Christ is teaching the seeker how to keep pressing forward in prayer and not give up. Although God holds us back, he wants us to overcome his apparent reluctance and keep pressing forward. This is Christ authoritative instruction on how to approach God. He speaks as one to whom we may pray, the one who knows perfectly what is the attitude of God to those who call upon him, and he gives us perfect advice to overcome the apparent obstacles we meet as we approach him in prayer.
What the parable gets across to us is that we may be rebuffed. Why may that happen? Maybe I'm approaching God for the first time, but I have no conception of my unworthiness and my sinfulness. It hasn't come home to me, it hasn't registered. So I bowl into the presence of God and say, ‘Oh God, now I'm interested. Help me, I've changed my mind a little bit about you.’ You may be rebuffed. You need to know there is the problem of guilt, that massive mountain of sin in the background of your life: all the thoughts, words and deeds that are wrong, that are against the commandments of God, that are offensive to him. He is matchlessly holy and pure; he cannot overlook those things. God in his nature is holy and just and he must punish sin, and I've got no awareness of this. I've never thought of repenting of my sin, and in fact I'm conceited enough perhaps to think I'm pretty good and better than other people. I won't get a reply from God in that state of mind. In his kindness he will press me away. Do not give up. Keep searching and learn about the amazing grace of Christ and his willingness to receive the worst of sinners who sincerely repents.
In this little parable, you have got the ground of God's response to us. Why will Jesus Christ listen to us if we are not converted? Because he sees that we have great needs, because he sees that we are condemned to death spiritually, because we've sinned against him and therefore we must be punished and we must be banished from his presence eternally and that moves the Saviour with pity. ‘He or she has got to die for their sins; I will have to personally judge him and send him away, therefore if he cries out to me I will help him, I will deliver him, I will forgive him.’ He is moved by our need. He says, ‘I see that person completely conquered by sin. He cannot stop doing it, whatever it is. He is an inveterate liar, an exaggerator, a boaster; he is hopelessly mean, he is hopelessly proud.’ Jesus Christ looks down and he sees us conquered by our various sins, and because of that when we cry out to him he has compassion on us and he is ready to bless us and to save us. He will not bless us because of who we are; he will bless us because we have a desperate need and we're bringing that to him. On that ground he will listen. He sees that we have been lied to by Satan, lied to by the world around us, and we have believed these lies. ‘Have a good time. Do this and life will be just tremendous for you.’ If we are younger he sees the whole of life stretched out in front of us, all the mistakes we can make, all the problems we can fall into and the unhappiness that we can face. If we are older, he sees that life is behind us and we are getting nearer and nearer to judgement. That's what moves him. When we cry out to Jesus Christ he is moved at our plight.
We understand of course that in the parables of Christ not every element of the parable strictly applies. Obviously the parable does not do justice to the reality. The friend who is called upon for help, goes through these stages in his thinking before he reaches the conclusion that he has got to provide some assistance, while the Lord knows exactly what he is going to do, long before we approach him. The friend initially shows a distinct reluctance to help, but that is not intended to suggest that God is in any way disagreeable or reluctant to help, the contrary is true. However we may be tempted to think that way, and we must not let that stop us seeking the Lord. The parable has much to teach us about how to approach God and how to deal with the discouragements we meet with along the way. In our ignorance, we draw conclusions about God that are completely unjustified – ‘God is not going to answer me’, ‘My case is too bad’, ‘I am too much trouble for him to help me, too much of an inconvenience.’ The parable is designed to make us keep asking and not give up. If a genuinely reluctant man can have his reluctance overcome by persistence, then certainly God, who is full of love and mercy, can be prevailed upon to hear us. The real reason for delay is to draw out our earnestness. If salvation is really the most important issue of all, then we go on praying for it, and we dare not give up. The Lord tests our earnestness by giving us obstacles to overcome, even obstacles which seem to exist in his own heart. When we finally receive his answer, we will discover how full of grace he was all the time.
‘Because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.’ The friend will give him as many loaves as he needs, and Jesus Christ will give us everything we need, when we come to him for salvation. Does he give us a quarter of salvation, and say, ‘You will get a little more in a couple of years’? Some religious systems act like that – a little bit of blessing today, a little bit after that, and you are never sure you are really home and dry. No, Christ give complete forgiveness right at the start of the Christian life. If you are going to ask him to forgive you and bless you, you may be sure he has already taken the burden due to you for your sin and suffered in your place on Calvary's cross.