Preaching the Parables, Pt. 6: From Text to Sermon
After the preacher has wrestled well with all the interpretive difficulties that come with reading and understanding the parables of Jesus, the task now lies before him to communicate and preach the parable faithfully, clearly, and persuasively. This jump from interpretation to communication always takes work but usually there are few key ingredients that, if remembered and applied, will help the sermon be an effective one. Using the Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18 as a case study, I want to give three principles to help with preaching the parables; principles which should help keep the sermon sharp, biblical, and clear.
Keep the textual audience in mind.
Luke’s textual key is found in Luke 18:1 just before Jesus gives the parable of the Persistent Widow. Luke tells us clearly, the parable was told to encourage ceaseless and persevering prayer. This clue should already set the preacher up for many illustrative comparison between the unrighteous judge who “neither feared God nor respected man” versus God himself who is just and ready to help those in need. But the textual clue also helps the preacher keep the main thing, the main thing. The main point of the parable isn’t about justice for the oppressed and down trodden; those are details that are given to help prop up the main point which Luke gives us at the very beginning: “he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).
Keep the textual context in mind.
Looking at the parable of the Persistent Widow. it is not arbitrary nor accidental that this parable comes right on the heels of what Jesus taught at the end of Luke 17. There at the end of chapter 17 Jesus has just taught about living as citizens of the Kingdom of God while we still wait for the fullness of the Kingdom of God to come. In other words, chapter 17 verses 20-37 is all about life in these last days between the ascension of Christ and the second coming of Christ. And as Christians who are now separated from the world yet still living in this world, Jesus promises that we will all undergo pressures from the world, assaults, and opposition from the world, or even give up our confession in Christ because we’re too attracted by the world! Just as Lot’s wife couldn’t bear to leave the glitz and the glamour of Sodom, so too will many so called Christians give up heavenly faithfulness for worldly fun. And it’s precisely when that happens that many are prone to stop praying.
Getting the context right helps the preacher see that the parable of the Persistent Widow isn’t just a passage on helping you pray continuously – it’s more than that – there’s an eschatological weight to the parable. Jesus is concerned with his people praying because he’s concerned that they don’t give up! And that will help the preacher sharpen the focus of his sermon: Whether we give up because life in this fallen world is too hard or we give up because life in this fallen world is too enticing, with all of its little lusts and attractions – Jesus wants us to hear this parable and come away absolutely committed to persistent prayer so that we make it to the end.
And that fits with how the parable ends in verse 8 – “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” That’s Jesus’s own rhetorical take away; his application of the parable. It’s asked as a question, a motivating question – “Will there be faithful people still praying when I come back?” For Jesus, the word “faith” in verse 8 is parallel to and a synonym of what he says back up in verse 1, that is, people ought always to be praying and not losing heart. In other words, what does faith and faithfulness look like in a fallen world? It looks like God’s people always praying and not losing heart. And keeping the larger textual context in view will help the preacher communicate that truth clearly and with precision.
Keep the theological boundaries in mind.
This parable’s lesson has often been greatly misunderstood, because most people think it teaches that a feverish and unrelenting persistence in prayer is a virtue. Untold numbers of sermons have wrongly used this text to teach that we must frantically beg God to answer our prayers because only that kind of praying will really pierce heaven and get God’s attention. But this kind of preaching only happens when the preacher has neglected the theological boundaries. Jesus is clear in the sermon on the mount, “when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
In the Parable of the Persistent Widow, Jesus is not teaching that there is anything meritorious in our vain repetition, he’s teaching that our Father in heaven listens intently. He isn’t teaching that we need to repeat ourselves because only then God will turn his ear, he’s teaching that God is just and is acutely attuned to the needs of those who cry out. He isn’t teaching that we need to repeat our prayers because if we don’t then God might be unwilling to answer us, no, he’s teaching us that God is through and through compassionate and more than ready to speedily bring about justice.
The preacher then should not have his listeners walk away thinking that the purpose of the parable is to repeat, repeat, repeat our prayers – like magical mantras – which will overtime wear God down. The parable is presenting to us a “greater than” argument – God is greater than the wicked judge and unlike the judge, God does not need to be “beaten down” (as Jesus puts it in verse 5), because He’s already willing to answer our prayers.
So what do we make then of our textual clue in verse 1? If the point isn’t that God’s arm is finally twisted by our persistence in prayer, then why did Jesus tell us that he gave us this parable to teach us that we ought always to pray and not lose heart? In other words, it sure seems, from verse 1, like Jesus wants us to keep on repeating our prayers?
In short, he does – he wants us to keep on, keeping on in our prayers – but notbecause our prayers are what ultimately move God or change God to act. Underlying this passage is that glorious truth that our God is impassible – that nothing outside of himself moves him to act but that he acts entirely according to his own good will and wisdom. We do not pray to God like the old prophets of Baal prayed to their own false idol, calling upon Baal, day and night, whipping their backs just to get him to answer. No, our God has already determined the end of all history and every point and prayer leading up to it. Our prayers do not change God because our God is an immutable and unchangeable God. Those are good theological boundaries to keep in mind. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. The wicked judge, he changed. He made his decision to help the widow, why? Because she wore him down. We cannot say that about God! We don’t wear God down. As Psalm 115 verse 3 tells us, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” So, again, we ask the question: why does Jesus say that we ought to pray always and not lose heart?
Here’s the answer: Because in these last days, it is our persistent prayer which keeps us attuned and keeps us faithful to our just and holy God. The end of this passage explains the beginning. Will Jesus find faithful believers upon his return (that’s the question of verse 8)? Well, we see the answer in verse 1 – only if they always pray and not lose heart. Again, coming off the heels of chapter 17 where Jesus is warning us to not be like Lot’s wife, more in love with this world than with God, here Jesus gives us the key – he gives us the means of grace whereby we can have a lazer-like focus on the goodness and justice of God, even in the midst of an unjust world.
