I propose that Jesus presents the clash between what we expect from prayer and what we experience in prayer, but does not reconcile the two. If Jesus was reconciling this clash, he would tell stories like the iconic “Footprints in the Sand” (that the url for this is onlythebible.com strikes me as ironic). Instead he tells stories like the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11) and the Widow and the Unjust Judge (Luke 18).

These two stories address the prospect of unanswered prayer and in both cases the request is initially not granted by the person because they do not care at all about who is asking or their need. So these stories acknowledge how we experience unanswered prayer, including the feeling that God does not care. Yet they offer no explanation or reconciliation for the clash of a caring and powerful God who does not grant our request. Jesus cannot be teaching that God does not care about us or our request but will respond to us if we badger Him. Therefore the stories of the neighbor and and unjust judge do not provide an explanation as to why God is not answering us.

With the Friend at Midnight, there are some cultural considerations about hospitality that add nuance to this story (if interested, here is a link to a 20 minute segment on this passage from a sermon of mine). The importance of hospitality and the communal aspect of the culture would make this scenario of initial refusal inconceivable to Jesus’ listeners. There is no way that anyone would refuse such a request. Why does Jesus ask his listeners to imagine an inconceivable scenario?

When you hear the word inconceivable, does Princess Bride come to mind :)? I looked up a definition and found….”impossible to comprehend….not capable of being imagined or grasped mentally.” What if Jesus is saying that this is what unanswered prayer and suffering is like? It is impossible for us to comprehend and is not capable of being imagined or grasped. When we do try to comprehend it, when we try to imagine what God is up to, we run the risk of saying things that can be horribly insensitive and inappropriate.

The article “Hearing God in times of Crisis” by M.Blaine Smith came across my desk this week through the CS Lewis Institute. Smith wrestles with the role that crisis and tragedy play in shaping our lives. I took note of this section, “I’m not suggesting that God caused the tragedies in order to bring us certain benefits or to teach us certain lessons. None of us has the slightest idea what was in his mind in these events, and we are on horribly inappropriate ground to speculate.” And yet we do speculate, we do try to imagine or perceive of some way to reconcile the circumstances with a caring and powerful God. Is Jesus teaching that these are inconceivable situations for us so we should not attempt to reconcile them in our minds or with our imaginations?

So what are we to do with these situations then, especially when we feel like we need some sort of reconciliation, some sort of explanation in order to not give up? I will look at that next time.

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.