As we read in the last verse in our Luke lesson (Luke 18:8), “I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” While God will always help and love His children, will those same children recognize God’s providential action in their lives?
Jesus just finished telling the parable of the “Un-Just Judge.” The judge that neither feared God nor had respect for any person. Jesus is contrasting God to the un-just judge. The message he wants to convey is that even a horrible person, who has the ability but not the desire to help other people, will help, if he can gain something from it. In this case, the un-just judge gains a little peace from a persistent widow who came to him every day asking for justice.
As an important note, while God has chosen every person to live in heaven forever, there is a question left to complete our salvation. Have we chosen God? Have we recognized that we have lived going our own way which many times is rebellious to God? Have we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord, where we will live to love other people as Jesus loves them? And, have we given our free will over to doing the will of the Holy Spirit?
God who is love personified in this world, will He not come quickly to our aid? I think we do live knowing God loves us and wants to give us piece and contentment. Why does Jesus add that last part to the last verse, “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” In 2 Corinthians 4:18 Paul says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Jesus says in John 9:41, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
But, the vast majority of people do not recognize the answer to their prayers. Many people have good things happen to them, but may take credit for it themselves or say a good coincidence occurred. After Jesus tells the disciples this parable about the unjust Judge, He must have recognized the confusion in their faces. So, He immediately tells another parable.
In a previous church, our Board of Trustees had the job of selling our current church so we could build a new church. We did everything we could think of to sell that church but after two years, nothing had happened. Right after we gave up, things began to happen — the pastor of another church called with a firm offer that just “happened” to be exactly our asking price. Such is the providence of God. It took less than an hour to finish the details.
Just think how many people were involved in this transaction. There were three main groups, two churches and a hospital, all wanting to buy and sell. Then of course there must have been hundreds of people who were spouses, advisors, encouragers, prayerful people, committee members and so forth. It took God two years to get all of these free wills to say yes. It could have been done in a day, but when people who could help say no, God needs to begin another plan. God never stops. You cannot always see God working, but there is a quiet persistence.
Perhaps we are now seeing the results from our own 40 days of prayer leading up to Easter, as we embark on the construction of a new playground and other renovations and begin hosting a new ballet class in our building. Can we connect the dots? Can we see the prayers and see God’s resulting action? Yes, it requires faith that the good things that happen to us are the result of prayers. The longer you are in the world, and the more faith you have, the more you see the providence of God.
However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? We may be praying. We may still be reading our Bibles. We may still be receiving good things from God, but will we have faith that connects the good things from God with our prayers? Will we have faith that we are living in God’s created universe? Will we see the many providences of God?
I pray that as God brings good things our way, that my faith tells me that this is from God. I pray that as I ask God for wisdom, that I have faith that my good decisions come from God. I pray that as we in this room have faith, we will always see the unseen, but ever present hand of God. Amen.
