You Can’t
Stereotype Faith
In Luke 18 Jesus shared an interesting story about a widow.
The widow had been cheated and was attempting to get justice through the legal system, but things weren’t working out so well. Her appeals were being ignored by a judge whom Jesus referred to as unjust.
We aren’t given any more details. We don’t know who cheated her or how severe the offense was, but as it turns out that information isn’t important.
The point was, as a widow, she had about as much clout as a dead tree. Widows were on society’s bottom wrung, and the judge, who didn’t care about God or people, wasn’t interested in her problem. She was an inconvenience, a gnat to be swatted away.
But she never gave up. She knew the law and she knew her cause was just, so she did the only thing she could. She hounded the judge repeatedly.
And it worked.
He finally realized that processing her legal matter, though inconvenient, was far less bothersome than repeatedly listening to her complaint.
In spite of being marginalized by the system, she found a way to assert her cause.
And Jesus used her as an example. He shared her experience to teach the disciples persistence in prayer. But that explanation leaves us a bit curious. The parable never mentions this woman praying.
In the end of the parable Jesus referred to her as an example of faith and He wondered aloud if that kind of faith would still exist when He returns.
Since prayer and persistence and actions can all be expressions of faith, and that was at least a strong sub point of the parable, we can make several observations about faith. Several of these of these points don’t square with convention.
For example: [Read more…] about 10 Nonconventional Ideas About Faith
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