Luke 11:5-8
5 And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
This parable confused me for the longest time.
When it came to explaining WHY God would answer my prayers, it seemed to say that God would finally give in to my “persistence”, and just say yes.
Then, it took on a new light when I read the works of Kenneth Bailey (Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes.) Bailey was raised by Christian missionary parents in the Mid-East, and he applied his understanding of that culture to help explain some of the trickier parables of Jesus.
In this parable, Bailey focuses on the nature of hospitality that would have permeated the villages where Jesus taught. And how answering a request, from a friend at midnight, would have been based on the honor and hospitable nature of the person who was being asked to help.
The word that we translate “persistence”, Baily suggests, is misplaced and directed to the wrong person. From Mid-East ears, Bailey suggests that the person in the house would respond to the request favorably because of “his own honor”, and to preserve the honorable reputation of the whole village.
So …. God would not answer my prayer because I bugged God. God answers prayers because it is in God’s honorable nature to listen to us when we talk, and to help us as is best.
Prayer
God, thank you for loving me enough to call me into a relationship where you listen, and you help me in my need. Amen.
~ Steve Negley