Blog Layout

 The Trouble with Jesus

by Constance Hastings

THE BLACK EYE OF FAITH
October 10, 2022

The Trouble with Jesus is he plays with our common assumptions about God to shock us into a faith that won’t let go.

Jesus, you tell these stories so we’ll get a better idea of what God is like. Like that Father who waits and watches for his wayward son to come home. Or there’s the Friend who is awakened in the middle of the night by a neighbor wanting bread. Then there is the one about the Master who hires workers at different times of the day and pays them all the same wage.  All of them take some unpacking, but we get what you’re doing.


But this one? An unjust judge who won’t listen to a poor widow until she wears him out? God is like this? And we’re to come out saying that sometimes you must not give up when you ask God for something? You sound like he’s too busy for what’s important in our lives and will only do something when he gets around to it. Sorry to be so critical of your Father, but this one spells NOT FAIR!


God is Great, God is Good…

Listen, Jesus told this story to his disciples. He knew what they thought God should be, like always on their side. First point of adjustment needed. Next, it would be only days from then they would enter into Jerusalem for the last time together. Their faith would be stretched beyond belief. Jesus knew they needed to understand some things most people don’t want to look hard into. So put away those childlike thoughts that come with prayers for children.


The story begs the question, if God is good, then why….? Why do people suffer, do bad things happen to good people, does evil in the forms of oppression and war never seem to end? A good God would take care of all that it would seem. If not, what does that tell you about your God.


The judge in the story fits that mold. “Godless” is how Jesus describes him. He openly declares that he’s not afraid of God and cares not a whit for humanity. Jewish law specifically warns against exploitation of widows, orphans, even foreigners, but this creep is above all that.


Jesus tells his guys this story so they would understand the need for constant, persistent prayer. That’s easily seen in this poor widow who comes up against this judge who operates with impunity. When he won’t hear her case, she appeals with constant pestering. She becomes a pain in his you-know-what. Finally, he relents, gives her justice. You may read she drives him crazy, but a better wording is her badgering gives him a black eye. She successfully makes her case a problem for him and gets what right for her.


How Much More…

Ok, this is the kind of story that gets under the skin. So Jesus is saying you’ve got to pray forever for what you need, and eventually God will comes through because if he doesn’t, it’s going to make him look bad. Who needs a God like that?


Remember, this story is made to stretch faith which requires consideration from another side. Not long before this, Jesus had thrown out this thought. If children were to ask their father for a fish, no father likely would give them a snake instead. Thus, if human, fallible parents know to give good things to their kids, how much more would God then give to those who pray for their needs.


Take from that to keep on praying. If evil judges relent to persistent widows, how much more will your good God hear your needs and quickly answer.

 

Does that make you feel better about your God?


If making you feel better about your God is what Jesus came to do, let’s remember what God would be doing in Jesus within the next couple of days. It wouldn’t be pretty. And feel-good stories about the divine are downright lame when realistically looking at what’s going on in the world.


Reverse Your Assumption

So you came at this thinking the judge is God? Where’d you get that idea? Yeah, that’s right, you’ve heard this thing about God as judge sitting on a celestial throne ready to say who’s good, who’s bad, who gets in and who stays out. For a blessed moment, would you please scrap that?


Here’s a little secret: Jesus is playing with you. He knows what you think about God and what you want from God. And he’s here to tell you what God is like and what God wants to do.



So do some head spinning and look at it like this. The widow is calling for justice. Who is most concerned about justice (remember those widows, orphans, foreigners, that sort of thing)? God considers that true justice. It’s written in the law, for goodness’ sake.


Justice is God’s passion.

Here’s a thought. In this story, this widow is the real representation of God. Sit with what that means. In all, God won’t let up on calling for justice and will go at it until it is achieved.


Then what’s the judge? The forces that lack any smidgen of compassion, who don’t care in the least for those with little to no resources for any kind of life that affirms and brings dignity. These are the powerful, the godless who have great contempt for anyone not like them.


Prayer may at times seem ineffective, nearly useless, only a wisp of hope for what could never be. But God says No to all that. God isn’t going to give up on the pursuit of justice, so neither should prayers. Even against the biggest and bad-est, the corrupt and the superpowers, God is going after them aiming to deliver a black eye driven by faith.


Pray without Ceasing

Now you can take this as your bowing head and closing your eyes if you want. Even so, we all know “thoughts and prayers” are often expressed as sentiment and soon forgotten. As in the story, earnest prayer brings an urgency to the need. After the Amen though, it needs more.


How much more? More as in hands and feet and voices. More as in unrelenting in the call for justice. More for supreme efforts not only in changing laws but in changing hearts and minds. More as in reversing recognition toward God-ordained morals to devise a culture that affirms the least, the last, the lost whom Jesus healed and loved, the child-like losers.


Jesus threw out a challenge as he ended his story, “how many will I find who have faith?” Good question for the one going up against the worst evil and injustice. Or was it his prayer?


Prayer is not a whispered wish, but so much more.

Luke 18:1-8


The Trouble with Jesus is he would not be intimidated into answering a trap.
By Constance Hastings November 18, 2024
Truth is the spotlight on humanity. Find it, wrestle with it, run from it but know truth tells much, sometimes too much. Just-the-facts, video footage, eyewitness testimony, subpoenaed emails and documents only color the canvas. Anything can be made to say anything; it’s all in the spin. But truth reveals the greater story, and the direction life gives.
The Trouble with Jesus is he never made the future look totally rosy. He told it real.
By Constance Hastings November 11, 2024
Jesus, what makes you think this Doomsday portrait you give here is helping? Why even talk about it? We’ve been through a hell of a lot, and this end-of-the-world talk isn’t doing us any good. Besides, who’d ever get behind you if this is where you’re going. We’re just not going to listen to this kind of thing. Yeah, well what galaxy do you come from? If talk of apocalyptic endings bother you, why do you watch so much of it from streaming movies to video games to best sellers? Listen guy, there’s money to be made from this genre, and the makers of these stories play right into the basic fears of futurists to preppers to predictive prophets with megaphones shouting, “The End is Near.” Why is this ok for everyone else, but Jesus can’t say anything beyond Love Your Neighbor and Bless the Children? Get over that, and listen up.
The Trouble with Jesus is his teaching was sometimes meant for what he had to do more so than others
By Constance Hastings November 4, 2024
Brief musing here: November 5:2024 Today, tonight, this week we will wait. Apply whatever importance you prefer to this date. Take your side expressed by your vote. Hope for the best. Yet in the marking of your ballot, also bow your head. Pray the hardest prayer ever spoken. “Your will be done.” Accept what will be. Then move into your space, your world, and see what God will do. Shalom.
The Trouble with Jesus is he doesn’t want to fight as much as he wants to lead in Love.
By Constance Hastings October 28, 2024
The Trouble with Jesus is he doesn’t want to fight as much as he wants to lead in Love.
The trouble with Jesus is healing happens in reversal to one’s willingness to see.
By Constance Hastings October 21, 2024
What do you want me to do for you? One’s answer reveals the beggar in one’s soul.
The Trouble with Jesus finds you have to convert more than the world to change it.
By Constance Hastings October 14, 2024
Jesus, if you don’t mind, we’d like to talk with you about what you just said and ask a favor. Sure guys, what’s on your minds.? About your plans, when it all comes about, if the two of us could be seated next to you, one of your right and the other on your left? (long pause…) You have no idea what you’re asking....
The Trouble with Jesus was he didn’t tolerate anything getting in the way of full devotion to God.
By Constance Hastings October 7, 2024
True Story: A husband told his wife he was going the next day to possibly buy a Corvette. (Disclaimer: this did not happen in my house…) She read to him these words of Jesus: “Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” “Now, how do you think you’ll get to heaven if you buy a Corvette?” she challenged him. After a short pause, he smiled, and said, “Fast!”
The Trouble with Jesus: He doesn’t speak from a legalistic mindset. He speaks with the mind of God
By Constance Hastings September 30, 2024
The Trouble with Jesus: He doesn’t speak from a legalistic mindset. He speaks with the loving mind of God.
The Trouble with Jesus is he used graphic and exaggerated devices to teach his slowest students.
By Constance Hastings September 23, 2024
In some ways, Jesus, your radical messages are just what we need. You just said that welcoming children is just like welcoming you. Nice image there. But this time, it’s like you’re pushing radicalization, sending your followers off the deep end. Cutting off one’s hands or feet, gouging out the eye so you’re good enough to get access to your Dad’s Kingdom? Calling people to self-mutilation isn’t going to garner many likes on your page with this kind of talk.
The Trouble with Jesus is a radical reversal of ambition and status in God's love.
By Constance Hastings September 16, 2024
Jesus, oh Son of Man, you gotta lay off this. If you want to get your message out there and have everybody behind you, you have to play to what they want. All this talk about dying and staying in last place is going to destroy you. But no, you just keep repeating it over and over again. Take some good advice even those sorry followers of yours seem to realize. The only thing that needs to raise from the dead is your rhetoric.
More Posts
Share by: