Will He Find Faith on Earth?
Luke 18:1–8 – Teach Us to Pray, Part 12
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 18th, 2026 (am)
This is the final message, number twelve, in our series, Teach Us to Pray; we’re in Luke 18:1-8. Let me read it and comment, much as we did last Sunday, then we’ll draw out some insights in our outlined section, important takeaways from this text and this series.
For context, in this section of Luke, Jesus has just been talking to His disciples and others about the end times (17:20-37). The Pharisees had asked Him when the kingdom of God would come (17:20). And He answered that its arrival will be unmistakable (17:24), but that it’s more important to stay ready than to track signs of its coming. The best we can do to be ready is just to continue crying out to God in prayer (1) with enduring confidence that He’ll provide justice to his [chosen ones] without [lengthy] delay (7). He’ll provide it [quickly] (8), even if it may seem delayed to us.
Justice is an essential component to joyful living. Lack of justice generates a lack of joy. Lack of justice erodes confidence in God. So, it’s never good—it’s always hard—when justice is lacking.
And Jesus’ insinuation here is that justice will likely seem delayed to us. It will likely seem to us that we ask for it, but God doesn’t answer. Jesus is saying that, in such circumstances, we need to trust God anyway. And we need to show that trust by pressing on in prayer, by not losing heart in prayer (1). Let’s look at the text.
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. There it is. And what else would we even consider doing as we await Jesus’ return, assuming we want to be ready when He comes? So, here’s Jesus’ parable.
2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. Hear this as tragic. This means there’s no justice in this city. The judiciary, the guardian of justice, is corrupt. By definition, a judge is to maintain God’s order among man, but this judge had no reverence for either! This is a disturbing picture. Anything could happen in a city like this!
3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ Now tragedy melts into hopelessness; there’s nothing more helpless than a widow in an ancient city, not to mention a widow who’s being treated unjustly. Being a widow at this time meant she had no legitimate source of income. Needing protection from the legal system suggests she had no other resources available to her either—no money, no family, no advocate. And someone is opposing her, taking advantage of her. This is the epitome of hopelessness. How is it even possible not to lose heart here?
4 For a while [this judge] refused, but afterward he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man—he knew this about himself! He was intentionally perverting justice! The thought is that he was waiting for a bribe (Morris 280). Surely she knew this. But she had no money. All she could do was just press on in coming to him. And he knew that. He said: 5 … because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” Her endurance in pursuit of good was stronger than his determination to profit from evil.
6 And [Jesus] said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? If a judge so unjust as this one can be forced into giving justice to the weakest of litigants, will not God Himself, by contrast, do so willingly, in ample measure, as His default position with all those whom He’s purposed to rescue at His own cost? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. …
But this is where we may quarrel. We may not recognize the apparent delay of God as His patience with this evil world (2Pe.3:8-9). And our inclination at such times might be to sit in judgment of Him, charging Him with injustice, especially given the lengthy period between Jesus’ first coming and His second. We can so easily decide that God is indifferent toward injustice, forgetting entirely why it’s so present in this world in the first place! Jesus’ words here, then, are intended to remind us that we do best to remember that God is not on trial here, we are. There’s no question whether He’ll be faithful. The only question is whether we will be. Even so, it’s easy for us to blame God when this world seriously disappoints, injures, or mistreats us.
In an interview on CBS Sunday Morning just last week, entertainer Billy Crystal was reflecting on two tragic and painful losses he’s experienced: the first was when his home of forty-six years was destroyed in the Palisades wildfire in January 2025; and the second was the murder of his best friend, Rob Reiner, and his wife later that same year. The two couples had been together the evening before. Based on the theme of prayer in one of his recent stage shows, Crystal was asked whether he had talked to God about these losses. His answer was: No, [because] I don’t trust Him. Then he added: Too many bad things have happened. The Earth is in bad shape. This is a weird, scary time. So, no, not anymore. We’re in a mess here, and God is responsible. He’s the One to blame.
But Jesus sees it differently. He anticipates the response of ones like Billy Crystal, and all the rest of us when the sinful, broken, cruel, unjust fallenness of this world begins to encroach on us personally. He tells us this story so that we won’t turn our backs on God at such times, so that we’ll continue crying out to him day and night (7) with all our struggles and hardships and suffering, and not lose heart (1). He tells us this story so that, 8 … when the Son of Man comes, [he will] find faith on earth! We will not have fallen away in unbelief. Let strive to remember three things in prayer.
Remember Who God Is
We’ve established from the start of this series that He is the sovereign God, the Lord of all creation, the Author of life (Act.3:15), the One to Whom we all must give account (Heb.4:13) when this life is finished. He is perfect love, perfect generosity, perfect justice and righteousness. He’s the One we come to know through the new and living way opened up for us in Christ (Heb.10:20). His eyes are on [us] and his ears are open to [our] prayer (1Pe.3:12). He has bound Himself to hear and answer us (1Jo.5:14-15). He has charged us to draw near to [His] throne of grace with confidence and He assured us that we will receive mercy there, and find grace to help in our time of need (Heb.4:16). That’s Who we’re talking to. He’s unlimited in resources. And He’s for us (Rom.8:31). Why, my friends, why would we hesitate to come to Him in prayer, as He’s asked? Why would we do anything other than set aside all else and bring our need before Him?
Jesus is making this same point by raising a question about God in contrast to this unjust judge. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Of course He will! Will he delay long over them? Of course not! God has [chosen] (7) His people to be the recipients of His special saving, redeeming, cleansing, reconciling grace! He’s attached His name to them! (Eph.3:15) Even if it seems like His rescue is delayed, perhaps even long-delayed, things are not what they appear. We don’t need to force the hand of a God so gracious as this. We just need to trust Him, even when surrounded by circumstances we don’t understand. We need to cling to Him at times of helplessness and powerlessness when it seems like we have no hope!
Jesus is reminding us of all this so that we can press on in faith and not lose heart, so that we can live ready for His return, so that we can remember Who God is.
Remember Who We Are
Made personal, you need to remember who you are. I need to remember who I am. Friends, we’re the widow. We’ve got nothing. We forget that. But we forget to our own peril. Jesus Himself said to His disciples: [without] me you can do nothing (Joh.15:5). Nothing commends us to God. And He owes us nothing. We’re entitled to nothing. If we have something that seems valuable to us—a skill, an ability, resources, possessions, anything that sets us apart as unique among other creatures—we have Him alone to thank for it. And only He can let us know its intended purpose. For, surely, He’s given it to us for a purpose.
He’s entrusted it to us as a stewardship. So, the only question here is whether we’ll use that stewardship, that uniqueness, to fulfill His purpose or our own? Will we be selfish with it, or will we be faithful? After all, there is one thing required of stewards, that they be found faithful (1Co.4:2). And that sets us up for our third thing to remember.
Remember the Big Picture
This takes us back to Jesus’ intent in this parable, to remind us that we do best to remember that God is not on trial in this world, we are. His image-bearing creatures are. There’s just no serious question whether He’ll be faithful. The only question is whether we’ll be faithful. As we’ve said, it’s quite easy for us to blame God when this world disappoints or injures or mistreats us. But He’s God. And He’s graciously purposed to reveal His disposition toward his elect. He’s made miraculous provision for unimaginable justice on the grandest of scales through the work of Jesus. And it’s available to all who receive Him by faith as their Savior, their sin-Bearer and Lord and King.
Without any reasonable doubt, then, God will be faithful in His responsibility to provide justice. The big-picture question is whether we’ll be faithful to our responsibility always to pray always and not lose heart (1), our stewardship, our calling to remember that He is God and we are not? That’s where our focus needs to be. Trust God to be God. And just keep crying out to him day and night, confident that he will not delay long over [us] (7). He will give justice speedily (8). Just keep living in light of Jesus’ return, understanding that we’ll stand before Him in judgment when He does. Just keep living in such a way that, 8 … when the Son of Man comes, [he will] find faith on earth!
Conclusion
Make no mistake that always [praying] and not [losing] heart (1) is the way we do that. But, knowing that, what would you say to Billy Crystal? What would you say to those who don’t know Jesus but just keep looking for justice in this world without reference to Him? I think the answer comes in imagining how Jesus might answer Billy Crystal.
I don’t think Jesus would shame him for grieving the loss of his home where he raised his children and enjoyed his grandchildren. I don’t think Jesus would belittle him for lamenting the loss of his best friend to patricide. I don’t even think Jesus would ridicule him for deciding that he doesn’t trust God any longer, and doesn’t want to talk to God about these tragedies.
Rather, I think Jesus would comfort him with tenderness and compassion, with mercy and grace, and tell His own story of great loss, of enduring brutally cruel and wholly unimaginable injustice. And I think Jesus would then explain to him how this massive injustice actually set us all up to experience an expression of justice, a quality of justice, that we’d never have been able to imagine otherwise. I think Jesus would assure him that universal justice, cosmic justice, unlimited, unbounded, and unqualified justice will now be realized in this world, and the next, for everyone who doesn’t turn their back on God, but opens their heart to Him, realizing that He alone can give them justice, He alone can make sense of this world, He alone can enable them not to lose heart, but to hold on in faith until Jesus returns to set all things right, fully and finally, forever.
And I think that should be our takeaway as well. Briefly put, crying out to God as our only hope, our only help—in great need or small, great difficulty or small, great temptation or small, great injustice or small; [calling] out to God in prayer—is the only way to know truly heartened life, truly satisfying life, truly abundant life (Joh.10:10). If we want to be a church that experiences the fullness of all Jesus died for us to experience this side of heaven, we’ll only experience it as we become a praying church, as we learn always to pray and not lose heart (1).
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Resources
Beale, G. K., & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Luke, by David W. Pao & Eckhard J. Schnabel, 251-414. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
Calvin, John. 1610. Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, trans. by, William Pringle, 1845. Logos.
Carson, D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Hebrews, by I. Howard Marshall, 978-1020. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.
Dockery, David S, ed. 1992. New American Commentary. Vol. 24, Luke, by Robert H. Stein. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.
Hughes, R. Kent. 1998. Preaching the Word. Luke: That You May Know the Truth. Wheaton: Crossway.
Longman III, Tremper, & David E. Garland, eds. 2007. Revised Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 10, Luke-Acts. Luke, by Walter L. Leifeld & David W. Pao, 19-355. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Morris, Leon, gen. ed. 1988. Tyndale New Testament Commentary. Vol. 13, Luke, by Leon Morris. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
Muck, Terry, ed. 1996. The NIV Application Commentary. Luke, by Darrell Bock. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
NEXT SUNDAY: GO Partner Charles Marble will be preaching