Flawed Humans

Luke 18:1-8

January 28, 2015

            Like any important piece of literature, the Bible requires careful reading, some knowledge of the historical context of a passage, and the assistance of a translator or scholar who knows the original languages of the Bible, Greek and/or Hebrew.  It is quite possible to give a biblical passage a meaning it never had --either intentionally or unintentionally-- by being just a little careless in our reading.  For example, I won't soon forget the spin that my good friend Virginia Covington, the Librarian for many years at Georgetown College, put on one of Paul's sentences.  Now Virginia was unmarried, a super fan of the Cincinnati Reds, and  something of a Bible scholar though she was not entirely sure that all of Paul's words were the word of God--especially those about the place of women in the church.  Virginia had a running dialogue with the male sex because none of them had claimed her as a mate.  She let it be known that when she died she wanted only women as pall bearers;  if men would not take her out when she was alive, they sure weren't going to do so when she died (and six women did the honors at her funeral).  Well Virginia was fond of quoting part of one verse of Paul's first letter to the church at Thessalonica, the thirteenth verse of the fourth chapter which reads:

But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do…..

Virginia's version of that verse was simply:  "We would not have you ignorant brethren!"  She just removed a troublesome comma and paused for effect.  Just superficial changes!

            Superficial  reading of several of Jesus' parables could easily give us a very distorted and less than helpful view of God.  The parable of The Friend at Midnight, read hastily and superficially, might lead one to believe that Jesus said God is reluctant to meet our needs when we have an emergency.  In fact when read carefully and correctly it is clear that Jesus said  precisely the opposite truth about God:  God is not  like a person who is slow to help and quick to say "No."  The parable under consideration in this session could easily be read superficially to portray God as a hard-hearted, un-caring judge who will only help the proverbial "squeaking wheel,"  the person who makes a nuisance of herself.  Since this is completely out of character for Jesus to suggest, we know that we need to read carefully lest we hear him wrongly.

The Text  (Luke 18:1-8)

            Luke places the parable of the Unjust Judge after the description of Jesus' teaching about the suddenness of the end time.  Jesus stressed to the disciples that just as in ancient ages like Noah's time, life will go on normally until the sudden end comes.  Luke introduced the parable with the note that Jesus told it to stress that the disciples should not "lose heart" if the time of the end were delayed.  After recording the parable, Luke notes something that Jesus may have said to himself, "when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8).  Thus Luke seems to have understood the parable to deal with the problem of unanswered prayer in times of uncertainty just as the woman in the parable had to deal with numerous refusals of the judge to hear her case.  Here is the parable by itself:

² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; ³ and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Vindicate me against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor regard man, ⁵ yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.’” (Luke 18: 2-5)

Following the actual parable, Luke adds the interpretation which Jesus gave to it:

⁶ And the Lord [Jesus] said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷ And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”  (Luke 18: 6-8)

Jesus' interpretation of the parable for us identifies the judge as "unrighteous" or "unjust."  He does not equate the judge with God, but suggests that if such a judge would respond after repeated pleas from a widow for selfish, self-serving reasons,  surely God would respond quickly.    Jesus seems to suggest that the widow plays the role of God's "elect"  (chosen ones, Christians) who cry for help constantly.  At the very end of the section a new element that does not seem to have a place in the parable is introduced.  Jesus questions whether the "Son of man" will find faith on earth when he comes.

            The parable seems fairly simple and straightforward to the casual reader, so it is something of a surprise when a learned scholar begins his study of the parable by saying, "I consider this one of the more difficult parables ... The parable itself (vv. 2-5) is brief, and without its explanation (vv. 6-8) there is little indication of its intent."[1]  Fortunately for us, Jesus' explanation of the parable is recorded but even so, there are reasons to think the parable is hard to understand.

The Widow (vv.3,5)

            Anyone who has read the Old Testament can hardly forget that God commands us to care for "the widow, the orphan and the sojourner."  Over and over again in the book of Deuteronomy we are reminded that the weakest members of society must be cared for by the strongest.  Indeed, this theme resonates through so much of the Old Testament that it may prejudice us in favor of a widow in a court case!  Since widows often were left with nothing when husbands and sons died before them and since there were so many of them, we are programmed to feel deep sympathy for the widow in any story.  But obviously, the circumstances of widows vary.  Those who were left with nothing were indeed objects of society's pity.  But was the widow in this parable such a person?

            In the last few decades women have taken their rightful place among biblical scholars, and we have benefitted from having their perspectives on our Bible.  One such scholar is Amy-Jill Levine who teaches at Vanderbilt.  Here is her description of the widow in this parable:

The parable gives no indication of the widow's economic status. She may be poor and perhaps lacks money to bribe the judge;  on the other hand, she has access to the court, she does not invoke poverty as a reason for her appeal, she addresses the judge in the imperative, and she even manages a nice pun in insisting that she be avenged ... not against an exploiter or a thief, but an adversary, opponent or foe…  . The language is juridical, not personal.  Our widow sounds less like Ruth amid the alien corn and more like Leona Helmsley fighting a hostile take-over bid.[2]

So, while we are predisposed to think of a poor widow who is being evicted by her hard-heart-ed landlord, the description of the widow in the parable itself is quite the opposite.  True, someone either has already or is about to take something away from her, but she is not a person to take such abuse quietly--she sues--repeatedly.  And while the judge in this case may be a comical character exaggerating the situation, he says she is beating him up!  The word in the phrase "she will wear me out" literally means "she'll beat me black and blue!"[3]  This is no frail damsel in distress; this is Lucy who delights in jerking the football away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it.  With a woman like this, no husband is needed to get her case heard.[4]

Many of us have seen Charles Tyler Clark's legal ad that says most people who are truly injured and can't work "give up too soon" in their appeals for disability.  Not this widow.  She doesn't give up.  She keeps coming. She would have made Churchill proud. The judge says she is working him to death.

            What does she want?  Does she ask for vengeance or justice?  Perhaps in the ancient world these two words might have  been synonymous.  Indeed, even today many feel that injustice must be avenged--thus the violent outbursts on our streets when people feel that justice has not been given.  The word the widow uses actually means "avenge," and it is translated this way in the American Standard Version (ASV):  "Avenge me of mine adversary."  If justice is what the law prescribes, vengeance is often what the heart desires.   In the Old Testament, vengeance is what God administers when he rescues his people from the Egyptians (Exodus 7:4; 12:12), the Midianites (Numbers 31:2-3) and the Philistines (Judges 15:7; 16:28).  Obviously, Jesus taught us to forgive and not seek vengeance.  Clearly in this parable he is painting life as it is and not as it ought to be.

The Judge (vv. 2, 4-5)

            Sometimes, a title on a story or an image associated with the story shapes and colors our entire understanding of it.  Thus in the movie "Exodus" which has recently been released, the image of huge walls of water crashing down on the Egyptians will make it hard for Bible readers to ever see the biblical description of what happened:

So Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its wonted flow when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled into it, and the Lord routed the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.  (Exodus 14:27)

Thus by using the customary title for this parable, The Unjust Judge, we may blind ourselves to the judge as he is presented.  The parable presents the Judge as foolish but impartial.  The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom in the Old Testament so by his own confession, the Judge is not a wise man!  But lacking wisdom does not make him corrupt.  His candle may not have been the brightest, and he may not have  been the editor of the Law Review,  but his actions as far as they are described are not "unjust"  (unless, as some have suggested, he refused to hear the widow's case because she would not bribe him!).   In fact, the second characteristic of the Judge is that he did not "regard man."  Romans 2:11 describes God as one who does not respect persons (not the same word as "regard man," but much the same meaning).  God is impartial in judgment and so, claims the Judge, is he.  He can't be bought off.  But he is human! And this widow who keeps bringing charges against her landlord--apparently a trivial case that he shouldn't have to waste time on in his opinion--is telling everyone who will listen that he won't try her case, and his reputation is taking a beating in the court of public opinion.   Ultimately the Judge hears her case (and she wins).  Apparently justice prevails after all--but for the wrong reason.  The Judge only hears the case because it is more expedient to deal with it than to continue to delay it.  Obviously we would all like our officials to operate from principle and not from pressure , but parables show us the world as it really is.

Jesus' Application (vv. 6-8)

            So what did Jesus want us to know or do when he told the story?  As he did in several instances, Jesus used an imperfect human (two of them, really) to teach us what a perfect God will do when his people call upon him.  If an imperfect Judge will ultimately do his job and render justice for a widow, how much more will a perfect God, creator of the universe and master of it all, respond to those who call?  If a relatively powerless woman can exert enough force to make a social system work for the people it serves, how much more can the maker of heaven and earth affect the creation which he has brought into being?  Both characters in the story cry out for us to compare God to their human characters.  Both are flawed individuals.  One creates public opinion that gives her cause precedence over that of others.  One bows to public opinion at least on secondary issues, if not on matters of principle.    God, who is not a respecter of persons, hears the cry of the widow and wields the power of the Judge "speedily."

            The parable ends with a question, "when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” It isn't crystal clear that this saying was originally attached to this parable, but we don't have it attached to a different context in another Gospel, so we must assume that it belongs here.  Remember that the parable per se  is just verses 2-5. The introduction, "he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart," is Luke's comment and not the words of Jesus.  Is the last question also from Luke or is it from Jesus?  If it is Luke's concluding comment, it may well reflect the fact that some fifty years had passed since Jesus' resurrection and the Son of Man had not returned as early Christians assumed he would.  Luke heard the parable of the judge who put off a woman's case in the light of the delay in the second coming and wondered if when the Master did come he would find faithful servants. 

            Surely the passing of another 1900 plus years makes Luke's concern even more critical.  The parable then reminds us that some flawed humans are still pressing their cases and others are still trying to protect their reputations amidst all the competing claims for their help.  And we are reminded once again that "speedily" is a human term and does not necessarily mean the same thing to God that it does to us.  We anchor our expectation of the ultimate outcome in that term "elect."  It isn't that we are so special that God has chosen us over some others, but that God is so special that "whosoever believes" can have eternal life.

           

           

---

[1] Klyne Snodgrass, Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 449.

[2] Amy-Jill Levine,"This Woman Keeps Bothering Me," in Finding A Woman's Place: Essays in Honor of Carolyn Osiek,  edited by David L. Balch, Jason T. Lamoreaux  (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2011),  130.

[3]  The Greek dictionary defines the word to mean: " to beat black and blue, to smite so as to cause bruises and livid spots like a boxer; one buffets his body, handles it roughly, disciplines by hardships."

[4] The so-called " 'importuning' widow of Luke similarly shatters the stereotype of the poor, dependent, weak woman, even as she epitomizes the strength, cleverness, and unclear,

indeed, problematic motives, of many of her predecessors.  No wonder that Luke, the most conventional of the evangelists, domesticates this widow: for Luke, she exemplifies the 'need to pray always and not to lose heart' (18:1) and stands for those 'chosen ones' to whom G-d grants justice and who 'cry to him day and night' ( 18:7).  Luke's concluding image is more 'woman on her knees,'  than 'woman with a fist...' "  Levine, Op. cit., 124.

Are You Being Served?

Luke 12:35-38

January 21, 2015

Anyone who has ever been to England knows that it is a wonderful country with an awesome history, some memorable sayings and a different kind of humor.  Who isn't impressed with the pageantry and royalty?  And who  can ever forget that subway warning, "Mind the Gap."  TV is different in England--especially its comedies.  Take for example, the wacky department store crowd comedy, "Are You Being Served?"  There is almost never more than one customer in the whole department store--its really all about the employees and their relationships with each other.^[1]   If this were an American made comedy show I guess it would be called "May I Help You?"   In England they very politely ask if someone is already helping you.
Several of Jesus' parables involve serving people--servants--faithful and otherwise.  For example, he told a parable about the normal relationship between a master and his servants that goes like this:
 “Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down at table’?  Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink’?  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?  So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”  (Luke 17:7-10)
Jesus told more than one story about servants waiting for their master to return.  But the parable of "The Serving Master" (Luke 12:35-38) is different and demands an answer to the question, "Are You Being Served?"

The Parable
You are all aware, of course, that there are many translations of our Bible.  Each translation is usually done by a group of scholars.   A person might assume that the translations would all be much the same since they all start with the same Hebrew or Greek text, but you know that is not the case.  Over the years new manuscripts--sometimes in languages we did not know about--are discovered and these manuscripts provide meanings for words that previous generations of scholars did not have.  And sometimes, scholars learn things that enable them to translate words better. I've mentioned before a scholar who has spent his life in the Middle East and knows its customs in a way that most New Testament scholars don't.  In his book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, Kenneth E. Bailey has provided a translation of Luke's parable that sheds new light on it.  I want to share Bailey's translation and his interpretation with you.  Here is the way he translates it:

"Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning, and be like people who are expecting their master when he withdraws from the wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, immediately they may open to him.  Blessed are those slaves who coming, the master finds awake.  Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself and cause them to recline [to eat], and come to them and serve them.  If in the second or third watch, he comes and finds thus, blessed are those slaves."

I've underlined two words which Bailey translates differently than most other translators.  As we go through his interpretation, you will see why he translates them as he does.  If enough scholars believe he has made a good case for his translation, you may see this version in a later edition of the New International Version^[2]  or in some new version of the Bible.  Here is the New Revised Standard Version translation which is typical of most versions:

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves."

Great stories like Jesus' parables have at least two facets to them.  Of course, the content of the parable--what its message is--is the primary thing we notice, and for the average reader the content is enough.  A long time ago, however, Marshal McLuhan  taught us that the vehicle used for conveying something to us becomes part of the message; to use his expression, "the medium is the message."^[3]  After we try to understand the message of the parable with Dr. Bailey's help, we will look briefly at the medium Jesus used to convey his parable.  Seeing how Jesus shaped the message will allow us to be inspired all over again by this jewel of a story.

Waist Girded and Lamps Burning
We know immediately that we are in a different world when Jesus mentions tying up our robes and preparing our lamps.  To this day in the Middle East many men wear robes that reach to the top of the shoes; sometimes these are everyday white robes but for dress occasions the djellabas come in beautiful colors and fabrics.  Western men would use a belt (or suspenders) to hold up their trousers, but working people in Jesus' time just used a piece of rope or cloth to hold up their long robes when they needed to work.  The rope would be tied around the waist and the hem of the robe would be picked up and tucked behind the rope belt. Thus, in the parable Jesus begins by urging the disciples to get ready for work, to gird up their garments.
Likewise Jesus told his disciples to make sure their lamps were burning.  We live in the age of electricity, but it was not long ago--barely beyond the lives of those of us here--that the world was dimly lit.  Life slowed down drastically when the sun set.  Nothing that required much light could be done in the evenings.  In another instance Jesus told the disciples that no one would light a lamp and put in under something (Luke 11:33).  Instead a lamp would be placed on a stand or in a niche in the wall.  That little pot of oil with a wick sticking out was all the light they had.  Dr. Bailey notes that "only those who have lived without electricity know how difficult it is to prepare and light a lamp after dark."^[4]   Thus Jesus urged his disciples to be sure their lamps were burning before dark so they could be used to wait for the master.  Unless one had a fire going or a lamp already lit it would be very difficult to light the wick on a lamp at night.  Obviously they could light lamps at night if they had to, perhaps by using a flint, but it would have been difficult.  If being ready for the return of the master required a servant to have light ready for him, the servant could ill afford to wait until he heard the master at the door to try to light the lamp.

Expecting and Withdrawing
After urging his disciples to be ready for the tasks at hand, Jesus went on to say "be like people who are expecting their master when he withdraws from the wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, immediately they may open to him."  Just as there was no electricity in antiquity, so also instant communication was impossible.  The master could not text the staff to let them know he was on the way.  The servants just had to be ready whenever their master needed them.  Doubtless in many households, servants who were not ready paid a physical price in punishment for not doing their duty.  Normally, servants could anticipate the length of common kinds of celebrations but in this case, Dr. Bailey suggests that the master came home early from the wedding celebration.  Instead of just "returning" (that is, at the expected time), Dr. Bailey suggests that the master "withdraws" from the party (that is, he left earlier than would have been expected).  He bases this translation on the Syriac version which is used in the Middle East.  "It is this literal reading that the Arabic and Syriac versions have usually chosen.  I find this translation more authentic to the larger world of the New Testament images into which this parable must be placed."^[5]
Dr. Bailey suggests that the servants were not just waiting; they were "expecting."  "Waiting" is passive, like 'waiting for a bus.' But 'expecting...' projects a different mood. Expecting  denotes excitement and a dynamism that the first word lacks."^[6]   The same word is used to describe the aged Simeon as "looking for" the kingdom (Luke 2:25); he was actively expecting the kingdom to come in his time.  So Jesus has described the servants in this parable.  They weren't just playing games and waiting--they were actively expecting the master and eager to have him return.

Seating and Serving
The heart of the parable comes in verse 37 when the expecting servants are re-united with their master:  "Blessed are those slaves who coming, the master finds awake.  Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself and cause them to recline [to eat], and come to them and serve them."  Dr. Bailey notes that the master's action here "represents a stunning reversal of roles."  The servants had been waiting so they could serve the master!  Instead the master prepares himself for work just as Jesus told the disciples they should do--he girds himself--and proceeds to serve each one of the servants.  We have a similar scene in John's Gospel (John 13:1-7) where Jesus "laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel" and proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples.  He took upon himself the role of a servant and the disciples were stunned.
In the parable, Jesus declared that these expecting servants were "Blessed."  That is exactly the same word used in the Beatitudes where Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit.…".  "The meaning of this text is not: If these servants are alert and ready, their master will reward them with his blessing.  Rather it says: Servants/slaves who have lamps lit, robes duly belted and are awake, eagerly expecting the arrival of the master, are already filled with the blessing of God and are a bless-ed presence in the household.  The way they act is an expression of who they are, not an attempt to earn something they do not have."^[7]    And, of course, that is exactly the way we want our own lives to be.  That's the message of the parable.  Living life in faithful service makes life itself blessed.  Indeed, the party will come to you.

The Medium of the Message
As encouraging and inspiring as the story is, we have not yet seen all its beauty.  Like a diamond that has been perfectly cut, this tiny story has a symmetry about it that makes it sparkle.  Dr. Bailey has helped us see its beauty by grouping things together:^[8]

Verse 1
1. Let your waist be girded SERVANT (prepared)
2. and your lamps burning SERVANT (prepared)

Verse 2
3. and be like people who are expecting their master SERVANT (alert)
4. when he withdraws from the wedding banquet  MASTER (comes)
5 so that when he comes and knocks  MASTER (comes)
6. immediately they may open to him SERVANT (alert)

Verse 3
7. Bless-ed  are those slaves SLAVES (blessed)
8.      whom coming, the master finds awake  MASTER (comes)
9. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself
10.     and cause them to recline [to eat]     MASTER (serves)
11. and come to them and serve them
12.       If (in the second or third watch),
      he comes and finds them  MASTER (comes)
13. blessed are those slaves SLAVES (blessed)


The parable has three verses and each verse builds on the one before it.  In verse two a statement about the master is placed between two statements about the servants like a sandwich.  Then in the third verse the key verse about the master serving the slaves is sandwiched in between the elements in verse 2.  Dr. Bailey concludes:  "the parable of the self-emptying master is composed of a three-stage sandwich such as I have yet to find elsewhere in all of Scripture.  It is the creation of a very sophisticated Jewish poetical mind."^[9]   Indeed, it is.

Conclusion
The parable of the serving master, like most of Jesus' teachings, may well have delivered different messages to different ages.  When Jesus taught his disciples using this parable and others like it--such as the parable of the wise and foolish virgins--the hearers may have linked it especially to their belief that the end time was coming very soon.  In that context, Jesus taught them to be ready!  By the time Luke included this parable in his Gospel about 85 A.D. the end time had not yet come and clearly early Christians were having to adjust their thinking about how long they were going to have to be living with the expectation of an end in their lifetime.  In that context, Luke's first readers heard Jesus suggesting that servants never knew when the master would return but would be blessed if they were found ready when he did.  Today we are nearly 2000 years removed from the original context of the parable, and few of us live with the same expectation of a second coming in the immediate future, the popularity of the "Left Behind" novels notwithstanding. We still affirm every Sunday that Jesus will return to judge "the living and the dead,"  but there is little anxiety attached to that expectation.  For our context, hearers of the parable may well relate its message to the blessedness of faithful servants.  "Blessed are the faithful" may well join the other beatitudes to describe today's Christians.  And we know that the one we await is indeed not a terrible prosecutor, but a Lord who came to serve.  We have been brought in from the highways and hedges to sit at the banquet which he will serve.  Thanks be to God.

Footnotes
BACK TO TEXT 1. The main characters include: Mrs. Betty Slocombe, head of the ladies' department, Mr. Wilberforce Claybourne Humphries, a camp man who lives with his mother, Captain Stephen Peacock, the haughty floorwalker and Miss Shirley Brahms,, the attractive assistant to Mrs. Slocombe.
BACK TO TEXT 2. The NIV was originally published in the 1970s and has been updated three times in 1984, 1995 and 2011.
BACK TO TEXT 3. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Originally published by Mentor in 1964; reissued in 1994 by MIT Press).
BACK TO TEXT 4. Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2008) 369
BACK TO TEXT 5. Bailey, Op.cit., 370.
BACK TO TEXT 6. Ibid.
BACK TO TEXT 7. Bailey, Op.cit., 372.
BACK TO TEXT 8. Bailey, Op.cit, 367 I have modified Dr. Bailey's outline just a bit but the arrangement is his.
BACK TO TEXT 9. Ibid.

The Neighbors You Don't Have

Luke 11:5-8

January 14, 2015

When we think of the word "parable" our minds may jump immediately to the story of the Prodigal Son or that of the Good Samaritan.  These are certainly the most famous of Jesus' stories, and they deserve to be the first ones we think of.  And because we associate parables with these wonderful stories about a father's love and a stranger's kindness, the word "parable" itself may well make us think of warm and fuzzy things--little kittens or stories that have happy endings and make us feel good.  Jesus told a lot of stories to make his message understandable and memorable.  Depending on what we include as a parable there are at least thirty different ones in Matthew, Mark, and Luke--John doesn't record a single one!  Many of these really do make us feel good because they end on a happy note.  But there are a few parables that don't follow the "happy ending" pattern exactly and, instead of leaving us with warm and fuzzy feelings, may make us put on our thinking caps and scratch our heads.  That's probably why Jesus told some these stories.
Let's get the story itself in front of us.  It appears in Luke 11:5-8 (and not in any other Gospel).  I've  chosen to use the New International Version because of the way it translates one word in the parable.  See if you can guess the word that the NIV treats differently than other translations.
Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;  a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’  And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
       Did you guess that the NIV's use of "shameless audacity" to translate one Greek word^[1] in the story  is what makes it different?  The old King James Version as well as the Revised Standard Version and the Catholic Douay-Rheims Version all translate this word "importunity."  The New King James Version and the New Revised Standard Version and The Living Bible translate the word in question as "persistence."  Eugene Peterson's The Message manages to combine more than one of these meanings by translating the word:  "if you stand your ground, knocking and waking up all the neighbors."  We'll come back to the word "audacity" later.

So What's The Point of the Parable?
Luke makes it clear that the parable has something to do with prayer.  He placed the parable immediately after The Lord's Prayer (Luke 11: 1-4) and immediately before Jesus' saying about Asking, Seeking and Knocking (Luke 11:9-10).  But just what is the point of the parable?  Jesus sometimes told his listeners explicitly what his message was in a parable.  In the parable in which a shepherd leaves the ninety and nine to search for one lost sheep Jesus  emphasized that "there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentence" (Luke 15:7).  His point is very clear.  In the parable of the midnight borrower, however, there is no such summation and we must figure out for ourselves what the point is.   Luke has put this parable beside other teachings of Jesus on prayer so he has helped us narrow down our choices.  So even though the parable is all about hospitality and we know that in the ancient world the requirement to offer hospitality was very important, Luke thought this was not the point of the story.   Does the parable intend to tell us how to pray by describing a neighbor who bangs on the door late at night to borrow some bread?  Did Jesus intend to compare God to the friend who was asleep with his children?  Or, is the parable intended to give us assurance that we will be heard when we pray just as the sleeping neighbor ultimately heard and answered his friends plea?
We'll need to look at several things before we decide what the point of the parable is.  For example, Luke did something that Freshmen in college sometimes do when they write an essay;  he used pronouns without being crystal clear to whom he was referring when he said "he."   We must ask who the "he" is.  We need to use our concordances and see what the opening phrase, "Which of you,"  expects as an answer.   If Jesus asks, "Which of you have a friend who would refuse to get up and help you if you called on him?" would we anticipate the answer, "Nobody has a neighbor like that" or "Everybody has a neighbor like that."  We will need to explore the meaning of that Greek word that is translated so differently in the various translations.  Why isn't its meaning clear?  We may need to know something about normal behavior in Jesus' time;  did people arrive hungry at midnight routinely?  Was it normal to bang on a friend's door late at night when it was clear that the family was asleep?  These are not all the questions scholars ask as they try to get to the point of this parable, but these are some of the major issues that we can explore.

Who Is the He?
Before we tackle the biblical text, let's take a few moments to try an exercise in sentence punctuation.  If you were given the following sentence, how would you punctuate it so it makes sense:    "time flies you can't they fly too fast."   Don't add anything but punctuation marks!  To give you a little help, I can tell you that part of the solution is to pay attention to the pronouns….. Well, doubtless this was not very challenging to students like you.  I've put the answer in a footnote ^[2] in case you need to see the sentence properly punctuated.   Now let's look at Luke's use of pronouns in the parable he recorded as the RSV has it:

5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

I'll replace the pronouns with the names of people you know--Doug, Lindy and Alvin--and you can decide whether I've done it correctly:

5 And Jesus said to them, “Which of you (Doug) who has a friend (Lindy) will go to Lindy at midnight and say to Lindy, ‘Lindy, lend me three loaves;6 for  Alvin has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before Alvin’; 7 and Lindy will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me (Doug); the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot give you anything.' 8 I tell you (Doug), though Lindy will not get up and give you anything [just] because Lindy is your (Doug's) friend, yet because of Doug's importunity Lindy will rise and give Doug whatever Doug needs (for Alvin).
The parable says that while friendship alone would not move a person to get out of bed and disturb his whole family to help a neighbor, something would cause him to do that.  What is that something?

The Crucial Word "anaideia."
The key word in the parable is the Greek word "anaideia" which without question means "shamelessness" or something like that in every setting where it occurs outside this parable.^[3]   This is the only place in our Bible where the word occurs.  According to one major scholar "shamelessness" (Greek:  anaideia) means "one either has no understanding of what is shameful or no hesitation in committing shameful acts."^[4]   Snodgrass writes that "the word expresses an ignorance about  or disregard of what is shameful and the absence of any sense of proper behavior."^[5]    Perhaps we can get close to understanding this concept if we call to mind the two guys in the Sonic commercial who are, as always, in the front seat of a car and the straight man comments that perhaps eating chicken nuggets
will give you that certain 'Je ne sais quoi'!  (Peter Grosz)
"Jenna said what?"          (T. J. Jagodowski)
                        "Jenna?"
                        "Did she mention me by name or..."
                        "I said 'Je ne sais quoi!'"
                        "I know, but what did Jenna say!?!?"
Mr. Jagodowski is not embarrassed by his failure to understand the French his partner used because he is shameless; in his ignorance he is so sure of himself that he cannot be shamed.
As has been alluded to already, very few translations of our New Testament have actually used the true meaning of the word anaideia in their rendering of this parable.  Most have substituted the word "importunity" which implies that the man who asks has made repeated or annoying requests.  The word "importunity" paints a picture of a man who kept on and kept on knocking and calling.  There is only one thing wrong with translating the parable that way.   The parable does not say that the man asked repeatedly, and it does not say that he knocked!" There is no hint in the text we have that the man is rude or insensitive.  He is just a man in need who asks his neighbor for help.
Apparently the parable has been modified by the translators to stress the man's persistence "because interpreters have wanted a more direct application to a theology of prayer than the parable seems to offer… .  We want to know in what way God is like the sleeper and how people who pray are like the petitioner."^[6]

Shamelessness We Can Be Proud Of
Dr. Snodgrass has concluded " 'Shamelessness' cannot have a positive meaning in this  passage.  It is a negative term describing the rudeness of the man outside asking for bread."^[7]    He may well be right, and for a non-scholar in this area to suggest that he is wrong may well be a true case of anaideia  and hubris .^[8]  You should certainly be very skeptical of the interpretation that I am about to offer.  Feel free to reject it out of hand if you feel so led.
The parable is clearly of the "how much more" kind;  it tells us that if a neighbor will get up at midnight to answer a request for food, how much more will God respond to our requests.  I fully agree with Dr. Snodgrass that "The parable does not invite rudeness in praying any more than it suggests that God is asleep…..  The parable addresses the implied question 'Will God respond to prayer."^[9]   But where does the "shamelessness" come in?  Let me paraphrase the parable for us this way:  If we had an emergency and called on a neighbor for help in the middle of the night, none of our neighbors would refuse us.^[10]   [In the words of the parable, none would say, " Do not bother me."]  They might not be our closest friends, but they would help us because it is the right thing to do.  [In the words of the parable, "he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship"]  And we wouldn't feel any sense of shame in calling for help at midnight; it is what our neighbors would expect us to do in an emergency.  The neighbor will get up and help us and feel good about doing so because without any hesitancy --any embarrassment,  any shame--we asked for his help.   [In the words of the parable, "because of his 'shamelessness' he will rise and give him whatever he needs."^[12]]
And so it is with prayer.  There is absolutely no reason to feel embarrassed to pray for help.^[11]  If our neighbors would come to our aid because we depended on them in a time of need, how much more is this true of him who is closer than a brother?  There would only be shame if we didn't call on him.



BACK TO TEXT1. The Greek word involved is the word anaideia. The key article about this parable and its use of the word anaideia is: Klyne Snodgrass, "Anaideia and the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:8)," Journal of Biblical Literature, 116 (1997), 505-513
BACK TO TEXT 2. The sentence reads "Time flies? You can't! They fly too fast." The word "time" refers to trying to determine how fast a fly flies; it is a verb here. The word "flies" is a noun here and not a verb. The pronoun "they" refers back to the "flies." If one doesn't get the connection between the pronoun "they" and the noun "flies" it is hard to make sense of the sentence.
BACK TO TEXT3. See footnote one for Klein Snodgrass' article. See also his Stories With Intent (Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 2008), 442-445.
BACK TO TEXT4. Snodgrass, Stories With Intent. 442-443.
BACK TO TEXT 5. Op. cit., 443.
BACK TO TEXT 6. Snodgrass, Stories With Intent, 447.
BACK TO TEXT 7. Op. cit., 445.
BACK TO TEXT 8. Hubris has been humorously defined as the attitude of a man who throws himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan after having killed his father and mother! That takes gall.
BACK TO TEXT 9. Op. cit., 448.
BACK TO TEXT 10. Snodgrass points out that the NIV is wrong to translate the opening words as "Suppose..." The expression is "Who from you" making this an interrogative parable; "it consists of a long question and Jesus answer to his own question . ... The whole point is that no one would say such a thing and refuse to get up and give his friend what he needs. Such a refusal is unthinkable. The question 'Who from you (Tis ex hymōn)' appears eleven times in the Gospels. In all of them the question asks if anyone would do some hypothetical action, and in each case the implied answer is 'No one.'" Snodgrass, Op. cit., 442.
BACK TO TEXT 11. Dr. Snodgrass has made a strong case for the fact that there is no "good" meaning attached to the word anaideia as I have understood it here. I have understood the word to mean "without shame." Dr. Snodgrass argues that it means without "a proper sense of shame" on the part of someone who engages "in improper conduct." He notes that the term is always used for "outrageous and offensive behavior such as rashness, insolence, disorder, coarse behavior and recklessness." If he is right then it seems to me that Luke used the wrong word in this case. There is nothing outrageous or coarse about calling for help from a neighbor in an emergency. I think in this case the word means "without feeling shame."
BACK TO TEXT 12. After finishing the narrative for this presentation, I sent my last paragraphs to Dr. Snodgrass and got this reply which, as you will see, tells me that my interpretation is not true to the technical sense of the word anaideia: " As for anaideia, I do not think it ever means "without shame" in the good sense. It is a word repeatedly that points to the fact that someone has no sense of what shame is and does not know what is legitimate culturally accepted behavior. However, your point about people needing to feel no shame in praying is something that comes out of the "how much more" logic of the parable. The parable is intended to encourage prayer and expectation that God will act. You might compare the logic of the parallel "how much more" parable of the Unjust Judge. If an unjust judge will respond, how much more your Father who cares for you and will vindicate his people. There is no focus on the "unjust" imagery. To put it another way, the assumption of the Friend of Midnight is that God is eager to respond to prayer, and it seeks to encourage prayer. If that is the case, certainly there should be no fear, anxiety, or shame in approaching God. That conclusion is not tied to the word anaideia though. At least that is how I see the parable working." Personal email from Klyne Snodgrass, Northpark Seminary, Chicago, 1/05/15.

Writing On Our Minds

How Do We Read A Parable?

January 4, 2015

         Sometimes, even seasoned athletes need to return to the fundamentals of their sport—blocking and tackling in football—rather than focus on ever more complicated aspects of the game.  And so it is for us Christians some of whom have been at this for a long time.  A return to fundamentals for Christians may mean simply listening to the Master’s voice rather than wrestling with the application of our faith to the issues of our time, though that can hardly be ignored.  And nowhere in the Gospels is the Master’s voice heard with any more clarity than in the stories he told.  The most famous ones have become a part of our Western culture.  The Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are known the world over, wherever Christianity has penetrated. These would have been on the highlight reel if ESPN had broadcast the Gospels.  But, alas, as in sports so in the Gospels—there are many less famous parables that seldom get mentioned.  So in this series, we’ll try to focus on the lesser known parables even though they may not be quite as memorable as the famous ones.  After all, they were stories Jesus told for a reason, and if they are his stories they need to be our stories too.

            Before we get too far into our study, it might help to define some terms we’ll use.  We’ve already used the word “stories” but, as we shall see, not all the parables Jesus used were stories as we think of them—descriptions of something that transpires between two or more persons involving some tension and its resolution.  The best known parables are, indeed, the stories Jesus told, but the word “parable” itself is a Greek word that we have taken over to describe these teachings of Jesus.  The Greek word literally means “something thrown along side of” something else to illustrate it or help someone understand it.  So if one laid a line drawing down beside a faded, old masterpiece, it could help us see the figures in the original painting better.  In a sense, the line drawing would be a “parable.”  Its function is to help us understand. 

            Many times in the Gospels we find something like “he told them many things in parables” (Mt. 13:3).  Scholars can’t agree on exactly how many parables there are and, surely, some of the sayings of Jesus are parables even though they are not labeled as such.  They also have a hard time deciding just what kinds of parables there are.  Some of the lines between the types they define are not crystal clear to most  of us.  Let’s try to put a label on at least some of  Jesus “parables,” those sayings he put alongside something to help us understand it.

Parables That Are In Code

            Oddly enough, some people thought early on that the function of the parables was exactly the opposite—to hide the meaning so only those in the inner circle could understand the meaning of the teaching.  And because of this understanding of the parables, these teachings of Jesus were given far-fetched interpretations that assigned some meanings to elements in the teachings that Jesus never intended at all.  When we make each element in a story a “code” that stands for something other than what it is, we have made the story an “allegory.”  One famous example of an allegory is Paul Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, but perhaps a work closer to our time can serve as an even better example of this kind of literature.     

            In 1900 a delightful book was written that was subsequently made into a movie.  We have all seen it.  It involves a little girl and her dog who are caught up in a tornado in Kansas and hurled into a make believe world where there are Lion’s who have no courage, Scarecrows who have no brains, and Tin Men who have no hearts.  And there is a Yellow Brick Road, Wicked Witches, and a Wizard with a roaring voice who turns out to be a sham. But there may be more to this story than we realize.  “Few people are even aware the The Wizard of Oz is an elaborate political allegory about conditions at the beginning of the twentieth century in the U.S.A., with “Oz” (the abbreviation for “ounce”) and the yellow brick road both referring to the gold standard (which was debated at the time), the scarecrow representing the farmers, the tin man the industrial workers, and the cowardly lion reformers, especially William Jennings Bryan.  It is a perfectly good story understandable in its own right, but both enjoyable and powerful when the lens of its intent is in place.”[1]

            There is no doubt that at least one of Jesus’ parables, the parable of the sower and the seeds, has an allegorical flavor to it.[2]  The Gospels record Jesus’ own interpretation of this parable which makes the seed the “word of God” and the soils different levels of receiving the word.  So each element was intended to illustrate why not everyone who hears the message of Jesus lets it take root and produce fruit in his life.  And just as one can go back and make each element of the Wizard of Oz fit a particular situation in history, so, too, one can assign each element of this parable a meaning and many early Christian preachers did just that.   But because of the fantastic interpretations given to some parables when they were treated as allegories, most interpreters today would say that “the practice of turning parables into allegories that Jesus never intended must be resisted at every point.”[3]  In most cases, scholars suggest that a parable has one primary message or point.  We need to hear our Master’s voice as it conveyed that point to its original audience if we can and then make the application of that point to the appropriate situation today.  With that much introduction, let’s look first of all at the kinds of parables we find in the Gospels and then focus on a few examples.

Parables That Ask A Question

            We’ve already said that the most famous parables are the stories.  But in some cases, Jesus starts telling a story by asking a question.  We might call these the “what do you think?” parables.  The parable of the lost sheep is like this.  It begins, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not…. (Lk 15:4).    Jesus could have just told a story about a shepherd who left his flock of sheep to go look for the one that was lost and then was so happy about finding it that he threw a party to celebrate.  A similar story about a lost son (the Prodigal) did not start with a question, but it could have.  We all remember that Jesus said that “Whoever would save his life would lose it…” but we may not remember the parables he told to illustrate the cost of discipleship.  In one of those he asked , “Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Lk 14:28).  It’s a good question and one that applies to virtually all of life.  Jesus had a way with questions.

Parables That Make Us Decide

            Some of Jesus’ parables were used to confront a person about the choices she (or he) has made much as Nathan did when he told his famous story about the rich farmer who stole his poor neighbors one lamb for a barbecue! These are almost lawyer-like in that they deal with right and wrong in real life. Like the “What do you think?” parables, these may involve a question but they don’t just ask a question.  Take for instance the time Jesus went to the house of Simon the Leper in Bethany just a few days before he was arrested.  Luke describes the scene but does not name any of the characters.  Matthew and Mark help us fill in the names.  The Gospel of John identifies the woman as Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha but he is the only one who does so.  Here’s the scene.  Jesus and the disciples had been invited to dine with Simon.  As they reclined on the couches around the table, a woman approached Jesus, crying.  Since Jesus was reclining with his head toward the table, his feet were exposed.  The woman’s tears fell on Jesus’ feet and then she took some expensive ointment, perfume, and massaged Jesus feet.  The host, Simon the Leper, was obviously irritated by the intrusion.  Jesus saw it immediately and said:  “Simon, I have something to say to you.”  And then he told the story of two men who owed a man money.  One of them owed ten times as much as the other.  The man forgave both of the debtors what they owed him.  Then Jesus asked Simon the loaded question:  “Which one of these debtors will love their banker more?”  And after Simon responded, then Jesus drew the comparison between Simon’s love for him and that of the woman as demonstrated by their actions.  Obviously, Simon had a decision to make about how much he loved his master.

Parables That Compare

            Some of Jesus’ parables compare two things using the word “like”.  For example, Jesus said “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed…” (Mt. 13:31).   He compared the size of the seed (tiny) to the size of the fully grown plant (the greatest of the shrubs). But before he told that parable he said (Mk 4:30) : “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?”  Clearly Jesus thought of a parable as a comparison.  In another “like” parable, Jesus said “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven…(Mt 13:33) that affects everything it touches.   Jesus taught much about the kingdom of God and much of what he taught about the kingdom he taught by comparing it to something that people already knew about:  farming, making bread, sowing seeds, finding something valuable in the field, fishing nets, fig trees and children playing.  The Kingdom of God was for Jesus like a field of grain.  The farmer does not know exactly how the seed reproduces to make the grain, but one thing he knows, “when the grain is ripe, at once he put in the sickle because the harvest is come” (Mk 4:26).  So the Kingdom is coming to fruition.  And when all is ripe, God will reap the harvest.

 Parables That Paint Pictures

            The story parables paint unforgettable pictures in our minds, scenes that have captured the imagination of Christians for two millennia now.  I love the way John Steinbeck described the effect of one of his teachers on his life.  

"She aroused us to shouting, bookwaving discussions.  She had the noisiest class in school and she didn't even seem to know it...She breathed curiosity into us so that we brought in facts or truths shielded in our hands like captured fire-flies...She left her signature on us, the literature of a teacher who writes on minds. …I suppose that to a large extent I am the unsigned manuscript of that high school teacher." [4]

That’s what Jesus did with these story parables—he “wrote on our minds.”   Matthew recorded Jesus’ teaching about prayer:  “when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues…(Mt 6:5).  But Luke recorded the story Jesus told to make this point:  “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector….” (Lk 18:9) and we all know the ‘rest of the story.’  I’m glad they didn’t make a movie of that scene and reduce that episode to just one fixed image.  It lives in a million minds and speaks to all our hearts with the voice of the Master.

Parables That Are Proverbs

            In the Old Testament, the word mashal is translated into English both as “parable” and as “proverb.” In fact, the very name of the book of Proverbs uses this word in its Hebrew title.  So at least in the Old Testament a wise saying counted as either a parable or a proverb.  In fact, we have this same use of the word parable in the Gospels.  In  Luke 4:23, nearly all of our translations read:  “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician heal yourself.’ “  But the word that is translated “proverb” in this verse is exactly the same word that is translated “parable” in scores of other places in the Gospels.  Many of Jesus sayings sound like what we would call “proverbs.”  For example, one saying that sounds like a proverb but is labeled a parable is Mark 7:15, “There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.”  Great teachers have a way of using unforgettable imagery to help us understand abstract ideas.  Jesus was no exception; indeed he was the rule. 

Conclusion     

            Parables were a way of teaching, not a fixed format Jesus used.  Mark tells us that “with many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it” (Mk 4:33).  But some sayings of Jesus are called parables in one Gospel and not in the others.  For example, the sayings about new wine in old wineskins and new patches on old garments are presented by Luke as parables (Lk 5:36-39) but both Matthew and Mark just present these sayings as teachings of Jesus.  Clearly the Gospel writers could have labeled many other of Jesus’ teachings as parables had they been so inclined.  Jesus himself did not label his teachings; he just wrote on our minds.

---

[1] Klyne Snodgrass, Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI:  William Be. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2008) p. 16.   L. Frank Baum first published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, and the success of that book led to several sequels. A number of adaptations of Baum's Oz stories for stage and screen appeared before MGM's classic movie was released in 1939. The most celebrated interpretation came from a high school history teacher in upstate New York named Henry Littlefield, who found that the imagery of Baum's story corresponded to the issues and figures in American politics at the end of the 19th century. Littlefield found that he could use The Wizard of Oz to teach history to his students, as the story functioned well as an allegory to the Populist movement and the 1896 presidential election. In the years since Littlefield's article first appeared in American Quarterly in 1964, several analysts have weighed in with their own refinements to this interpretation. A number of people have disagreed with Littlefield's premise entirely, denying that Baum had any political intent at all, while others have suggested other political interpretations.   See the site below for more:  http://www.turnmeondeadman.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=63

[2] Matthew 13:3-23

[3] Snodgrass, Ibid., 17

[4] California Teachers Association Journal, November,1955, p.7.