Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost (Series C)
October 16th, 2016
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Epistle: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Lesson: Genesis 32:22-30
Psalm: Psalm 121
CLB Commentary – Rev. Ken Narvesen
All four texts of this week’s pericope, Old Testament Lesson, Epistle, Psalm, and Gospel, work together to teach us the need to continue in faith through all of life. The Christian life is not a moment in time, but a walk through life with our Lord.
In the Lesson we see Jacob wrestling with God. The very thought of wrestling with God almost seems presumptuous, but Jacob is determined to be blessed.
In 2 Timothy 3 we hear Paul encouraging Timothy to “14…continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
The Psalmist acknowledges in Psalm 121 that he “lifts up his eyes unto the hills,” and that “his help comes from the Lord.”
And finally we find the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. Through all these texts we hear the theme of persistence. Underlying this theme is the acknowledgement that life will not always be easy. There will be those hard times when all you can do is hang on tight for the blessing as Jacob and the widow both did.
Arndt gives this insight into the historical setting of the text: “If the evangelist narrates events in chronological sequence, we have to think of Jesus as speaking this parable on the way to Jerusalem, probably in the region of the Ten Cities east of the Jordan…”
He was on the way to Jerusalem; the cross was ahead. The disciples needed the preparation of this parable if they were to hang on through the crucifixion. Professor Harold Buls, in his notes (available HERE), connects this text to chapter 17 and puts it this way, “Hard days lay ahead for the disciples, 22. They would be tempted to follow false Christs, 23. The Christ must suffer and be rejected by His people, 25. The world will go on in its sinful, impenitent way, until the end, 26-33. The sin of man will attract final judgment like a cadaver attracts vultures and eagles. Under such circumstances Christians are tempted to grow weary. Lest they grow weary, Jesus spoke this parable.”
But the real beauty of this parable comes in realizing that it is a parable of contrast more than similarity. We see the stark contrast between the “judge who neither feared God nor respected man,” to whom this woman had to bring her case, and our loving heavenly father. He is one we can indeed hang onto through the deepest of struggles.
Like the widow we are often defenseless. Like Jacob we are often deceitful and get ourselves into real messes, but whoever we are and whatever our situation, we can find with Jacob, David, Paul, and this widow, that God is one we can cling to in confidence.
Faith clings to the Word and promises of God. These are what matter. Persistence for the believer, we see, is not so much a matter of strength of character as it is desperately hanging onto the Lord in the manner of Jacob and the widow in Jesus’ story.