S. Two parables about prayer (18:1–14)
S. Two parables about prayer (18:1–14)
1. The unjust judge (18:1–8)
Jesus is not, of course, likening God to an unrighteous judge. The parable is of the ‘How much more …’ variety. If a wicked man will sometimes do good, even if from bad motives, how much more will God do right!
1. There is no indication of time, but told them may indicate the same audience as the preceding; in the interval before the End they should be diligent in prayer (there is a similar link between prayer and the parousia in 21:36). When praying people see no sign of the answer they long for, it is easy for them to be discouraged. But they must pray on and not lose heart. Jesus’ teaching goes beyond that of the Jews, who tended to limit the times of prayer lest they weary God.29 Three times a day (on the model of Dan. 6:10) was accepted as the maximum.
2–3. A judge who neither feared God nor regarded man (contrast 2 Cor. 8:21) was controlled only by his own ideas and inclinations. The widow was almost a symbol of helplessness. She was in no position to bribe the judge and she had no protector to put pressure on him. She was armed with nothing but the fact that right was evidently on her side (she asked for justice not vengeance) and her own persistence.
4–5. But what she had she used. Her persistence eventually wore the judge down. In the end he did as she asked for no higher motive than the desire to be rid of her. He did not want her to wear him out. The verb is a picturesque one meaning literally ‘give a black eye’! Clearly it is used metaphorically here.
6–7. Since even an unjust judge can sometimes do justice, much more must we expect that the righteous God will vindicate his elect. The word emphasizes his choice, though we should bear in mind that the elect are called for service; often we speak as though the term was concerned exclusively with privilege. The elect cry to him day and night. They pray with unwearied persistence. They realize that they are in great need and they recognize that their one hope is in God. Earthly resource will not do. RSV may be right in translating Will he delay long over them? The meaning will then be that the elect will be vindicated very soon. But the Greek is difficult and it may be understood as AV, ‘though he bear long with them’. In this case the thought is that God delays the vindication, probably for a gracious purpose in strengthening his own as they endure hardship. Some scholars think that them means the oppressors, as Moffatt, ‘Will he be tolerant to their opponents?’ More plausible is the view that the words render a Semitic expression meaning ‘He postpones his wrath’, i.e. God’s delay in vindicating the elect is in order to give people the opportunity to repent. Either way the delay is seen as part of God’s gracious purpose, but whether this is the purpose of strengthening the elect or of giving opportunity to the wicked to repent we cannot be sure.
8. Vindication will be done speedily, but we should understand this in terms of God’s time (in which one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day, 2 Pet. 3:8). Jesus is speaking of the certainty of speedy action when the time comes. When he asks whether the Son of man will find faith on earth, he is not suggesting that there will be no believers. He is saying that the characteristic of the world’s people at that time will not be faith. People of the world never recognize the ways of God and they will not see his vindication of his elect.
2. The Pharisee and the publican (18:9–14)
The second parable brings out the spirit in which people should pray. It is also an emphatic repudiation of any suggestion that anyone can be saved by acquiring merit. What the Pharisee said about himself was true. His trouble was not that he was not far enough along the road, but that he was on the wrong road altogether.
9–10. Luke does not identify the recipients of this parable, but the error denounced is typical of the Pharisees (though by no means confined to them). In the temple public prayers were offered, but people might also pray there privately, and this was evidently the case in the parable. The Pharisee was a religious man whom one would expect to find in these surroundings engaged in this activity. The tax collector was an unlikely candidate for religious exercises, being normally both dishonest and a betrayer of his own countrymen.
11–12. The Pharisee stood, which was the normal posture for prayer (Matt. 6:5; Mark 11:25). His prayer was uttered in a spirit of pride, but it seems that this kind of prayer was not unknown. Somewhat later than this R. Nehunia used to pray:
I give thanks to Thee, O Lord my God, that Thou hast set my portion with those who sit in the Beth ha-Midrash (House of learning) and Thou hast not set my portion with those who sit in (street) corners, for I rise early and they rise early, but I rise early for words of Torah and they rise early for frivolous talk; I labour and they labour, but I labour and receive a reward and they labour and do not receive a reward; I run and they run, but I run to the life of the future world and they run to the pit of destruction.30
The Pharisee in the parable speaks first of some vices from which he abstains and then of some pious practices in which he engages. The Law provided for but one fast, that on the Day of Atonement, so his fasting twice a week was a work of supererogation. The pious were in the habit of fasting more often than the Law required and fasting on Monday and Thursday is attested (e.g. Taanith 10a, 12a). The Pharisee also went beyond the Law’s requirements in tithing. The Law prescribed that certain crops be tithed (Deut. 14:22), but it was a Pharisaic practice to tithe even garden herbs (11:42). What this Pharisee said about himself was strictly true, but the spirit of the prayer was all wrong. There is no sense of sin nor of need nor of humble dependence on God. The Pharisee came short of congratulating God on the excellence of his servant, but only just. ‘He glances at God, but contemplates himself ’ (Plummer). After his opening word he does not refer to God again, but he himself is never out of the picture.
13. The tax collector was clearly under great conviction of sin. Lifting up the eyes to heaven when praying was normal, but his sense of unworthiness prevented him from doing this. He kept beating his breast (the tense denotes continuous action), a sign of sorrow.
His prayer is simple, God, be merciful to me a sinner! The verb be merciful is hilasthēti, ‘be propitiated’, ‘let thine anger be removed’. Even as he looks for forgiveness he recognizes what he deserves. And he calls himself not ‘a’ but ‘the’ sinner. He, too, puts himself in a class of his own, but how differently from the Pharisee! He has nothing to plead in extenuation. He can only throw himself on God’s mercy. ‘This publican was a rotter; and he knew it. He asked for God’s mercy because mercy was the only thing he dared ask for.’31 His is the plea that is accepted. The tax collector went home justified, reckoned as righteous, ‘acquitted of his sins’ (NEB). This is a great Pauline word, seen here in the teaching of Jesus. The principle behind it all is that he who exalts himself will be humbled. No one has anything of which he can boast before God. By contrast, he who humbles himself will be exalted (cf. 14–11). The penitent sinner who humbly looks for God’s mercy will find it.