Today the sun shone most of the time, and temperatures moderated in my embattled town. I went to the eye surgeon for a follow-up examination, and everything looked good. I also did not encounter any neo-secessionist rioters en route, which pleased me.
In my morning devotions, I read the passage below from Luke 18. Actually, just verses 9-14. I did 1-8 last Friday. But, in considering the context, I noticed for the first time that Luke jams two very contrasting parables right next to each other, thus:
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
1And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayeda thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
I’ve always been fond of the Tax Collector in the temple. In fact, my personal “conversion” (we Lutherans believe we’re converted at baptism, but some of us also believe you can have a renewal of your baptism when you’re old enough to understand the life of faith) followed a sermon on this parable. I was about 12 year old. As a guy who suffered from “low self-esteem” (a concept not yet invented at the time), I could identify with that beaten-down guy.
But just before that parable (I noticed today), you’ve got the outrageous story of the Persistent Widow (or the Unjust Judge). This is one of those parables that confounds our left-brain impulse to make every parable an allegory. Jesus is absolutely not saying that God is like an unjust judge. He’s just practicing hyperbole, telling an exaggerated story to make a point. You might call it a kind of a joke – “Even a crooked judge can be worn down by constant petitions. Certainly our good Heavenly Father will respond much faster than that!”
In other words, this parable commands us to approach God with what the Jews call “chutzpah.” Jewish people are famous for being bold askers. Their parents (generally) raise them to be like this. “What can it hurt to ask?” they say. “The worst they can do is say no.”
This is not something I learned in my Norwegian home. Precisely the opposite, in fact. It’s something I need to ponder, tax collector in the temple that I am.