Luke 18

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? People of faith should pray. They believe in God. They believe that His promises are true. They know that He loves them, and that He has bid them to pray. It makes no sense for such people to forsake the duty of prayer. Yet we need every encouragement to keep on praying, because when we earnestly ask the Lord for something, and it does not seem to come, we easily lose heart. Jesus provides some encouragement with His story of the unjust judge. If even he will finally give in to the persistent widow, will not our loving God give relief and justice to His chosen people who cry out to Him day and night? He will help us speedily. This is something we need to believe again.

The man who truly understands and receives the grace of God will happily approach with earnest prayers the Lord who loves Him. The proud Pharisee’s prayers focus on his own supposed worthiness. Such a man has no claim upon God. But the man who recognizes his unworthiness and who comes seeking mercy will find a ready ear from the Lord who grants great and frequent blessings to His needy children. The way to the Lord’s heart is through gospel humiliation. We are broken people. We are very needy. God is pleased to hear us and help us.

The posture of the happy gospel prayer warrior is that of a child coming to a Father who loves him. This is the way to blessing in the Kingdom of God. Even the littlest infants, babies who could do nothing for themselves, found themselves receiving the blessing of the Master of the universe when they were carried to Him by their eager parents. It is ours to receive all of the Lord’s gifts like little children, and thereby to enter into His eternal Kingdom.

There is a world of difference between a man who upon hearing the moral law summarized before him says with a straight face, “All these I have kept from my youth,” and a man who comes to God as a penniless petitioner for grace. It is the second one who more easily sees his condition rightly. The rich man is so quickly confused. He is used to the sense of false security that so often comes to those who have many possessions. They will never give up what they have to follow Jesus Christ.

The way of grace cannot be earned, and it cannot be bought, even by the most wealthy or resourceful man. Salvation is a free gift, and it is only possible with God. It is our privilege to leave everything behind, and to gain the kingdom. To have the blessings of heaven and eternal life is the joy of every man who has truly renounced present riches in favor of heavenly gain. This kind of way of living is itself a gift from on high.

Still we will only understand the things of God by His great gift of grace. The natural man would never choose a King who makes His way to glory through the valley of affliction. Yet the Christian is brought to see the gain of the cross as far better than any of the jewels of this creation, as marvelous as they are. The Son of Man was going to the cross. What do you think of the cross? What do you think about the fact that the Lord of glory was willing to pay this dreadful price for your sake? He was delivered over to the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, spit upon, flogged, and killed. But He was bruised for our transgressions, and ultimately death could have no firm hold upon Him. He rose from the dead on the third day, according to His promise. This pattern of suffering unto glory is as plain as day in the words of Jesus, the Messiah. Yet almost no one was able to really take it in.

But there were some that were able to grasp that Jesus could help the lowly. Rich men who imagine that they have something to claim before the throne of God are granted no clarity of belonging to the Lord, but a blind beggar is given blessing on top of undeserved blessing. This is the way of the cross of Jesus Christ.

We need to be people of faith. We need to be those who humble ourselves before Christ and the message of the cross and who find life in the gift that can only come from heaven and heaven’s God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David, and He hears the poor man’s plea for mercy and heals him.

We have been given sight, to see these good things that come from the hand of God alone. Let us then humbly receive what can only come to us as a gift. The way for us cannot be the way of pride or presumption. The real way is the life of faith, of the cross, and of prayer, a life that is a gift to us in Jesus Christ, our Lord.