Luke 11:5 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Luke 11:5

Comments

(Synoptics: Luke 11:5-13)And then the Lord gives a wonderful illustration of prayer, which encourages us never to give up asking for God’s help. This is the so-called ‘Parable of the friend at midnight’, sometimes called ‘The Parable of the importunate friend’. Some of the modern translations decide to call him the persistent friend, which is not quite right, and not as near to the Greek as the old translation. We could call him, in modern terms, ‘The desperate friend’, and that actually helps us to grasp the sense of the parable much more. At the beginning of the parable we find there is a man who has a great need. He is desperate; he is exposed to shame. It is a friend, maybe a member of his distant family, who has come on a long journey. He did not expect him, but this person has turned aside into this town or village and he has naturally sought out the house of his friend. It is late at night and he knocks the door, and, according to the customs of the East in those times, he must be given proper hospitality. He may have a large family with him. They need refreshments, they need food and drink, they need somewhere to rest overnight. So he comes to his friend. And his friend – shame upon shame – has nothing to set before them. Well that would be a shame in any culture, but it was particularly shameful in that culture. He had nothing, and so he was going to be exposed. In what way? Well, his poverty, if that was the cause of his having nothing. His poverty was going to be exposed and he would feel wretched. Or perhaps he was going to be exposed as a fool because who would have nothing in the house in readiness. Who would not have done any baking in those days? Who would not have procured some provisions? But his house was empty and he was ashamed. So you have here a need. This poor man was utterly caught by surprise and exposed as a failure, or a fool.

Application

So he goes to his friend. All this applies to, or parallels, our need for the blessing of God, and the way in which God blesses us. We sometimes become aware of this suddenly. Suddenly there is a catastrophe. Suddenly we are taken completely by surprise and we sense our spiritual needs. One moment we are gliding along perfectly happily in life. We are trying to get all our happiness and satisfaction out of this present world; we are enjoying every entertainment we can get access to; we are fulfilling our ambitions, and doing as we like; we are sinning with very little concern about it – whatever is our pleasure, our lust, our indulgence, we do it. And then – and this happens at some time to everyone – suddenly the bottom falls out of life. We see life for what it is, and we see its sham, its hypocrisy, its emptiness. We see how pointless and useless it all is, if we don't know the living God, and if we haven't got some perspective on eternity. We lack any deep understanding of what this life is for, any real purpose or meaning in our lives. It may come in this form: that we suddenly become deeply ashamed of one or more sins in our life, and we feel wretched, and we can't face ourselves, and nobody can help us. Everything is empty and there is nothing we can do to lift ourselves up. Have you had such an experience?

Many people have it while quite young, perhaps in teenage. For some it comes in fits and starts; for others later in life. Maybe it is towards the very end and this desperation comes, and suddenly we feel as we have never felt before: wretched and ashamed and greatly in need of the blessing of God. We note that this surprise comes at midnight, the worst possible time for the surprise to come and it's like that with some people. They've consumed all the years at the very end of life's journey and suddenly it hits them, it's all a waste, it's all vain and futile if they don't know the Lord. They've seen life pass, they've made all the mistakes, everything for them has gone wrong at times and it's very late now, it's a very bleak time, it's the midnight of life. We see that spiritually we have been fools. We have had made no search for God, taken no interest in him; we have never listened to his message, we have never prayed. God is so gracious he will even receive us at the midnight of life. But don't leave it that long. Be concerned about your spiritual condition and your spiritual destiny long before that.

The trouble is that most people never ask the Lord for anything significant. They do not pray. It was so with all of us at one time. We do not pray unless we become afraid of something. Either we have a health scare or a great fear, and then maybe even the person who professes to be an atheist will go and pray just because there is fear. Or it may be that we will pray for some material benefit, something which helps us in this present life, something that we want. Sometimes we will pray for those things, but strangely we will not pray for the things that really matter. Sometimes God even answers our vain and selfish or fearful prayers. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. He does not undertake to, but sometimes he does, in order to encourage us to believe in him and to seek him out for the real needs and the real blessings.

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Luke 11:5 Commentary and Bible Study