Parable challenge common assumptions
- don’t read them as illustrations, but things that confront truths
Arrogance is spooky
Genesis 32
- God was the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
- Interesting because Jacob was a “swindler” in an earlier life
- Israel = wrestling/struggling with God
- Interesting to be known as a people that “wrestle” with God. Not, faithful, blessed, etc.
- God’s truth is the best to live by, but that doesn’t make it the easiest.
- It will make you uncomfortable at times.
- When we settle and stop letting ourselves be challenged
- We then begin to make Jesus our mouthpiece instead of us being a mouthpiece for Jesus
- Jesus isn’t our spokesperson
- We then begin to make Jesus our mouthpiece instead of us being a mouthpiece for Jesus
If Jesus agrees with you on all your thoughts and actions, you have been confused by gods of this age.
Luke 18:1-8
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?””
We are supposed to have a special attention towards the orphans, widows, and immigrants because they were the most susceptible to being overlook and/or abused
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27 NIV
There are a lot of people trying to get Jesus in their own corners
- If you have Jesus, you can get essentially get whatever you want
- Even Jesus was tempted to use his own person/power to rule
If you get your power through brokenness, it will never be holy or just
The crux of the parable is that even though unjust people can do good things, God is always working for good.
- our best versions of justice will always favor one group over another