Seeing Prayer in a Whole New Way

I came across this passage while I was doing my regular Bible reading, and one word and one passage made me go back and study them in a little more depth.  I spent a week researching and thinking about it, and it changed my whole thinking about prayer.

You’ll want to have your Bible open for this one and follow along.  If you’re watching this on video, pause it, and get your Bible.  The passage is Luke 11:5-13.

Just before this passage, one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.  And He does. 

That tells me that prayer is something that needs to be taught.  Imagine two identical people in identical circumstances.  One was taught how to pray, and one wasn’t.  And they both prayed about the same thing.  Would there be any difference in their outcomes?

If there isn’t, then why would Jesus think it’s important to teach them how to pray?

Jesus began by teaching them the Lord’s Prayer, which I covered in part in another lesson. 

Then Jesus gives an illustration to make a point about prayer. 

He begins by asking a question.  The first problem in this passage is knowing what the question is. 

He begins in a way He often did.  He asks: which of you? 

The tendency here is to see the question as: which of you has a friend?  And we forget that Jesus is still asking the question.

The question actually extends from verse 5 through verse 7.   

 “Which of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight.

Imagine that you say to him: ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; ⁶ for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷ and he says back to you, ‘Don’t bother me; the door is shut and my kids and I are in bed; I can’t get up and give you anything.’

This is the question that Jesus is asking.  Imagine that this happened to you.

The thing is that nobody would say that in the Middle East. Nobody would turn away a friend with that kind of request.  We today, in the West, side with the man who was sleeping.  It’s the middle of the night.  This would cause too much commotion. 

But that would have been unheard of then.  The people would have said, What?  Nobody would say that!

Throughout the Middle East, as far back at least as the time of Abraham, 2,000 years before Christ, even until today, hosting guests is a sacred thing.  And in places like the Middle East, back then at least, people traveling at night was common.  Way too hot during the day. 

The man’s excuses were phony baloney excuses that Jesus made up to show the ridiculousness of the whole thing.  So this is not meant to be understood as something that any man would have said.

Verse 8.  So of course, the man will get up and get him whatever he needs and not even because he is a friend.

And here is the second problem in the passage.

The man will get up and give him whatever he needs, not because he is a friend, but because of his ἀναίδειαν (ah-nai'-dee-on). 

The Greek word here has been a point of discussion and debate for a long time.  What does the word mean, and who is it referring to?  Does it refer to the man who was sleeping or the man outside asking for help?

The word does not mean persistence.  The man did not get up and give the other man whatever he needs, because the man was annoying him.  It doesn’t say that the man outside started beating on the door, refusing to leave until he got what he wanted.  He merely called to his friend.  His friend knew what the need was.  The excuses he gave were just the phony ones that Jesus gave to show the ridiculousness of the man even thinking that he wasn’t going to give the guy what he wanted.

The word means shameless, doing something that isn’t proper.  Some scholars, actually a few, argue that this applied to the man who was sleeping.  If he didn’t get up, the whole town would hear about it, that he didn’t get up to give someone who had guests the help that he needed, and he would be shamed. 

But the other scholars think that those few are stretching the word beyond what they should.  And I agree with them.  The shamelessness was the man coming in the middle of the night.  He knows the man is sleeping, but he thinks nothing of coming to ask for help.  That’s what friends do.

And Jesus says: of course, he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

Now some think it’s important to note that the man wasn’t asking anything for himself.

He had guests, and these things are entirely for them.  Other people.

You notice too in the Lord’s Prayer, everything is: give us, give us, and not: give me, give me. 

But notice too:  it’s not: please may I have this, if it’s not too much of a problem.  It’s simply, give us, forgive us, lead us not, deliver us.  It’s the talk of extreme familiarity.  No please, or even a thank you.

But then Jesus gives them the application of the story: Luke 11:9–13 

⁹ “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

The words, ask, seek, and knock, are in the Greek present tense, which should be understood as continual actions.  Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.

Which is why a lot of scholars think the parable is about persevering in prayer.

I don’t think so anymore.  I don’t think He’s talking about asking for the same thing over and over.  I think He’s talking about constantly asking God for things.  Constantly praying.  About everything.  Flooding heaven with your requests. 

And Jesus goes on: “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? ¹² “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

Of course, God will give you what you ask for.

Now I have prayer requests that I have had for decades, with no apparent answer in sight. 

Maybe that’s why. 

I never stopped to believe that God had answered my prayers.  I just kept thinking He hadn’t, so I kept praying about them as if He hadn’t.  I don’t know.  But maybe that’s why.  This is all new for me now, though I have heard things like this before.

I know this raises all kinds of questions that we can’t answer today.  But I think we’re making progress. 

An illustration that comes to mind with me on this is professional baseball.

There are 162 regular games in the season.  If you lose one, you can’t fuss over it, because you have another game tomorrow probably.  Don’t keep score of answered prayers and unanswered prayers.  Just keep praying, expecting God to give you what you ask for.

Some people I’ve read about keep a prayer journal with their requests and the date they prayed for it.

I’m suggesting that you’re going to have far too many prayers to write down, far too many to keep track of, and far too many to even try to remember.

Keep praying, about everything, expect God to answer them, and act accordingly, with appreciation, thanksgiving, and praise, even before you see any answers.