They’re annoying, and that’s a good thing. Because sometimes faith takes the form of holy stubbornness. What Jesus teaches us in word and deed: to pray means to keep at it.
Sometimes one can only marvel at this Jesus from Nazareth: for example, how He treated the Canaanite woman. The woman, who belonged to Israel’s sworn enemy, cried out to Jesus to have mercy on her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus did not answer. Not a word.
The woman just kept on asking. Her nagging annoyed the disciples. They told Him to send her away, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” Finally, Jesus told her that He did not want to toss the “bread of salvation to the dogs”. She relented a little, but persisted and told Him that even dogs eat the crumbs.
Jesus was amazed and said, “O woman, great is your faith!” And He fulfilled her request, proving by His actions what He preached elsewhere.
Unstoppable versus unfair
The following is about the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18: 1–8: On the one hand, there is a heartless, godless, and unscrupulous judge who could afford to pass judgement on a whim. And on the other, there was a widow who had no support, no influence, and no income or assets. She only had one chance, but she made the most of it.
She asked the judge to give her what she was entitled to. But he simply had no desire to do so. She did not give in, kept on asking, really pestering the man and becoming a real nuisance. In the end, the judge relented and avenged her: “lest by her continual coming she weary me”, he said. She had worn him down.
Two petitioners, one message
The pleading widow was not the only person who knew how to be a real nuisance. There is also the parable of the persistent friend at midnight, seven chapters earlier in the gospel of Luke. He received help because of his “shameless audacity”, as it says in the NIVUK.
The point is the same in both stories: if a heartless judge can be moved to finally give in and a sleepy friend agrees to get up and help, how much more readily and willingly will our heavenly Father help His children?
“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” With these words, Jesus concludes the parable of the persistent widow. And that raises the same question for us: will Jesus find faith if He returns today?
Holy stubbornness
Counter question: What faith, please? This becomes clear in the context: precisely the kind of faith the Canaanite woman was able to muster, and which Jesus admired. “That [one] always ought to pray and not lose heart,” it says at the beginning of the parable of the persistent widow.
The Canaanite woman was a nuisance, the friend was a nuisance, and so was the widow. We too may, indeed we should, be annoying, constantly pestering God with our requests. Because the door can only be opened to those who knock. And only those who ask can be given.
Of course, not every request is fulfilled. That is another topic for another occasion. But if a request is granted, then it begins with the attitude of Jacob wrestling with God: “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
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