Luke 18 - Underdogs

When reading the Bible, I often wonder why God won’t be more direct. Sometimes using illustrations and metaphors makes something more dramatic and poetic, but sometimes I just want to get to the point. Studying journalism in college, I learned to value clear and concise communication: Get to the point, and do so in as few words as possible.

So it sometimes bothers me that Jesus relied so heavily on parables to teach us. He told a whole story that could be boiled down to one point. Why not just make the point in the first place? That way, there’s no confusion about the meaning because he would have said it straight up from the start.

But looking at Luke 18, it seems that Jesus is being incredibly direct through these parables. He is spelling it out for us. The very first sentence of the chapter is about as clear as it gets: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Does it get more direct than that?

And in one chapter, he is saying SO much! These 43 verses are packed with all kinds of stuff. Trying to boil it down and get to the point would be depriving us of so much wisdom.  However, one thing that stands out throughout this chapter is that we keep on getting in the way of Jesus.

The Pharisee got in the way of Jesus because he was prideful. He exalted himself above others who were less religious.

The rich ruler got in the way by clinging to his possessions.

The disciples tried to get in the way when people brought their children to Jesus. In reality, the disciples needed to be more like children themselves.

People on the side of the road also tried to get in the way in the way of Jesus and the blind man.

In all of these, people got in the way of Jesus by something they were doing. But with the persistent widow, we see that we can also get in God’s way through inaction. Like the widow and the judge, God will defend us and give us justice. But if the widow never went to the judge, she would never have seen justice.

I thought that Jesus was the one getting in the way by using parables, but really we are the ones hindering ourselves and others from simply coming to Jesus.

Katie Smith (ghost writing for Gina G. who is in Chicago with the middle-schoolers)