It's All About Jesus: The Eager Father (3/24/19)

This Sunday, we will look at a very familiar parable that Jesus tells which, in short-hand, is referred to as the “Friend at Midnight”. In summary, a host has an out-of-town guest who shows up at midnight. The host [the caller] is caught unawares without sufficient bread to serve his guest. To obtain just three loaves of bread, the host calls out to his sleeping friend, who appears to be annoyed with being awakened. After all, he has already locked the door and put his children to bed. But the host persists and finally gets what he needs. This is Jesus' answer to the disciples’ request, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The apparent lesson is…just persevere and God will give what you need. If we think this is the point of the story, we are wrong. We are wrong because we misunderstand Jesus' teaching style and the culture in which this story is told. When we enter Scripture, we are entering to another time and place, which looks very different than our individualistic, independent, American culture where we don’t want to be reliant on others, even within the Christian community. I will attempt to supply the cultural music behind this story, the soundtrack to the movie, and see that Jesus is actually painting a picture of a generous God whose honor is on the line every time we pray.