Keep Your Hands Up
Text: Psalm 55:1-3, 16-17, 22-23; Luke 18:1-8
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
October 20, 2024
We come to another parable of Jesus. Often Jesus told parables and there was no explanation. Sometimes he told a parable and after the disciples asked about the meaning he would give an explanation.
I like this parable because Luke tells us right off the bat why Jesus told it. And it says:
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Some versions say to always pray and “to not lose heart.”
Prayer is our communication with the living God. Prayer opens the doors of heaven. Prayer moves the hand of God. Prayer is our dependence upon the Lord. But prayer is not easy. Interceding for this world and those in it, taking people and situations before the throne of God can make us want to give up and lose heart.
Why is prayer sometimes hard?
One reason is distractions. Our lives are so full that we easily find no time to pray because we have so much we want to do. And then when we do make time to pray our minds and hearts are often unfocused. Do you ever pray and find a million things are running through your mind and you can’t put together three words to God?
Prayer is sometimes hard because we take on someone else’s pain or suffering. And so we carry burdens and the heaviness of the situation or person we are praying for. It effects us.
Prayer is hard because it isn’t always exciting or a thrill ride. It is not always a spiritual high. Do you ever find yourself getting drowsy or falling asleep in prayer, whether in your own bedroom or here in the sanctuary? When Jesus asked his disciples to pray with him in Gethsemane that’s exactly what they did.
Prayer is hard because we are seeking God’s will and challenging the will of the Adversary. There is a fight going on as we pray for God’s will to be done. Obviously, this will make the Adversary try to disrupt us. He will bring resistance to our lives and in our praying.
Maybe the greatest obstacle in prayer is when we pray and we don’t see anything happening. We pray for something or someone for weeks, months, and even years. And we get tired. And we get discouraged. And sometimes we even stop praying. We wonder what good does it do?
Prayer is not necessarily easy. It can be a battle.
Every day I take time to pray. I pray because I need God and the Lord has told us to pray. But can I be honest with you? I’m tired of praying for people with cancer. I’m weary of praying for marriages, families and people that are hurting and broken. I’m tired of praying for peace in various places in our world. How much longer do I have to pray for certain parts of me to finally change? It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop praying, but I can grow weary of it.
Jesus knows this. This is why he told a parable to his disciples that they should always pray and not give up.
It’s about a widow who keeps coming to a judge crying out for justice against her adversary. This widow is like the psalmist in Psalm 55 who asks the Lord to listen, to not ignore her plea but to answer. Widows were deeply helpless. When they lost a husband they couldn’t just go out and get a job. They didn’t draw his pension. They weren’t allowed to work. They were vulnerable and easy to take advantage of if someone wanted to. And there were those that did.
This widow has been victimized in some way. She keeps coming and coming and coming and the judge won’t do anything. Finally, the judge says even though he doesn’t care about God or others, and could care less about this widow, because she keeps bothering him he will see that she gets justice. He fears being wearied by this woman. He just wants her off his back.
The phrase that is translated in our English Bibles for the way the woman keeps bothering the judge has a much stronger meaning than our Bible’s give. The phrase literally means to hit someone in the eye so as to give them a black-eye. It has the sense of disgracing someone so the person loses prestige and face in the sight of other people. Literally, it could be translated with the judge saying, “so that she doesn’t come and slap me in the face.”
If a lowly widow came and slapped the judge that possibly hurt physically, but it would certainly be humiliating socially.
Let’s be thankful for the men and women over the centuries who have taken the ancient texts of the Old and New Testaments, which were written in Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic, and have sat for hours, days, months and years, translating each word and phrase so we can have it in our modern English.
To make a version of the Bible in any language is a monumental task. It takes committees of men and women, who meet and work for years, to produce a translation of a Bible. It is a ministry. It is not often acknowledged. And it is challenging because ancient languages don’t just translate easily into our contemporary English.
And as translators wrestled with how to translate this phrase they realized that to give it literally will not necessarily make sense to us, so they worked it various ways. The New International Version comes closest as it has the judge saying, “I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!”
I know it’s a made-up story, but can you see this widow getting so fed up that one day she finally walks up to the judge and busts him one right in the face? I guess when you have nothing to lose, are hurting badly, and have been ignored, you will stop at nothing.
The Message version of the Bible comes a little closer to the sense of the wording. The judge says, “But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice – otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.”
Jesus uses the image of a widow throwing a punch to an indifferent judge to talk about prayer. This isn’t the way most of us think about prayer.
The point of the parable is not that God is like this judge who is arrogant and who you have to really pound to get to listen and help you. Jesus is contrasting the unjust judge with who God is just. Our Lord’s point is that if an unjust judge eventually grants justice to a widow won’t God who loves and cares for us, who is just, work for his people when they cry out to him?
Jesus gives assurance in this parable: God hears his chosen ones when they cry out to him and he won’t keep putting them off. He teaches this because it sure seems that way.
Jesus says that God will see that his chosen ones will get justice and quickly. Quickly? I don’t know what kind of watch Jesus uses but do you ever find that Jesus’ quickly is always different than your quickly.
The Apostle Paul writes in the book of Ephesians to put on the armor of God for the spiritual battle in which we are engaged. He says part of this battle is praying. He writes, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”[1] Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)
The psalmist says he prays his distress to the Lord evening, noon and morning.
In Colossians Paul writes about a man named Epaphras. Epaphras doesn’t get a lot of play but is a hidden giant in the Bible. Paul says this about Epaphras: “He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God…”[2] This man Epaphras was wrestling in prayer for the Christians in Colossae.
If you have ever seen a wrestling match it is anything but calm and peaceful. It is strenuous, exhausting, and intense. I imagine Epaphras agonized in his prayers for the Colossian Christians. I imagine he found it hard to know what to pray for, he had times he couldn’t focus, when he prayed for something and the opposite happened, when he was tempted to give up, when he felt like he was pinned and wasn’t sure if he would get out.
But Epaphras was willing to go to the mat for those people. Who are you going to the mat for? I don’t mean just keeping them in your thoughts, but deliberately stopping your activity, turning to God in intercession and praying for that person. And doing it again and again.
Prayer warriors aren’t just peaceful and composed. They are breathing heavily, sweating, and sore because they are engaged in the battle. We get stressed and upset and say we better pray to calm down. I’m not sure prayer is the best tool to calm down, folks. Your blood pressure might go up. I’m not sure that prayer isn’t more like a martial art where we take on various opponents than it is a stroll in the garden.
We don’t need altars we need fighting rings. We shouldn’t fold our hands, we should put on gloves. Our prayer rooms really should be called dojos. Because if you are really going to pray it’s going to be a workout. It can be like a fist-fight, a back-alley brawl, a wrestling match. Sometimes you are on top, and sometimes you are down. Sometimes you are trying to get out of a lock, and sometimes you are trying to take down whatever opponent is before you. There are ups and down. You gain hope, then lose hope. You see victory, and sometimes deep disappointment. Discouragement might be the biggest struggle in prayer. All the time we are tempted to give up.
When I was a pastor in Philadelphia I studied at a martial arts studio. Philadelphia is also a big boxing town and I was always fascinated and curious by the sweet science and wanted to try it.
There was a guy at the studio where I trained named Ron. Ron was an upper degree black belt in Kenpo Karate (I didn’t even know how to put on my belt). He was fluent in several other styles. He was a kickboxer, had been a wrestler and a gymnast. Ron was agile, limber, and strong. And he was cut. I mean his body rippled with muscles.
I had seen him training with other boxers on the side so one summer I asked if he would train me so I could just taste the experience. He was a great guy and easily agreed.
The first day we trained he helped me wrap my hands, put on the protective head gear, mouthpiece and the protective stuff for the lower parts of the body, and the gloves. If you have to put this kind of stuff on right there it tells you what you can expect and are getting into. And I wondered how bad this was going to hurt. I told Ron I didn’t want him to hold back. He said he wouldn’t.
He gave me some pointers, set a timer, and we started. We moved, bobbed, and punched.
Surprising to me the hardest struggle in that ring wasn’t Ron’s punches. It wasn’t any pain from getting hit. The hardest part of the fight was keeping my hands up. My arms were exhausted. They were like lead weights and at times I just had to yell “stop” because I couldn’t go on anymore.
The first rule of boxing that any trainer will tell you is “keep your hands up.” Because if you don’t what is going to happen? You become an open target. When boxers hands go down it leaves them open to getting hit and that’s when they lose heart and give up.
Jesus tells the parable of prayer to say, “Keep your arms up. Stay in the ring. Don’t lose heart and don’t quit.”
During my years as Senior Pastor at Mount Olympus Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City, I had a small group of people who faithfully and regularly prayed for me. I would send them personal prayer requests every month or two. No one knew about this group. The people on the team didn’t even know who else was on the prayer team. It was all on the quiet. I had asked them if they would only do one thing: regularly pray for me.
And I asked people who I knew would do it. They may not have been the most spiritual-looking people in the church. I just knew this group of people would do it. And, let me tell you, pastors need prayer.
I told them I may share some very personal things so I needed to trust them with confidentiality. I warned them that if they didn’t want to hear their pastor was hurting or struggling in some way then don’t sign up.
One of the women I asked was an older saint in our church named Betty. Betty did not stand out in our church. She was just quietly faithful. She came with her Bible every week. She was short, dressed in very plain clothes and kind of walked with a little limp. She sat in the back. But I came to know she was a prayer warrior. When I put this prayer-support team together I asked her if she would be part of it, and she readily said yes.
One Sunday I preached on this parable at that church. Betty obviously heard it, and I’ll tell you why…
We had a prayer chain. When someone needed prayer in our church or anywhere, we would send it out via email to a group of people who committed to praying for whatever needs came. It might be for a surgery. It might be a need for a job. It might be for healing. It might be in light of a tragedy or death.
Betty was one of many people on our prayer chain. And when something particularly hard would come to our prayer chain Betty would often email me back. And this is all she would write: “I’ve got my fists up.” And she knew that I knew what she meant. Little Betty was willing to step into the ring. She prayed and kept on praying. I thank God that Betty never lost heart in prayer, and kept praying.
Which leads to one last thing that makes prayer a battle, and that is it takes faith. The parables doesn’t just end with Jesus reassuring the disciples that God will answer. He ends with a “however…”.
“However, when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on the earth?”
Jesus connects prayer and faith because prayer takes faith. Every time we lift up any prayer, that is an act of faith – faith that there is a God who is there, who is listening, and who can do something. It doesn’t have to be strong faith or even big faith, but all prayer involves some kind of faith.
Jesus wants to know if anyone has the faith to stand the long delays of God. Does anyone have the faith to persist in prayer when the answer is not immediate?
…when it all doesn’t fall into place and happen right away,
…when we take on things that we know will probably mean waiting and praying a long time,
…will there be people keeping the faith, staying on their knees, going to the mat, keeping their hands up in prayer? Like that widow?
Jesus wants to know if he were to come today would he find anyone praying? Or has everyone quit, lost heart, and given up? Remember, the Lord tells this parable so that people would not stop praying and not lose heart.
Psalm 55: Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.
Let’s keep our hands up people. We may be tired. But keep praying.
Prayer: Lord, we get so discouraged. We get apathetic. We get lazy. Convict us again of the need to pray. And give us the faith to do it. Holy Spirit, fall upon us and give us a renewal of faith to put in your hands all our burdens, all our worries, all we hope for.
Right what is wrong. Make your world the world you want it to be. Your kingdom come, your will be done. And in the meantime, give us the strength to wait.
Thank you, Lord. Amen.
[1] Eph. 6:18
[2] Colossians 4:12