The Storyteller designs this everyday situation in such a way that he introduces a new theme: persistence in prayer.
Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.4 - The Parables of Jesus, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev
The Storyteller being Jesus Christ. Metropolitan Hilarion connects two parables with this theme – the idea of persistence, specifically in prayer. The first parable is taken from Luke 11: 5 – 13. It is the parable of one who goes to his neighbor at midnight to ask for three loaves of bread, as another friend has just come to his house and he has nothing to offer him.
In order to better understand the situation of the time, Metropolitan Hilarion describes: there were no shops; each family would prepare their food for the day. Every morning, they baked enough bread for the day, baking separately if they expected guests such that the bread would be fresh. There was little, if any, left for the next day.
Now, with no warning, a friend comes at midnight; the host was expected to provide hospitality. He goes to the neighbor, and is persistent about the request for bread. The neighbor, meanwhile, is asleep. In the typical house of the time, there was just one room for the entire family. If the neighbor gets up to give the bread, he would wake up his family. He doesn’t want to do this, but eventually does so, given the persistence of the one knocking on his door.
And here, in the middle of this parable, Jesus returns to a theme from the Sermon on the Mount:
“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. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Ask, seek, knock. In the review of this same teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, the following was offered:
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: This persistence, this constant desire, asking, seeking, and knocking. This, we must agree, is the point at which most of us fail.
Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev: In other words, we are called not to simply turn to God with a one-time request; we must “pester” God with our persistent requests until they are fulfilled.
Perhaps a demonstration the Jesus was also persistent in His teaching.
The second parable on this same theme is taken from Luke 18: 2 – 8. It regards a judge who did not fear God, nor regard man. A widow came to him, asking him to avenge her of her adversary. He relented, as her continual coming wearied him.
Widows belonged to the lowest social stratum – no pension, no job. They were dependent entirely on relatives or voluntary welfare. Moses forbade their oppression, and the law required landowners to leave a portion of their harvest for foreigners, orphans, and widows.
A person who fears neither God nor man seeks, above all, money and comfort. He does not want to be continually bothered by the widow. He takes her case for one reason: to stop being bothered by her persistence.
Conclusion
How do we connect these two characters – the sleeping neighbor in the first parable, and the judge in the second – with God, and our persistence in our prayer to God?
…if even a sleeping friend will get up and open the door, then all the more so will God… If even the unrighteous judge will take the case of the persistent widow, then all the more will God….
From John Climacus:
Faith gives wings to prayer, and without it we cannot fly up to Heaven…. Do not say, after spending a long time at prayer, that nothing has been gained; for you have already gained something.
And what higher good is there than to cling to the Lord and persevere in unceasing union with him?