In the first 30 verses of Luke 18, Jesus discusses how believers should respond to His words about the end times and impending judgment from Chapter 17. The Son of Man will come back to judge the world and call His children to glory, so His people should live accordingly. We cannot live like those who have no awareness of His return. So, we always pray and we don’t lose heart. We make sure our righteousness is based in Christ and not ourselves. We approach the kingdom of God with the acceptance of a child. And we make sure our treasure is in the next world and not just this one. The message of this text is that the imminent appearance of the fully realized kingdom of God should dramatically affect how the children of God live.
1-8
The first eight verses of this chapter appear to be a continuation of Jesus’ discussion of the end times from Chapter 17 (based on what Jesus says in verse 8). He tells His listeners a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. This is similar to the lesson on persistence in prayer that He taught in 11:5-13 (the parable of the friend who comes in the night). The lesson seems to be twofold: pray continually until the great day but also persist in prayer and don’t lose heart even when answers are a long time coming.
The characters in the parable are telling. The petitioner is a widow, a woman with no means and no standing to get what she wants. The person she needs is a judge who has all the means and standing but who has no reason to care about her. She has no leverage with the judge and no means to affect his behavior. The judge has all the power and can help her but is not inclined to do so because of his character. He is not only ungodly (did not fear God) but also uncaring (did not respect man), which makes him almost untouchable (and you have to appreciate his self-awareness in stating the truth about himself without any apparent shame or spin). He doesn’t care about answering to God or man, so there’s very little pressure that can be put on him.
What makes the judge finally relent is simply the widow’s persistence. It’s the one weapon she has and she wields it effectively. He grants the widow justice (or protection) because he’s worn down and wants her to go away. She wears him out and he takes the path of least resistance to make the pain end.
The ultimate message – as stated in verse 1 – is to never lose heart in prayer. Jesus says that if an unrighteous judge will relent under pressure, how much more will a loving heavenly Father answer the cries of His chosen ones? This is not to say that we approach God with the intent of wearing Him down (“Fine, you can win the lottery – just stop praying about it!”). What it means is that we pray until we receive an answer and we don’t lose heart even when it seems God doesn’t hear. [And as we explored in more depth in the similar passage of Lk 11:5-13, this means there is value in prayer as an end unto itself. The pursuit of God makes us more like Him regardless of how our prayers are answered. Time in prayer is always a good thing – something we must remember when heaven seems silent and unresponsive.]
Note that the cry of both the widow and the elect is for justice. This isn’t just any prayer. The lesson of the text applies to all prayer, but Jesus singles out this request. When we come to God and plead for justice (something that perhaps will become harder to come by as we get closer to the end times?) He hears and acts. He loves His children and won’t ignore their cries for justice.
The question is, when? How long does it take Him to answer? The end of verse 7 and the beginning of verse 8 give a partial answer but they’re a little hard to understand. The last statement of verse 7 could be translated, “…will He delay long over them?” or, alternatively, “…and yet He is longsuffering over them.” So it could mean that He won’t delay, or it could mean that He might delay. But then He says in verse 8 that God will bring about justice speedily, which seems to go along with not delaying. But how do we define ‘speedily’? Experience tells us that injustice is often allowed to exist for quite some time unaddressed and sometimes isn’t addressed at all in this life [which brings up an important point about reading the Bible – we can’t simply read the Bible as if it’s divorced from real life – when we find something that doesn’t match our experience or what we observe, we must dig into the passage until we understand how it relates to the real world – we should remember that the Bible is always true but it’s not always obviously true]. So does speedily mean that when justice comes it will come quickly, but since we don’t know when it will come we must continue to pray? Or does it mean justice will come suddenly? Or is it ‘speedily’ in God’s eyes for whom a thousand years is as one day and one day as a thousand years (II Pet 3:8)?
As we try to interpret what Jesus means, it’s important to remember that the message of the parable is to not give up in prayer. Since that’s the case, then apparently what we pray about doesn’t always come quickly. Said another way, if justice comes speedily, why do we need to persevere in prayer? What seems to make sense is that we don’t know when or how God will act, but we know that He loves us and hears us and when He DOES act – either in this life or the next – His judgment will be perfect, complete, and sure (II Thess 1:5-10). And while we wait for Him, we must not lose heart and we must continue to pray.
The final statement of verse 8 seems to be Jesus’ way of finishing His words about the end times that He started in the previous chapter. “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” God is faithful to His chosen ones so His chosen ones have the responsibility to be ready for His return. This goes along with 17:30-36; some will be ready, and some won’t. God is faithful and will be faithful to the end; will He find followers on the earth who remain faithful to the end too?
9-14
Just like with the first parable, Luke introduces this parable with its meaning. Jesus tells this story to address the self-righteousness of some of His listeners. Note that His targets think they are righteous AND they view others with contempt. These two thoughts always go together. If we’re proud of our righteousness and have no appreciation of our fallibility or sinfulness, then others will pale in comparison. The self-righteous are blind and find all the faults in others that they can’t see in themselves.
Jesus makes it clear with the story that the sins of the tax collector are not as dangerous as the self-righteousness of the Pharisee. The tax collector is the lowest of the low in Jewish society because he takes advantage of his countrymen in service to the despised Romans. Yet because he realizes his sinfulness (note that in the Greek he describes himself as “THE sinner”, not just “A sinner” – he fully realizes and admits his lost status) and simply asks God for mercy, he goes away from his prayer justified. God saves him. The Pharisee is not saved because he has no idea he needs to be (he does more than the Law requires with his fasting and tithing – he’s secure in his righteousness – God’s lucky to have him). Thus, his self-righteousness leaves him in a much more dangerous spot than the despised tax collector.
Those who aren’t willing to humble themselves by admitting their sinful state and their complete inability to approach God will be humbled. They’ll ultimately be damned. Those who are willing to humble themselves will be exalted on the great day. It comes down to this – we either humble ourselves and admit our sin and become exalted in glory, or we exalt ourselves in our self-righteousness and become humbled and damned at judgment. Humble now or damned later.
It’s interesting to consider the effect of this parable on Jesus’ listeners. They are likely a little shocked to hear a story where a tax collector is the good guy and a Pharisee is the bad guy. It is also likely that Pharisees are there – how must it feel to be made the negative example in a parable that specifically names you?
15-17
This passage goes right along with the preceding parable (and is likely why Luke includes it here). Jesus tells His disciples to allow parents to bring their children (verse 15 reads even infants which probably means that children of all ages – from infants on up – were coming or being brought) to Him to be touched because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (children aren’t viewed as they are in society now – the disciples likely see this as a waste of Jesus’ time). He explains that for anyone to enter the kingdom they must receive Jesus’ message as a child. A child is not cynical or skeptical or suspicious. A child accepts what he hears sincerely and at face value. A child trusts his parent implicitly and fully realizes and accepts his dependence on that parent. The humility of a child is what is necessary to accept the good news of the kingdom.
Aside – why do the parents want Jesus to touch their kids? Why do so many bring their children to Him? This seems a little odd from a modern perspective. What we must remember is that Jesus is a famous rabbi at this point. People have seen His healing powers and heard His teaching. Whether they fully believe or understand who He is, they know He somehow has the mark of the divine on Him, and they want His blessing on their kids. Also, there is more than just touching involved here. Matthew tells us Jesus prays for the children (Matt 19:13) and Mark says He actually takes them in His arms and blesses them (Mk 10:16). As we can imagine, seeing that someone like Jesus will take time to interact with their children makes parents eager to bring them to Him.
18-27
A certain ruler comes to Jesus and asks Him what he must do to obtain eternal life. Since this happens directly after Jesus points to children as models for who will enter the kingdom of God, the ruler likely heard what Jesus said and wants to know what it will take for him to get in.
What makes him ask Jesus? The way the story plays out, it doesn’t appear that he is testing Jesus but sincerely looking for an answer. If so, he must believe Jesus is truly the Messiah. He is most likely a Pharisee (he is wealthy; called a ruler; and boasts of stringent obedience to the Law), yet apparently not one who sees Jesus as a threat. And his obedience to the Law has not given him security about eternity; he knows there is something missing in his life and asks Jesus as the Son of God what it is.
Note that he asks what shall I do…? He clearly thinks eternal life is earned, not given. The thought that there is NOTHING he can do to earn it is foreign to his thinking.
Jesus’ response that “No one is good except God alone” is a claim of deity. He doesn’t mean the man made a mistake with his address; He claims equality with God by pointing out that the man’s question presumes His divinity. That no one is good except God alone also shows that earning your way into God’s presence is impossible.
Jesus goes on to answer the man unexpectedly. We expect Him to say, “Follow Me” or “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” – answers He gave the disciples and others who came to Him for the same guidance. Instead, He looks at the man’s heart – as only He can – and begins to address the specific things the man lacks. He first tells him to keep all the horizontal commandments (seventh, sixth, eighth, ninth, fifth). He’s building a case and knows where the conversation will go, but the first thing He tells the man is right in the man’s wheelhouse – keep the Law.
Jesus does not mean that keeping these commands will grant the man eternal life. He wants the man to see that more than obedience to the Law is required for salvation.
The man tells Jesus that he has kept all these commands since he was a boy. He says this matter-of-factly and without hesitation. From his standpoint he has never committed adultery, murdered, stolen, or lied, and he honors his parents. He reads the Law as a Pharisee; the Law addresses externals and thus he can honestly claim to have kept it.
It’s interesting that Jesus does not mention the 10th commandment. This is the one commandment that clearly deals with the heart instead of outward actions. Perhaps Jesus wants to keep the conversation focused on parts of the Law the man is most confident of having obeyed.
Mark says at this point that Jesus looks at the man and loves him (Mk 10:21). Jesus does not just see a rich young man before Him; He sees a man who is dying without knowing it. The man is being killed by the very thing he loves more than anything else and Jesus feels for Him. It’s a telling aspect of our Savior’s character that He doesn’t look at this as a chance to put a sinner in his place; He instead sees a man desperately in need and has compassion and love for him.
Jesus responds in a seemingly brutal way (and yet we know it is out of love). He tells the man the one thing he lacks is treasure in heaven. He tells him the way to get this treasure is to go and sell all that he has and give the money to the poor and follow Jesus. Jesus goes directly at the thing this man depends on more than God. It is the one thing that allows him joy and power in this life apart from God. After telling him he must obey the fifth through the ninth commandments Jesus tells him he lacks obedience to the first – You shall have no other gods before Me.
After hearing Jesus’ answer the man goes away very sad, for he is extremely rich. The thought that the requirement for treasure in heaven and eternal life is poverty in this world is too much for him. Giving away the lifestyle, the prestige, the envy of others, the toys, the land, the house(s), the servants, the elite social circles, the evidence of all that he has accomplished at such a young age – it is too high a price. He is willing to make any effort, willing to obey in any moral area, willing to do any good thing; but to give up everything that makes life meaningful and makes him who he is and simply follow Jesus as a disciple is out of the question. He knows he is lacking something – but if this is it, it’s too much.
And thus, this becomes a very sad story. The man shows himself to be a rich fool. How foolish is it to choose wealth – or anything else – over following Jesus? The man has the chance to commune with the Messiah every day as a disciple and he says no. He’s bothered by a lack in his life but does not take the opportunity to find rest for his soul under the light yoke of Jesus (Matt 11:28-30). He has a heart troubled by questions regarding his eternal destiny and yet gives up a chance to experience the peace of Christ (Jn 14:27). He’s told explicitly how to have treasure in heaven, and he walks away. What does he trade communion with the Messiah, rest for his soul, peace for his heart and treasure in heaven for? Temporary rewards of the world. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt 16:26)
After the ruler leaves, Jesus turns to the disciples and says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (hyperbole – not a reference to a gate in Jerusalem) than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. In saying this, Jesus acknowledges how difficult the task He gave the man was. The rich do not see their needs. They are self-sufficient; they have all the joys of the world and have a difficult time grasping that there is anything better than what they have. The thought of living for the rewards of tomorrow at the cost of today’s comforts is foreign to them because today’s comforts are so abundant. The rich are not like the children who came to Jesus in verse 15 – they do not see dependence as a normal state and do not naturally throw themselves on the provision of another.
The disciples are amazed at Jesus’ statement. If a rich man who has clearly been blessed by God – and one as moral as the ruler clearly is – cannot get into the kingdom of God, then who can? In their minds the rich are rich because of God’s blessing – and God’s blessing comes to the righteous. The man Jesus just sent away is the personification of all they think of the rich. If HE can’t get into the kingdom, what hope is there for anyone else?
Jesus answers their question with the good news of God’s sovereignty. What is impossible for man – such as passing a camel through the eye of a needle – is possible for God. Yes, it is extremely difficult for the rich to be saved. But God can save anyone – the rich along with the poor (which is good news for Americans). His grace can extend to anyone, and He can change anyone. The good news of the gospel is that our salvation does not depend on us – it is by grace that we are saved, and God’s grace can take the place of the rich man’s wealth and the poor man’s need.
28-30
At this point, Peter decides to bring to Jesus’ attention that the disciples have already done what the rich man was unwilling to do. He says to Jesus, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” He essentially says, “Hey, we did all the things you told that guy to do! What do we get?”
Jesus tells the disciples that anyone who’s left anything for Him will receive back many times as much both in this life and the next. That His disciples will receive much in this life probably includes the blessings of ministry (the joy and peace of walking with God and seeing Him work in others) along with tangible rewards from sharing in the generosity and fellowship of others. Jesus promises that God will take care of them and multiply their rewards such that they won’t miss what they sacrificed at all (which makes the response of the rich ruler even more tragic). And ultimately, they will receive eternal life which can’t be compared to any sacrifice (Phil 3:8-10).
The Son of Man will Return
So we always pray and we don’t lose heart.
So we approach the Kingdom humbly, with the heart of a child.
So we store up treasure in heaven.
