Perspective: Pleading Our Case

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Pleading Our Case

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 (NRSV)

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The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:17 (NRSV)

How many times have You heard me cry out

"God, please take this"?

How many times have You given me strength to

Just keep breathing?

Oh, I need You

God, I need You now

From "Need You Now" by Plumb

Jesus once told a parable about a poor widow who has suffered some sort of injustice at the hands of another person.  She appeals to a judge, begging him to grant her justice.  This judge, we are told, has neither respect for God nor compassion for other people.  He shrugs the widow off, but the widow will not take "no" for an answer.  Day after day the widow returns to him, pleading her case and begging for justice.  Eventually the widow wears the judge down with her persistence.   He finally realizes that she is never going to leave him alone, so he decides to rule in her favor, not to do what is right but to get her off of his back.¹

Jesus then told a parable about two men who went to the temple to pray.  One was a Pharisee - in other words, a good, upstanding religious person.  The other was a tax collector, regarded by most people as the scum of the earth and a traitor.  The Pharisee, with his head held high, thanks God that he is better than sinners like the tax collector in the temple with him.  He goes on to remind God that he faithfully fasts and tithes.  The tax collector, by contrast, hangs his head low, beats his chest, and prays, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"²

Scholar N.T. Wright likens both of these to courtroom dramas, arguing that both are about vindication.³  In the first parable, which actually takes place in a courtroom, the widow appears before the judge to plead her case, but the judge will not rule in her favor.  She appeals to the judge over and over again until the judge finally rules in her favor.

The second parable does not take place in a courtroom, but in some sense both the Pharisee and the tax collector appear before their Judge.  The Pharisee pleads his case by testifying to his own innocence in comparison to other people, particularly the scummy tax collector.  The tax collector, on the other hand, does not try to convince the Judge of his innocence but rather pleads guilty and throws himself upon the mercy of the court.  Jesus says that the tax collector, not the Pharisee, is the one who left the temple justified.  The Greek word dikaioō, which is translated as justified means "to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be."⁴  In the context of a courtroom, to be justified is to be vindicated, meaning that the judge has ruled in a one's favor.^{5 6}

As I see it, both of these parables teach us about prayer.  Perhaps it could be said that when we pray we plead our case before God.  The Parable of the Persistent Widow teaches us to pray not only with persistence, but also with complete trust in God.  If a poor widow can be confident that she will someday convince an utterly amoral judge to do what is right, then we can be confident that our Judge, who is loving and righteous, already wants to do what is right for us.  The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector teaches us to pray with humility.  Humility is not thinking poorly of oneself but being brutally honest about oneself, neither inflating nor diminishing one's own importance.  Our Judge sides not with the self-righteous and arrogant but with the humble and broken.

On the night that Jesus was arrested, He plead His case before God, praying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done."⁷  He knew that His recent acts of protest had caught the attention of the powers that be, and He knew what was about to happen to Him.  He did not want to endure the suffering that awaited Him, but He placed God's will above His own.  The prayer Jesus prays demonstrates both the trust and the humility He promotes in the two aforementioned parables.  By praying that God's will is done, He demonstrates His trust that His Father's will is for the good of all, and, by placing His own will below God's, He demonstrates humility.

The cup of suffering Jesus did not want to drink was not taken from Him.  He was condemned by humans to death on a cross, but He was vindicated by God when He was raised from the dead.  It is believed that, through His crucifixion and resurrection, all of humanity was somehow set free from sin and death.  What humanity willed for evil, God willed for good.

We are invited to plead our case before God.  We pray boldly, trusting that our just and loving God wants to do what is right for us, even before we ask.  We pray humbly, knowing that our infinitely wise God knows what is best for all of us.

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For additional thoughts about prayer, check out my recent sermon "Asking, Searching, and Knocking" and my introspection "A Missing Piece of the Puzzle."

For additional thoughts about the Parable of the Persistent Widow, check out my old sermon "Not Like Us."

For additional thoughts about the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, check out my perspective "The Prideful and the Penitent."


Notes:

1. Luke 18:1-8
2. Luke 18:9-14 (NRSV)
3. N.T. Wright.  Luke for Everyone.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 213
4. Blue Letter Bible: dikaioō
5. Wright, p. 212
6. If justification is the same as vindication, then perhaps justifying grace can be understood as the grace of God that declares us "not guilty" when we acknowledge our sin and repent of it.
7. Luke 22:42 (NRSV)

The illustration of the persistent widow and the unjust judge was drawn by an anonymous artist around 1900.  The Pharisee and the Publican was painted by James Tissot in 1894.