This week we will be taking a look at Jesus’ parable number 25, a parable about a persistent friend. This parable when read without any of the supporting information can leave a person scratching their head wondering as to when is Jesus talking about. The actual parable is found in Luke 11:5-8, which reads as follows:
5 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; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 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.’ 8 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.
Now after reading this parable, I will tell you this is a parable about prayer. What?!? Yes, really. This parable is about prayer, not about friendship, not about being lazy or being ill-prepared for surprises. This is about prayer. This is why Biblical passages should not be taken as standalone verses to let the mind decipher a few verses. You need to have the additional information that surrounds the verse. This is why a true study of the Bible is necessary for all who want to follow Jesus, so that a false teacher does not take you down a wrong path away from our Lord and Savior. So now let us look at the verse just before this parable and then we will close with the verses after this parable.
1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”
This parable appears only in Luke and immediately follows the verses of the Lord’s Prayer. This parable expands on the petition about daily bread. As a rule in Biblical days, the woman of the house made enough bread for the day and in this case it happened that the family ate the last scraps at dinner. This is the reason for more bread, to feed another friend who just returned from a long and arduous trip.
Let us be put into this situation and you have a friend named Bill. You and your family are in bed. As strong as his friendship with Bill is, it isn’t strong enough for him to wake up his whole family. But Bill’s “boldness” tips the scale in Jesus’ parable. The Greek word is the noun anaideia, meaning persistence or impudence, literally, ‘shamelessness,’ from the verb anaideuomai, i.e., be unabashed, bold, literally ‘shameless.’
The point of the parable, of course, is the importance of persistence, of never giving up. But Jesus’ expression, “because of the man’s shamelessness” is remarkable. Bill, the friend, has no sense of decency of waiting until morning, of not disturbing his sleeping neighbor. He goes at midnight and knocks—for some bread! And he shamelessly keeps on knocking until you get up and shove bread at him just to shut him up. Shamelessness! Brashness! Boldness! Chutzpah!
That’s what the parable illustrates. Well let us finish this up with the last two verses after this parable.
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.
Jesus got to the point of this parable: Ask God. Seek something from God. Knock expectantly at God’s door. Admit you are in a position of need and helplessness. Depend on the Father’s goodness and love. If a human fearing same will open the door, certainly the loving Father you pray to will open the door and provide what you need.
How does this apply to us today? We are encouraged to boldly ask, seek, and knock on the door of our heavenly friend and father, knowing that we can trust him. We must practice the same perseverance, and even though the answer to our prayer may be delayed, we must continue to ask, seek, and knock. The writer of Hebrews encourages us, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). The word translated “confidence” (NIV) or “boldness” (KJV) is the Greek parresia, “ ‘outspokenness, frankness, plainness’ of speech that conceals nothing and passes over nothing.” It can also carry the ideas of “courage, confidence, boldness, and fearlessness.”
We aren’t to pray with a whimper or a whine or a whisper. No. We are to come with a confident asking, seeking, knocking. God our Father desires to hear our petitions and we should be entirely open with him. Prayer is not a time to hide what is going on inside us, but to share it openly, warts and all, with our Father whom we know loves us and understands us and seeks good for us. We can trust him, even though we might misunderstand an issue, ask for the wrong thing, or ask at an inconvenient time.
You may object to the neighbor who is so reluctant to give being compared with God, but the real emphasis of the parable is on the man’s perseverance in asking even in the face of a seeming refusal.