Hey. You're listening to Cut for Time, a podcast from Faith Church located on the North Side Of Indianapolis. My name is Claire Kingsley. Each week, I'll sit down with one of our preaching pastors to discuss their Sunday sermon. Cut for time is a look behind the scenes of sermon preparation, and they'll share with us a few things that we didn't hear from the sermon on Sunday.

Thanks for listening. Alright, Jeff. Cut for time, and we are talking about, the persistent widow and the unjust judge. So would you just give us a recap from your sermon on Sunday that what that parable is about, the characters you kinda talked about, three characters in the parable, and what did you challenge us with in the end? Yeah.

Yeah. The this is so part of the reason I wanted to get into this, parable as we're looking at sort of surprising unexpected turns or things happening in the parable was because of particularly one of the characters in the parable. So Jesus, in Luke's gospel as he structured the event, Jesus is getting close to, you know, knowing that his time is, drawing near. He's going to be returning to the father. He's just, told his disciples about, the the final coming of the kingdom when Jesus returns in glory, but he also knows there's going to be suffering and difficulty in the meantime.

And so, Luke introduces this by, saying so Jesus told them a parable that they should pray and not give up. So part of what's interesting and a little unexpected here is is Luke introduces this saying Jesus told them a parable saying they should pray, except the parable doesn't picture anyone praying. It pictures this widow going before this unjust judge demanding justice, and, eventually, she's so persistent that the judge finally throws up his hands and says, fine. I'll I'll grant you justice. I'll grant you what you're asking for just to, you know, essentially get rid of this woman.

And, so there's a couple things. One is, Jesus is saying this is a parable about prayer, and he says then listen to the unjust judge. If he will grant justice to this widow, will not God grant justice to his elect, to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? He will grant them justice quickly, he even says. Mhmm.

But will the son of man find faith? And literally, it's the faith. Well, so will the son of man find that kind of faith when he returns to the earth? So it's this interesting kind of combination or shading over between prayer and persistence and seeking justice and, that this unjust judge is finally kind of worn down by this persistent widow who has no position, no authority, no power, no claim on him. And, so it's another kind of parable that Jesus uses where we're not meant to see the judge, the authority figure, as being like God, which, you know, kind of we're almost primed to read it that way if we're used to hearing parables like, oh, there's a king, there's a judge, there's an owner, there's someone in authority, that's the person that's kind of representing God.

This is coming at it from really a different perspective where Jesus is saying, look. If even an unjust, ungodly, immoral judge will grant justice to, this poor, persistent widow, how much more will a loving, heavenly, righteous god Then grant justice, do what is right for his children who cry out to him. So Jesus, in this sense, is asking us to actually look at our world and use that as almost a parable that could remind us about what the heavenly father is like and the the confidence and the persistence we should have in coming to him. Mhmm. And so part of what I was wanting to do with the parable was unpack a little bit of, so why is it a struggle for us sometimes?

What what are the things that maybe we've given up hoping for or praying for because maybe it feels like nothing's happening. Maybe it maybe we wonder is God really hearing? Does he does he know, and is he doing anything, and is he paying attention, and is there any value in continuing to pray? He did. So that's what I was hoping to to bring out, in the message is to help us see in the widow, yes, this model of perseverance, but also, all like a almost like a shamelessness, a boldness, even though she has no position and no authority.

And so by contrast, I think Jesus is saying, so how much more persistence and confidence should we have? Because we're not nameless, powerless widows. We're known beloved children. And if even an unjust judge will grant justice, how much more should we be actively praying for and pursuing injustice in in the sense of, you know, the right thing to do, but the way the world ought to work, the way things ought to be. And then thirdly, it the the I think the other character that's behind the scenes here clearly is the Lord, because the judge himself says, I don't fear God, and I don't care what people think.

But, the Lord is in this parable because he's going to bring justice. So if we know that we have a loving, righteous, good father who's going to bring justice, that should encourage us to pray and and motivate us to pray. I think what I hear you saying, is, like, you know, in some parables, we see a comparison, like you said, from God, our heavenly father, to one of the characters in the parable. And you're saying, like, this is not a comparison, so or it's not even, like, this is the unjust judge is not like God. They are so different.

And so, also, though, I feel like often we are compared or should be compared to the persistent widow. Like, you hear Christian language, like, oh, be like the persistent widow. And, and yet and I think that's what, like, my takeaway from the sermon was, we are not like the persistent widow. Exactly. Because you said the line in your sermon.

You said, how much more would our heavenly father listen to us because we are because of who we are in our standing. Right. And that just stood out to me like a new fresh reminder of Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm not actually just like this persistent widow.

I am different. And so I don't know. Just would you just re Yeah. Go through that again, but how are we not like the persistent widow? Yeah.

So Jesus uses what would have been in the culture, a common sort of character in a sense. Widows were almost sort of a, stereotype of, powerless, almost hopeless, kind of invisible people in society. If you didn't have a husband or a father or a brother to look after you in that culture, you were almost likely to be destitute, to be taken advantage of. There's the the the I mean, you have to think back to a world in which women have almost no rights at all. And so to be on your own as a woman, especially in that culture, would have meant almost certainly poverty, desperation, total lack of resources, power, visibility, just an unknown picture of hopeless, powerless, voiceless.

And just like with the unjust judge, you know, if Jesus is saying, look, if even this unjust judge will grant justice, how how much more will a a good and a righteous and a faithful God give justice? But not just generally, how much more will he give justice to his elect, to his chosen ones? And I hey. I didn't even I yeah. Didn't even take the time or have the time to to spend unpacking that a little.

The description that Jesus uses, God's elect, God's chosen, the ones whom God has looked at and said, I want you. You are my child. I've chosen you. I've set my name on you. I've set my love on you.

I've adopted you into my family. So, yeah, how much are we not like the widow? I think, you know, I kinda grew up with an idea of prayer that was, you know, if I thought about it at all as a, you know, kid, a teenager is just like, well, you know, you just you ask and you hope that God will do something. But, you know, what what what kinda position do we have? It wasn't from a recognition that say, like, I'm a, it wasn't from a position of a recognition that I'm a beloved child who's coming to a father who delights to do good to me.

And and so the contrast to the widow is even more, stark that way. We're not unknown. We're not voiceless, nameless, faceless, powerless. We're known. We're loved.

We're called by Jesus' name. Jesus has an imagery in the bible. He's he's written his name on our hands. We're we're engraving on his hands. Our names are written in the lamb's book of life.

Not a hair falls from our head. Not a sparrow falls from the sky, but the heavenly father knows and, and cares. So there's there's just all this encouragement, rich imagery in the Bible of, oh, even in in the Old Testament prophets. You mean the the pictures of God being like in in another image, like a husband calling out to his beloved bride. I I've I chose you.

I adorned you with beauty and grace, and I showered you with my love, and and I've set my seal on you, and my heart longs for you. And I just don't think of talking to God in that way often enough. Like, that's who I'm talking to. Number That's what he thinks of me, that that, he delights in me. He loves me.

He wants to hear from me. He longs to do good to me, that Jesus even looking overlooking Jerusalem, the city that's going to reject him, is is almost weeping with lament over the hardheartedness of people who are gonna reject him and kill him, and yet whom he still loves to draw to himself. And I yeah. I mean, now you're making me, fall into the the preacher's condition of, this is my third sermon. So the old saying is every every pastor preaches three sermons on a Sunday.

The one you prepare, the one you deliver, and the one you wish you'd preached. And so maybe we need to do cut for time before the sermon. Or hopefully people will hear this and just yeah. Hopefully, you hear this and just be encouraged. Yeah.

Be encouraged to reflect more on, how the father thinks about us and and how we are seen and known and loved and desired and delighted in by our father. Mhmm. And that's who Jesus is encouraging us to cry out to. And I'll be honest, like, that is it's, like, wonderful to reflect on, and I do believe that that is the truth, because it is from scripture. But, also, you and I both know it doesn't always feel like that.

Oh, yeah. You know, like, I was just talking to somebody who I love this past week, and she said, like, how have I not been delivered from this yet? You know? And she's like, it feels like the psalmist saying, like, how long are you going to hide your face from me That's how it feels. Because she's like, I am persistent in prayer, and I am exhausted, and it has been years.

And Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's the verse, and so, like, then I I brought up this verse of Psalm thirty four five, which says, those to look those who look to him for help, their faces are radiant with joy. Yeah.

And they will not be ashamed. Yeah. And so, like, we have the truth, and then we have all that feeling of, like, that waiting. And you kinda talked about that waiting. Yeah.

Feels really long for us and feels and it is with not without there's no delay for the Lord. So I don't know. Just any encouragement where you can hold you can recognize the truth, but we also just know it doesn't feel like that all the time. Oh, absolutely. And that's the reality of the, I mean, what it means to walk with Jesus by faith in a world in which things are so profoundly broken.

Mhmm. And we're still works in progress and ourselves stumble forward by grace, you know, one one step at a time. I yeah. I just, there's so much there to say. I think, you know, Paul talking about we're we're struck down but not destroyed.

We're, perplexed but not overwhelmed. We're, hurt but not crushed. We always carry around in our body the suffering of Jesus. There's just this in incredible, tension. I mean, it's easy to say the already and the not yet of the kingdom.

But when it really hits us in that way, that can be so hard, to continue to walk by faith and and remember and trust and hope when it just doesn't look like it. I mean, even again back in the old testament prophets, the though the fig tree doesn't blossom and, there's no grain in the stall, yet I will hope in you, Lord. I think about, you know, I did I didn't have time, and and I also wondered if maybe I'd already shared this story, in a bit from my own life. It's really my grandparents' story. Mhmm.

I had four wonderful, loving, godly grandparents, and I grew up in a church going home, not a I wouldn't say particularly, you know, strong Christian home, but, grew up going to church, thankful for a Christian foundation. I remember worshiping with my grandparents and know my parents grandparents prayed for me. But I didn't come to faith in Christ until I was in my early twenties. And by that time, three of my godly grandparents had passed away. So I had three loving, godly grandparents who I know I know were praying for me, and I could only imagine, you know, seeing from their eyes what I was like as a goofy, annoying, difficult teenager.

Like, it Lord, there surely there's hope for this kid. Jesus, get a hold of this kid. This Jeff needs you. And three of them died praying those prayers without seeing any evidence of God answering those prayers. Yep.

And, I just think what a testimony of faith and perseverance, and I'm so looking forward. I cannot wait to see my grandparents again and to just run into each other's arms in the presence of Jesus and say thank you. Thank you for your love, your patience, and your faithfulness in praying for me when you didn't see the answer to those prayers, and yet God was working. God honored those prayers. God heard those prayers, and, I am who I am, and and God worked in my life what he did and through me in other people's lives in no small part because of your faithful prayer and your perseverance and your continuing to believe and hope in God's best for me when there wasn't much evidence for it.

And I just I've thought so many times, what an example of, I think, what Jesus is talking about here. What he's encouraging us to, that we keep on hoping, we keep on praying, and we keep on believing that God is good and will do good Mhmm. Even if we don't see the evidence for it. And I I know it's a lot easier said than done, but that's why we need each other, why we need the encouragement and reminders from God's word, why we need to be able to cry on each other's shoulders, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other and walking by faith, and and why Jesus I think why this is why Jesus is reminding us and why he gives us this parable because he knows. He knows having told his followers, hey.

I'm gonna come back. Everything will be made right. But in the meantime, it's gonna be adversity and suffering and difficulty, and I don't want you to lose hope, and I and I don't want you to give up because your prayers matter. And and your prayers are doing something. Even if we can't see the ultimate outcome right now that we hope those prayers will result in.

Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that story. Just a testimony of rare, stretching across across generations and, like Yeah.

Yeah. There are so many things that we won't see or experience that we've prayed for. And that can feel disappointing. But you're like, just that idea of hope, because ultimately we know God does not delay and that he desires our good. And so just, like, trying to fix our mind on that instead of our own timelines, you know, it's it's just yeah.

It's really hard in practice, but I appreciate that story because it's a great reminder of many things that we might never see or know Yeah. In this light in this side of heaven at least. I I do believe that we will get to hear the stories when we see when we all are together and see Jesus face to face and part of our worship with each other in the presence of Jesus will be seeing how God was working in all those things and what he did behind the scenes and maybe generations down the line that we had no idea of. And and we'll just be able to say, wow, Lord, I I can't believe you used that. I I can't believe you used me.

I can't believe you worked through that prayer, through that word that I shared with a friend, through the note that I wrote, through the service that I offered, through all those things. And and that's what you did. Oh, lord. Thank you. Praise your Jesus.

I I I really believe that, and I think it's just it's going to be awesome, and it's just gonna be God's people together sharing stories and celebrating what God has done and how we got to be a part of it in ways that we couldn't even imagine and would have no ability to even see or anticipate at the time, which is why we walk by faith and and not by sight. But it's really hard. And, and and we need one another, in in encouraging each other to keep on pressing forward and keep on hoping and keep on praying. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you, Jeff. Yeah. Thanks, Claire. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Cut for Time. If you wish to submit questions to our pastors following their sermon, you can email them to podcast@faith,liveitout.org or text them into our faith church texting number, and we'll do our best to cover it in the week's episode.

If this conversation blessed you in any way, we encourage you to share it with others. Thanks for listening. We'll be back again next week.