Far and away for me the most confusing thing Jesus said came in two parables which have the same lesson. In both stories God does not come off looking very good. That is the confusing part. Why would Jesus tell these stories in the first place? In one God is depicted as a corrupt judge who keeps getting nagged by a widow. In the other He comes in the form of a sleeping neighbor who doesn’t want to get out of bed and help a friend who needs some food. “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.” What Jesus is saying is eventually the neighbor gets out of bed because you keep pounding on the door. Now you can try to flip this around, read it upside down, do everything in your power to make it say what it doesn’t say, but in the end the words are still the same words and the point is still the same point. Jesus is telling us that sometimes, like a Widow who refuses to leave until justice is done or a neighbor who won’t let you go back to sleep until you give him what he wants- sometimes you have to BOTHER God. BOTHER HIM? I hate this notion! I don’t want a God who finally gives in just to get rid of me. And I have wrestled with these parables for a long time because in some ways it feels like my faith depended on it. And here is the only thing I can land on- and I could be totally wrong about this, but maybe the stories are less about God’s reaction and more about having something in your life worthy of not giving up. Most of the things we go to God about have the power to keep us up at night. They can stress us out, they can worry us, they can consume us. But there is a huge difference between a problem and a passion. Look at the stories again. The Widow has a passion- it’s justice. The neighbor is not hungry, instead he wants the bread to feed someone else- his desire to help is his passion. And so they keep knocking, refusing to go away, because if they give up someone or something else loses out. Again maybe I am wrong about this, but when you see it from this perspective God is not lessen but enhanced in these stories. Because what these people are saying is“this is important, and it can’t be done without you. So I am taking this cause (not my concerns) but this cause to you in the hopes that you will do something about it. And if you don’t, it is so important that I will come back here tomorrow to make my case again. “ Here is my question for you today what passion do you have in your life that is worthy of bothering God about it?
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 13:17:57 +0000
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