By Reverend Dr. Fontella Irons
Bible Text: Gospel of Luke 11:1-13
What happens when we pray? I can recall a time when someone who no longer believed in Jesus Christ as Savior called and told
By Reverend Dr. Fontella Irons
Bible Text: Gospel of Luke 11:1-13
What happens when we pray? I can recall a time when someone who no longer believed in Jesus Christ as Savior called and told me about the time when he first began to no longer have faith in God. He said that he had been raised to have faith, but then one night something happened. He said that one night, he got down on his knees to pray just before going to bed, and he said that he came to this conclusion: “There is nothing on the other side of my prayers.” At that point, although he was a child, he said that he began to pray less and to believe less. Eventually, he rejected the faith of his childhood, totally. The biblical passage before us today highlights the tragic error of turning away from God. Jesus, in so many words, tells his followers to remain constant in prayer. Even, perhaps especially, when it seems as though all hope is gone.
When Jesus’ followers asked him to teach them how to pray, he did not remain silent. He gave them instruction and that instruction began with praise to God. God is recognized as holy. God is recognized as “Abba,” “Father.” Then, Jesus teaches them about the constancy of God. God is present and with us, always. God provides for us on a daily basis. Jesus
addresses or implies the ongoing conflict with spiritual powers and human adversaries. Still, he tells his followers to remain constant in prayer. The spiritual discipline must never be forsaken. Then, in this same passage, Jesus tells a story about two neighbors (in verses 5-8) to highlight the importance of asking God for what we need, searching to find the will of God, and knocking on the doors of the heart of God.
In New Testament scholarship, we refer to the passage at Luke 11:5-8 as “special material.” That is because the texts do not appear anywhere else in the canonical New Testament. The writer of the Gospel of Luke has several special passages; in fact, most of the special material in Luke is focused on prayer. This is the case as we consider Luke 1:5-25 and Luke 2:21-38. The promise of the birth of John the Baptist at 1:11 tells us that Zechariah was in the temple as “the people were praying outside.” Then at 1:13 the angel Gabriel tells Zechariah “your prayer has been heard.” In the next chapter, we find that prayer is mentioned in connection with Anna, a widow and prophet. At v.37, we are told that Anna “did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” The opening scene in the temple with Zechariah and the next temple scene with Anna help to establish the Lukan writer’s special interest in positioning prayer as central to the story of Jesus’ life.
In the parable at vv.5-8, Jesus teaches on prayer by creating a situation of contrasting needs. The complexity of the problem begins at v.5 as Jesus asks the disciples to suppose that one of them has a friend and the disciple goes to that friend at midnight requesting three loaves of bread. Here, the most striking elements are the timing of the request (midnight) and the requested items (three loaves of bread). Then, at v.6, we find the explanation for the timing and the request: the disciple has to make the request because a friend has just arrived from a journey, but the disciple has nothing to place before the guest.
The arrival of the guest at midnight coupled with the host’s empty cupboard necessitates the knock at midnight. In search of a way to fulfill duties of hospitality, the disciple has to rouse another friend at midnight to properly fulfill the role of host. At v.7, we learn that the friend’s first response was that he did not want to be bothered, that he and his children were in bed, that the door was shut, and finally, that he was not able to get up and give to the friend making the request. But then, at v.8, Jesus tells the disciples that even though the friend would not rise to give to the friend making the request because of the friendship, it is the knocking friend’s persistence that leads to the fulfillment of the request. This verse is the heart of the contrasting needs: one friend has to make a request of the other due to the late arrival of a traveler and yet a neighbor, who initially
refused, finally addresses the need due to the knocking friend’s persistence. At v. 9, Jesus concludes the parable by telling the disciples to ask, to seek, and to knock. The idea is that – we knock (wait or persist) – in prayer. We do so trusting and believing that God hears us.
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