Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 24C)
October 19, 2025
Text:
Luke 18:1-8
“And he told them a parable to
the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1;
ESV).
Our Lord knows us so well, doesn’t
He? He knows exactly what we need. He knows that we are prone to despair. He knows that as we behold the fallenness of
the world, the brokenness, the corruption of all things, including the things
and people we love… and our very selves, our bodies, our hearts, our souls…
even the disciple of Jesus Christ can lose heart.
It is worth noting that Jesus speaks
this parable immediately after prophesying the distress that will come upon the
earth, and particularly upon the Church, in the Last Days. The days will be evil, He says, essentially. That is, being a Christian, being faithful…
Jesus promises it won’t be easy. If
anything, being a Christian will make life harder, because it places you in
opposition to the whole world, the devil and the hordes of hell, and even your
own sad sack of sinful flesh. Fightings
and fears within, without. You know how
it is. Suffering. It hurts.
And when you’re in it, it can seem like there is no end to it. And when you do get a respite, you’re just
waiting for the other shoe to drop. So,
yeah, it’s easy to lose heart.
Jesus here gives us the key to
bearing the precious and holy cross without losing heart. Always pray. Now, that advice has the potential to sound
more than a little trite. Here is what
Jesus is not saying: “When the going gets tough, just say a little
prayer, and everything will turn out okay!”
No. That may be the theology of
pop-American Christianity, but it isn’t the theology of Jesus. Jesus knows things are not okay. So this is not mindless optimism, this
admonition always to pray and never to lose heart. The theology of it is not well expressed by a
t-shirt or a bumper sticker.
But, you know what it is? It is an invitation to demand with the widow,
“Give me justice against my adversary,” O God (v. 3). To cry out with the psalmist, “How long, O
LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?”
(Ps. 89:46). To lament with Job, and beg
for relief. To weep with Jeremiah,
wondering if God has deceived you, because it seems like everybody’s against
you (Jer. 20:7). To complain with the
Prophet Habakkuk, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not
hear? Or cry to you, ‘Violence!’ and you
will not save?” (1:2). See, what
this does, this kind of prayer… which is right here in the Bible… Sometimes we
Christians think we shouldn’t say such things to God, but in these Scriptures,
the Spirit places these words on our lips… what this does, is it takes the
burden and responsibility for all that is wicked and wrong and broken in the
world off of our shoulders, and places it on God, where it belongs. So He can shoulder it all the way to
Golgotha.
This is pictured so well for us in
our Old Testament reading (Gen. 32:22-30), isn’t it? Jacob wrestles all night with this mysterious
man. We know it is it the LORD. And the LORD lets Himself be
vanquished by Jacob. He gives Himself
to Jacob in weakness, in humiliation. And Jacob won’t let go. “I will not let you go unless you bless me”
(v. 26). Well, that’s how the Christian
prays. Especially in times of distress. When Jesus bids you always to pray and not
lose heart, He is inviting you to wrestle with Him. To cling to Him as he gives Himself
in the weakness of our flesh, in suffering and cross, to be prevailed
upon. Hold Him fast, and do not let Him
go until He blesses you.
You undoubtedly know this kind of
prayer. Who of us has not lain awake at
night, wrestling with God over some problem, some person, some place where the
brokenness and fallenness of things has brought us to the brink? It’s taken me a while, but I’ve come to
realize over the years that insomnia, whatever else may be its cause, is
actually God’s gift to me, calling me to prayer. To wrestle.
To cling. Until He blesses. And He does.
And He always will.
Though, not without pulling the
proverbial hip out of the socket, perhaps.
That is to say, in praying, as Jesus here invites you… in giving
it all over to your Lord, and demanding His blessing in exchange… you
will not be relieved of every pain.
That is not the Promise. In fact,
the Lord may touch you and lay additional suffering upon you. Look, that just the reality of life this side
of the veil. He may relieve you
of some particular sorrow in this life.
He often does that, and you can pray for that (in fact, you should). Even Job was given temporal relief once his
afflictions had run their course. But
then, you can bet there will be new crosses to bear right around the corner. They will find you. But the Lord will carry you through
the suffering. He will bless you in
it. He will turn it for your
good, and for the good of others. He
will use it for your salvation.
And in the End… in the End… perhaps when you least expect it, He
will deliver justice to you, and that, speedily (Luke 18:8). Here, for you Tolkien fans, that is the eucatastrophe,
which is true. That is Jesus’
Promise in our text.
When you are in it, of course, the
deliverance doesn’t seem very speedy.
What is God doing by that?
Whatever else He is doing, He is driving you all the more into prayer…
to surrender all things into His almighty and all-loving hands… to surrender
yourself into His almighty and all-loving hands. Like the persistent widow. Don’t give Him a break. Keep coming to Him. Keep badgering Him. Don’t let Him go until He blesses you. Because that is faith. God is exercising your faith.
And here is the point of comparison
between God and the unrighteous judge (no, Jesus is not saying that His Father
is an unrighteous Judge!): If even
an unrighteous human judge, who neither fears God above, nor man below,
eventually gives justice to this no-account widow who keeps bothering
him, lest she beat him down… literally, give him a black eye…
destroy his reputation, his prestige… if even he gives justice, then you
can bet that our righteous and holy God will give justice to those who
cry to Him day and night, and that speedily.
It would be absurd to think otherwise!
The way He gives it, though… that is
the astounding mystery. He gives it by
piling all the injustice, all the fallenness and brokenness and corruption of
this world, and our lives, our bodies, our hearts, our souls… all our sin… upon
His Son. Who bears it for us. Who shoulders it up the hill, to the place of
a skull. To put it all to death. In His body.
In Himself. That is the price of
justice. He gives Himself to be
vanquished. He gives Himself in
weakness, in humiliation. That we may be
blessed. And so we are. The answer to all our demands for justice,
our cries, “How long,” our lament, our complaint… the answer is Christ on the
cross.
And then the justice… the justification
delivered to us… is Christ risen from the dead.
You know, one Day soon, before you know it, the risen Christ will raise
you from the dead. That isn’t just a
fantasy. That is real. As real as the flesh and bone now sitting in
the pew. And when He does, you’ll
realize what He means when He promises to give you justice speedily. “How long, O LORD?” Soon.
Very soon. The Lord is
coming. So keep clinging to Him, knowing
He will bless. Always pray, and do
not lose heart. Things are hard right
now, God knows. But the old order of
things is passing away (2 Cor. 5:17). In
the blink of an eye, you will see, the Lord is making all things new (Rev.
21:5). In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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