable holding and playing with young children, and that they
were also drawn to Him. If we ever
become so spiritual that we aren’t approachable we are in trouble for Jesus was
approachable.
4.3.
At this point in time this
story reveals to us that Jesus’ disciples were managing His affairs and to some
extent controlling the things that were happening around Him, and they thought
that it would be a waste of Jesus’ time to have children brought to Him
(probably the gist of their rebuke).
However, Jesus’ response reveals that all people are welcome to Him.
4.4.
J.C. Ryle has written the
following concerning how churches have dealt with children, “On few
subjects, perhaps, shall we find such strange opinions in the churches, as on
the subject of the souls of children.
Some think that children ought to be baptized, as a matter of course,
and that if they die unbaptized they cannot be saved. Others think that children ought not to be
baptized, but can give no satisfactory reason why they think so.---Some think
that all children are regenerate by virtue of their baptism. Others seem to think that children are
incapable of receiving any grace, and that they ought not to be enrolled in the
Church until they are grown up.---Some think that children are naturally
innocent, and would do no wickedness unless they learned it from others. Others think that it is no use to expect them
to be converted when young, and that they must be treated as unbelievers till
they come to years of discretion.---all these opinions appear to be errors, in
one direction or another.”
4.5.
Many believe because of this
passage that if a child dies before reaching some kind of an “age of
accountability” that they will go to be with the Lord in heaven, and though the
scripture is not completely clear to affirm or deny this truth it does seem
reasonable to assume that Christ’s atonement will cover a child who dies before
some age of accountability. If this is
the case, then there will probably be more children in heaven than adults.
4.6.
In the New Testament, we
never see anyone being baptized other than a person who has come to have saving
faith in Christ. Therefore, we in the
4.7.
Jesus makes the point here
that everyone who receives His kingdom must receive it like a child. When a person comes to Christ he is to come
with a childlike faith and trust in the Lord and His word. Likewise, children are also not good at
deception and in this same way God’s children are to be transparent and honest,
and not hypocritical or secretive.
5. CONCLUSIONS:
5.1.
As we consider this teaching
and how we need to apply it to our lives, lets first of all commit ourselves to
persevering in prayer. Continue to pray
specifically for our own needs as well as the needs of others. As His elect, lets trust in the Lord that in
due time He shall answer our prayers and deliver us.
5.2.
Lets be committed to coming
to the Lord with a humble broken heart and a contrite spirit asking for the
Lord’s mercy and grace. Lets come to Him
with a great sense of our need for Him as well as a great earnestness that He
hear our prayer and answer us.
5.3.
Lets be committed to always
having a childlike faith and innocence concerning wrong. Lets be transparent not secretive, deceptive,
and hypocritical.