Importunate Prayer

Pray without ceasing. How to pray.

(The Gospel History, Section 116)

And he spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, and regarded not man: and there was a widow in that city; and she came oft unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge saith. And shall not God avenge his elect, which cry to him day and night, and he is longsuffering over them? I say unto you, that he will avenge them speedily. Howbeit when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Commentary by J. R. Dummelow

Lk 17:1–8. The Unjust Judge (peculiar to Lk).

There is a close connexion with what precedes. The mention of the Second Advent leads Christ to speak of the need of prayer and watchfulness in view of it. The main lessons of the parable are: (1) The duty of continual prayer; (2) the certain answer to prayer, if it be only persistent enough; (3) the certainty that in the end God will maintain the cause of His elect against their adversaries; (4) a warning against failure of faith in times of seeming abandonment by God.

The moral difficulty that in this parable God seems to be compared to an unjust judge, is best met by saying that in reality God is not so much compared as contrasted with him. The argument is, If justice can be obtained by persistence even from an unjust judge, how much more can it be obtained from the Author of all justice. It is true that God is said, like the unjust judge, to delay justice. But His motive is entirely different. His delay is due to love, love of the saints, whose faith He designs to purify and strengthen by much waiting, and love of their adversaries, to whom He gives a space for repentance before the day of vengeance comes.

Lk 17:1. Perhaps this is our Lord’s own comment on the parable. Always to pray] On the other hand, the rabbis taught that God must not be fatigued by too frequent prayer. Three times a day was enough. ‘If a man comes to address you every hour, you say that he holds you cheap: the same is true of God, whom no man ought to fatigue by praying every hour.’ The words are to be taken literally, because even purely secular acts, when done to God’s glory, are acts of devotion. The whole lives of the faithful should be, in Origen’s words, ‘one great connected prayer.’ Faint] i.e. become weary.

Lk 17:2. A judge] Probably a heathen judge, because, (1) The local Jewish tribunals consisted of three judges, and (2) Jewish judges (at least in NT. times) had no such evil reputation. They were required to have this sevenfold qualification, ‘prudence, gentleness, piety, hatred of mammon, love of truth, that they be beloved, and of good report.’ Yet see on Mk 12:40.

Lk 17:3. Avenge me] better, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ Her ‘adversary’ was probably a rich neighbour, who, taking advantage of the death of her husband, had stolen her land. The offence of violently appropriating the property of widows and orphans is often alluded to in the OT., and forbidden with threats of divine vengeance (Ex 22:22–24, etc.).

Lk 17:5. Weary me] lit. ‘give me a black eye.’

Lk 17:7. Avenge his own elect] i.e. the members of His Church. Christ comforts His disciples who are discouraged by the persecutions which are even now threatening, by promising that God will visit their persecutors (the Jews and afterwards the heathen) with condign punishment. This was literally fulfilled in the calamities which overtook the Jews and the chief heathen persecutors of the Christians.

Though he bear long with them] better, ‘though he is slow to act for them,’ i.e. though His coming seem to be delayed.

Lk 17:8. Speedily] cp. Rev 22:20 2 Pet 3:8–10. Christ’s coming, though it may seem to be long delayed, will be as speedy as the scheme of God’s providence, which takes account of the needs of the whole world, will permit. It will not be delayed an instant longer than is necessary.

Nevertheless, etc.] The sense is, ‘Nevertheless, in spite of the warning and encouragement I am giving you, the faith of many will have waxed cold at the time of My return.’ Christ does not mean that the elect will have lost their faith altogether, but that on account of the trials and disappointments which will precede the Second Advent, and also on account of its unexpected delay, they will be discouraged.

Faith] or, rather, ‘the faith,’ i.e. the unshaken confidence in the certainty of My Second Coming, which I hope to find.

Importunate Prayer

(The Saviour of the World, Vol VII Book I Poem XII)

The doctor comes—he takes the hand
Of the sick father; by him stand
Mother and children: piteous, she
Cries to the man whose word shall be
Sentence of death, or hope of life:
Oppressed with sorrow for the wife,
The children—soon shall orphans be—
The friendly doctor scarce can see
For tears of sympathy that rise
The while he their last hope denies.

So Jesus saw, oppressed with grief
The woe for which was no relief
Settle, a heavy cloud on friends
He would have saved; how make amends?
“Nay, children there is ever prayer!
Still are ye in your Father’s care
How dark, how awful be the fate,
Of them, continue reprobate!
’Tis not enough yourselves to save
Ye would the lives of these men have,
The people amongst whom ye dwell?
This fond concern of yours is well:
Remember Abraham, how he prayed
For wicked Sodom; he essayed
Four times to move God’s pitying ear;
Each time, God heard; O’ercome with fear
Lest he should weary God, he stayed—
Alas for them for whom he prayed!”

Then told the Lord the tale we know
Of that persistent widow, who
Came often to the judge and cried,
With clamour not to be denied,
‘Avenge me, lord, on him hath wrought
Such wrong upon me, that, distraught,
I have no thought but how to urge,
That thou wilt act the land to purge
Of one doth cheat the widow’s bread
And leave her babes uncomforted!’

The widow moved the judge to mirth,
In scorn he cried, ‘Now, what on earth
This woman thinks she to obtain?’
Driven off, the woman came again,
And yet again and many times
Would she rehearse th’ oppressor’s crimes
In the unwilling judge’s ear:
He bade her thence; she had no fear;
The harder he, th’ more she cried:
Said he, ‘I can no more abide
This woman’s importunity:
She and her wrongs are naught to me;
I fear not God nor care for men
But needs must quiet hours regain:
Go, grant th’ wretch the boon she asks
That I be free for other tasks
More to my mind; outworn am I
By her persistent, dreary cry!’

Then spake the Lord a word of grace:
The disciples heard with clouded face
Nor e’er perceived that—for their grief
The Lord had offered sure relief.
Their souls were sad for Israel’s fate,
How might they all those woes abate
Christ had foretold? He bade them pray;
The crying of His own elect
The Lord would hear: lest they expect
Too little of the Father’s love,
Too diffident His ear to move,
He bade them ponder how the cries,
Th’ persistent, unremitted sighs
Of the poor widow—for his ease
Inclined to grant what she should please,
That callous and indifferent lord
In whose hands lay power to award
The boon she craved.

If prayer hath power,

Unfed every day and hour by hour
A heart tyrannical to melt
What then of prayer to Him who felt
The wrongs His children suffered ere
They thought to come to Him in prayer?

Poor souls there are who day and night
Cry on their God, that He requite
The wrongs they suffer, hunger, cold
Distresses that have been of old
The poor man’s part; but God perceives
Th’ accumulated wrongs; and grieves
Him for His poor; for He
Who knows the utmost truth, can see
Each motion of the arrogant heart,
Each shameful act tears men apart
Your God beholds; in His due time
He visits men for ruthless crime.

Ye cry for vengeance or for peace;
Your God sends chastisement, release;
A man solicits, God imparts
His tender dealings break men’s hearts—
Sure, every soul must turn to God
Frank as the daisy in the sod!
Alas, men are perverse and cold,
And benefits but one day old
Are out of mind: the man’s concerned
With that he sees, his face being turned
Back from the shining of God’s grace,
Say! When He comes, shall He find place,
The Son of man? Faith shall He find?
Will men leave all that they may bind
His cross upon their shoulder?

St. Luke xviii. 1-8

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