Cub Hannah, of Swamp Branch KY, was a mean drunk. And he was both mean and drunk on June 11, 1999, when he took a machete to his brother in law, Sam Lugar, out in Lugar's front yard... [and nearly severed his] little finger. Johnson County sheriff's deputies ...interviewed six witnesses and arrested Hannah, who spent the next twelve days in jail on a charge of first degree assault before being released on bond. Hannah waived his right to a preliminary hearing, and a judge sent the case to the Johnson County grand jury. And there Commonwealth v. Hannah stalled, without ever being prosecuted.
The Courier Journal has found that the outcome in the Hannah case was not unusual. The justice Kentuckians get depends greatly on the county where the crime is committed. Different approaches among judges and prosecutors, the lack of state oversight, and the absence of standards for keeping up with felony cases affect the time it takes to resolve cases — if they get brought up at all. Some felony cases take years to arrive at convictions or acquittals, while others linger so long that they are eventually dismissed for lack of prosecution. Statewide more than 2,000 indictments have been pending for more than three years. [In one county] ... more than 600 cases have been dismissed for lack of prosecution during the past eight years. [In another] hundreds and hundreds of cases [have been] backlogged over the past twenty years. (Alan Maimon and Jim Adams, The Courier Journal, October 14, 2003)
The idea that “justice delayed” equals “justice denied” is hard to argue with. But how you feel about it depends on which side you’re on, doesn’t it? I’ll bet Cub Hannah is just as happy as can be that his case hasn’t come up yet...
Now, most people seem to think the parable we just read is primarily about prayer. And of course it IS about prayer. But it’s also about justice, isn’t it? First, though let’s take a look at what Jesus is trying to tell us about prayer.
Let me read the parable for you again.
"In a certain city there was a corrupt bureaucrat who neither feared God nor respected people, and there was a single mother in the same city who kept coming to him and saying, “Make my landlord fix the furnace and replace the windows. I can no longer afford to pay the heat bills and my children are freezing.” For a while the bureaucrat refused to listen, but the woman kept coming to his office every day with her three children, and each day she would make her plea again. After several weeks of this, he thought to himself, if I don't give this woman what she asks, she will pester me to death. An order was issued and the furnace and windows were repaired."
Well, so I updated the setting a bit. But it still says the same thing, doesn’t it? And Jesus’ answer still fits:
And the Lord said, “. . . will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.” [v. 7]
What is Jesus trying to say here? Is he saying that God is like an unjust official who can be badgered into compliance? Is he saying that God can be worn down by constant nagging? Is he saying that if we use some sort of magic words like “justice” or “peace” or “love” or “health” that God can be embarrassed into coming through with the goods? I don’t think so.
This passage comes right after Jesus healed ten lepers. He continues teaching the disciples about the kingdom of God, and of how important it is to be ready for Jesus’ return. And so this parable has to be interpreted in the context of those lessons. Luke begins the passage preceding this one by quoting Jesus saying,
"The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.' Then he said to the disciples, 'The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.'" [Lk 17:20-22]
Well, we know that the kingdom of God is characterized among other things by justice, right? And here we have a parable bemoaning how hard justice is to come by in this world. So part of the purpose of this parable is to contrast this world and the next, not to draw parallels between them. Part of the purpose of this parable is to emphasize that if, even in this unjust world, glimpses of justice can occasionally be seen, how much more certain we can be that when the Lord returns justice will be perfect and complete.
But what do we do while we wait? That’s the crux of the matter. While we wait, we are to pray.
Is that all? We’re to pray until the Lord returns? That’s what the early church did, those first weeks and months in Jerusalem after Pentecost.
"All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people." [Acts 2:44-47]
But that wasn’t all they were supposed to do, because the Lord still did not return. Prayer was absolutely essential, and yet there’s more to waiting for the Lord than that. You may recall that after the risen Lord appeared to the disciples, before Pentecost, “they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.’” [Acts 1:6-7] And Jesus disappeared, and the men stood there gazing up into the heavens, until an angel appeared and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” [Acts 1:11] As a matter of fact, God had to allow persecution of the new Christians to get them out of Jerusalem into the world doing the job he’d given them.
Curiosity about where history is headed can be a fascinating topic. How many people do you know - even Christians - who read their daily horoscope? The interest in nailing down the details of Biblical prophecy is attested by the astonishing popularity of the LaHaye-Jenkins Left Behind series of novels. But Jesus doesn’t want us to focus on the time of his return.
Let me suggest that we should think twice when we read the last part of today’s text, “Will [God] delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.” [v. 7-8] Too many of us read into this little word “quickly” the notion that we won’t have to wait very long, that we won’t have to hang around growing in patience, and faith, and love, and all those other fruits of the spirit that seem to take so long - and so much adversity - to develop.
This little parable is surrounded by warnings about being ready for Jesus’ return. The kingdom comes in stages. Some pieces come right now, as soon as we sign up to follow Jesus. The forgiveness of sins, the defeat of death and Satan, the down payment of the Holy Spirit pointing the way to the future inheritance - those we get right away.
Another phase of the kingdom is future. It will come with signs of power, the vindication of the saints, and the administration of justice. In the meantime, we are called to live our lives focusing on God, addressing our concerns and cares to him, secure in the knowledge that - unlike the unjust judge - the outcome is certain. The longer it takes until Jesus’ return the more relevant this little parable becomes. And now, over 2000 years later, in our post-Christian society, it’s even more acutely relevant. Because at the base of the parable is an attitude about facing injustice as believers. Out call is not to strike back in kind, to try to wring justice by force out of an unwilling world which, like the judge in the story, fears neither God nor man. “Never avenge yourselves,” wrote Paul to the Romans, “but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” [Ro 12:19]
Now, of course this doesn’t mean we’re not to do justice ourselves. That’s not the point. The point is that we aren’t to be either too surprised or too upset if the world is unjust. We are, as Peter wrote, “aliens and exiles” [1 Pe 2:11] in the world, and we have to live always with one foot in the other one in order not to be taken off guard when the day does come. The Pharisees have just challenged Jesus to tell them when the kingdom of God will come; Jesus tells them, in essence, that if they’re going to be ready for it they have to deal with him, and that right now they’re looking in the wrong direction. He warns them in gruesome terms what will happen if they don’t shape up. He cites two events in their own history that they were intimately familiar with.
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them -- it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back.... I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left." [Lk 17:26-35]
And then Jesus switches his attention back to the disciples in a “Let those who have ears hear” kind of moment. And he tells them how to stay focused, and why.
The major application of this parable is, simply, to keep our eyes focused on the hope that is yet to come. We wait for his return, but in the meantime we have been called to be a people busy about the Lord’s work. This life is frequently a struggle, and unfair to Christians, since we are playing by different rules - ones the umpire doesn’t acknowledge. Sometimes we might wonder if it is worth it, or if we are fools, or if we couldn’t just cut a corner or two - just a little - to make life easier.
Have you ever noticed that in our prayer life we usually focus on pretty predictable things, like health, or finances, or career choices, perhaps for our nation or for victims of various kinds of disasters. But how often do we pray for what Jesus is actually telling us to pray in this passage? How often do we pray to remain faithful until the Lord comes? How often do we pray that our Christian witness will remain firm and have an impact on our world?
That is why Jesus asks that disturbing little question at the end of our passage: “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" [v. 8] We cry out for justice, but are we actually ready for it? The Old Testament prophets warned the Israelites not to long for the Day of the Lord, for it will be a great and terrible day. Joel asks, “who can endure it?” [Jo 2:11] It is only those who are steadfast, faithful to the Lord’s claim on our lives, who will come out unscathed on the other side.
The notion that a swift and speedy trial is an essential part of a just society is very old. In our own history, it first seems to appear in the Magna Carta - the statement of rights the English barons extorted from King John in the thirteenth century – just eight hundred years ago. And our founders enshrined that right in the sixth amendment to our constitution. But how speedy do we really want our trial to be? It’s not without reason that we are assured time after time in Scriptures, from Exodus and the Psalms and the prophets, that "The LORD is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and the fourth generation." [Num 14:18]
Even as we complain about how slowly God’s justice appears to be coming, the delay is for our good, and for the good of those we love.
"Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God?" [Joel 2:12-14]
In God’s kingdom, justice delayed is not justice denied. It is mercy granted.
