God loves the cranky, preening, & annoyed

By pitting them against the downtrodden, repentant, and starved

In looking up commentaries on the gospel for Saturday, Nov. 16, (It’s the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8) I found several folks comparing this story with two other Lukan parables:

• The Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14)

• The Parable of the persistent neighbor (Luke 11:5-8)

A close study reveals a running theme regarding not just God’s intervention in our lives, but a loving purpose. God wants to convince us that he loves us.

Because these parables are strange, odd circumstances involving two different people in each tale, their similarity doesn’t stand out right away. We’re drawn into the stories because they seem kind of weird, in a familiar sort of way. They deal with persistence and prayer, but it’s jumbled. There’s something very important about God that we might miss due to the rancor that comes through the protagonists. God doesn’t just love us for being good, or for loving him. He loves us because he wants to be good to us.

In today’s parable, a dishonest judge reluctantly gives into a widow’s persistence for justice. It’s a strange setting. The judge is being harassed by a widow who wants justice but isn’t getting any satisfaction. Finally, the judge gives in to her requests. The judge says he isn’t giving in because he cares about her, or even that God is asking him to do it. He doesn’t believe in God. He’s helping her because she’ll finally leave him alone.

Image by Engin Akyurt

The story, though, isn’t about the ruthless judge or even the persistent woman. It’s about God. God prompts the judge to help the woman. She’s not really praying for help from God. God helps her anyway, because that’s who God is.

In the overly proud Pharisee story next, in Luke 19, Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee who preens before people to show off his holiness. He compares the self-centered holy man to a tax collector, a public sinner who exhorts money from citizens. A tax collector quietly creeps into the temple so that no one can see him. He, like the Pharisee, prays, but he does so with repentance and respect for God. Jesus said the tax collector, humbled by his sinfulness, will be exalted in his cry for mercy. The exalted Pharisee, conversely would be humbled.

Again, this story is about God. God is the one who absolves us of our sin. He will provide what the tax collector needs, and what the Pharisee needs. God loves them both.

And, in the parable of the persistent neighbor, God explains that a hungry man will get what he needs from his persistent neighbor because the neighbor will eventually see the need.

After telling these parables, Jesus explains their purpose:

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
(Luke 11:9-10)

These simple, low brow stories show us broken and flawed people being attended to and formed by God. Not formed against their will, but formed nonetheless. God wants us to know these stories because they are raw, real situations, where God operates all the time.

The widow gets the justice she needs. The sinner gets the mercy he needs. The hungry man gets the bread he needs. Also, the judge, the Pharisee, and the sleepy neighbor get what they need. They experience doing a good deed, being awakened to another’s need. And in the case of the Pharisee, God’s humbling of him will surely give him awareness of his own selfishness. God engages us in every aspect of our lives.

Jesus also provides specific insight on today’s parable about the judge and the woman seeking justice:

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

That last line is the one that we need to take to heart. “But when the Son of Man comes, we he find faith on earth?”

God know that we don’t take advantage of our intimate relationship with him. We’re woefully distracted from God’s love. Instead of concentrating on God to further advance our prayerful requests, we worry that we’re not getting God’s attention. We even think he’s unaware of our presence.

Remember when you were young. I fully expected that my parents loved me. When I did something wrong, though, I was sure that they wouldn’t love me anymore if they found me out. I not only felt that I was in trouble for some criminal activity, but that my very status with them was in peril.

I could see their disappointment in me. There were many times that I interpreted their rage as the end of my relationship with them. That wasn’t the case, of course, but that’s what worried me. I was just a child. What did I know about guilt? Mostly, I felt it best to hide. Am I any different with God?

Quite often, we judge the Holy Spirit’s influence in our lives based on our inability to be good people all the time. We don’t think the Holy Spirit can love us enough to stay in our hearts when he sees how ugly we really are.

It’s not true. God is the loving parent, the faithful brother, and the forgiving confidante that we wish we had as our own.

God told these stories to convince us that he will do anything to get us to wrap our arms around him just like he wants to wrap his arms around us. His remarkable love for us flies off the pages in both the Old and New Testament records. “I love you beyond your wildest imagination!”

Judge, oppressed widow, Pharisee, tax collector, neighbor, and desperate man. We’re all of those things and more. And God loves us. Not anyway, but especially. He’ll do anything for us.

God is the perfect parent. He has our life’s accomplishment pasted on his refrigerator. He’s the perfect brother. He died for my sins and rose to conquer death. He’s the perfect confidante. He only desires the best for me, and works me always into his plan.

(A reprinted, edited, reflection from Homeless Catholic, November 10, 2020.)