Luke 18:7
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Good evening, church. Well, if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn to Luke chapter 18, and we'll be looking at verse 7. How far would you go to receive justice? This past week in the UK, a man by the name of Andrew Malkinson was released from prison after serving 17 years. He was released not because he had completed his sentence, but because he was finally exonerated.
Andrew was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. And after 17 long years, the truth finally came to light. And you know what's amazing about Andrew's story is that after just 7 of those 17 years, Andrew had the opportunity to go free. The reason why he didn't was because he insisted that he was innocent.
And so for the next 10 years, from the confines of his prison cell, Andrew fought a legal battle, not knowing whether he would win, which finally resulted in his release. 17 years. What was it that drove him to stay and fight? I think the answer is simple. The pursuit of justice.
Justice is a powerful motivator, isn't it? Perhaps you know that in your own life. Perhaps there have been injustices committed against you. And you feel it ache in your bones. Perhaps it's not so much you, but somebody close to you, somebody that you know and love. Something has happened to them and justice has not been upheld. And it hurts just to think about it. Maybe there's not really been anything big like that in your life.
And yet, you know your own propensity to spring up into action, even at the slightest of insults. we all want justice. Well, in the verse we're looking at this evening, Jesus has something to say to us about justice. Here's the main idea of our verse. Come to God for justice, and he will give it.
Our sermon this evening will really just have two points which will nicely follow that main idea. Firstly, come to God for justice, and secondly, he will give it. So, let's dive in. Come to God for justice. The verse we're looking at this evening is Jesus' concluding remark at the end of the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. It's a fairly straightforward parable. It has two characters, a widow who has been wronged and a judge who neither fears God nor respects men.
Well, the widow brings her complaint to the judge, but for the sake of ease, he swiftly dismisses her. Well, this happens a second time and a third time, and on it goes until eventually the judge is worn thin by her incessant coming. And so he concludes it would be easier to simply grant her justice than to continue at this rate. And so, he does. Here's the point.
If even an unjust judge is willing to grant justice, how much more are God, who is perfectly just? It's a straightforward parable with a straightforward meaning. And it has a straightforward application because Luke, in the first verse of this chapter, actually tells us how we should apply this parable. Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable to the effect that we ought always to pray and not lose heart.
A couple of observations for us. First, did you notice that this woman, as crazy as she might seem in our imagination, is actually upheld as an example of how to pray well. You see, just as this lady came again and again and again to the unjust judge, so Jesus is teaching us to come again and again and again to his throne of grace. Now, in my imagination, I have a picture of this lady that's pretty extreme, and perhaps you know somebody like this too, but here's a lady who is determined for justice.
She's there in the morning. She's there in the afternoon. She's there in the evening. She's waiting for him outside of work, and as soon as he comes out of his fancy office, she's haranguing him on the way to the car. She turns up at the drive-thru when he's picking up his morning coffee at Starbucks. She's there at the kids' sports game in the stands, and she's coming up to him asking for justice. She follows them down to the lake house for the summer vacation. She's everywhere. And you know, in the world's eyes, she's crazy. She's a maniac.
Give it up, lady. You'll never win. And yet she does. You know, in the world's eyes, Christians who rely on God for justice look crazy. And yet we know that in the end, he wins. Do you notice how Jesus describes the elect in verse 7?
He says that they are those who cry to God day and night. Now, perhaps at first reading, you would think that that word cry means sort of boo-hoo, tears in the eyes, kind of crying. But actually, that word, every other place it's used, really refers to the raising of one's voice. You see, Jesus is depicting a picture of prayer, which is like us bursting into the throne room of heaven and crying out like a town squire, Lord, come quickly, grant justice.
And that is how he wants us to pray. Isn't that amazing? God invites us to come, to come to him with our burdens, to come to him with the aches and pains we have from living in a broken world and cry out to him, bring justice. You know, anyone who's suffered greatly knows that there is a dilemma.
On the one hand, if you share your suffering with others, you quickly become a burden to them. And yet, on the other hand, if you withhold from sharing with others, it's a burden to you. And so suffering is often sort of compounded, isn't it? Because first there's the initial suffering which you face, and then there's a kind of loneliness and estrangement which comes in the wake of that suffering. I know it can be tempting to think of God in that same category.
He will be worn out by my coming. And yet, this parable functions not just as a comparison, both judges give justice, but also a contrast. Unlike the unjust judge who is bothered by this lady's coming, God invites us to come with our burdens. He invites us to come and lay them at his throne of grace.
But friend, God does not tire of your prayers. Second observation, Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable not only so that we would pray continually, but also so that we would not lose heart. Isn't that wonderful? You see, Jesus understands that we're weak. He understands that we have doubts. He understands that we have questions.
He understands that we struggle to pray. And yet he tells this so that we might not lose heart. You know, when it comes to justice, Jesus understands that we are prone to look around and conclude that because the current circumstances are bad, somehow it will just always be like that. And yet what is wonderful about this parable is that not only does God invite us to pray, for justice, but he also guarantees that it will come. Here's our second point. He will bring it. Have a look at verse 7. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night. God will bring justice to his elect. But perhaps as you hear that,
it raises in your mind a question. What do you mean God brings justice to the elect? Does he not bring justice to the unelect? Shouldn't God bring justice to everybody? In fact, wouldn't it itself be unjust to not bring justice to all? Well, to understand the answer to that, we need to understand exactly what Jesus means by justice. In our culture, we speak a lot about justice and injustice, don't we? And we have all kinds of categories for what justice and injustice are.
We talk about social injustice and economic injustice and systemic injustice. We have all kinds of categories of justice and injustice, and perhaps the temptation is to take our categories and lay them onto the biblical text. But when Jesus speaks of justice here, he's speaking about something very specific. You see, the justice Jesus is talking about essentially means righteous punishment. In fact, most of the time that this word is translated, it's really translated as something like avenge or vengeance.
That's the kind of justice that Jesus is talking about. He's talking about sins being punished. In our passage this morning from 2 Thess or something, the word is translated as vengeance. Same word, justice, vengeance. That's what Jesus is talking about. You see, Jesus is taking his listeners and he's pointing their eyes forward to the final day when the Son of Man will come again to judge the living and the dead and every wrong, every crime, every sin will be punished.
You see, here's what Jesus is promising. On that day, your desire for justice will be met. You know, that's not to say that earthly systems of justice are a waste of time. I, for one, uphold the rule of law. And yet, here's the thing, earthly justice is at best only ever partial.
as Christians our final hope for the justice that our hearts burn for must rest on the final day that Jesus points us forward to and so you know here's the question do we rest our confidence in the justice which God will bring or do we usurp his authority and bring things into our own hands easy isn't it when we feel that we've been wrong to seek to avenge ourselves in sort of illegitimate ways to punish that person by the way that we relate to them either through silence or through ways of speaking that we wouldn't normally use.
It's possible, isn't it, to sort of take somebody's sin and wield it like a weapon against them, waving it in front of their face. You did this to me, and it's a punishment. Or perhaps we turn others against them, saying things which are just unhelpful. Friends, Satan loves these games. But we, as God's people, should not be ones who play them.
Romans 12, verse 19 says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. Friends, our final hope for justice is the final day. And the justice which Jesus will bring is more perfect and complete and righteous than anything we can achieve through our words or actions. Maybe that first question I ask still lingers for you.
Well, why is this for the elect? Why is this a different category for them? Don't they deserve punishment just like everybody else? After all, we're all sinners. And actually Luke makes a connection for us in his gospel, which I think answers that question. You see that word here, elect, it just means chosen ones. And it's a word which Luke only uses one other time in his gospel.
It comes at the crucifixion of Jesus. There in Luke chapter 23, verse 35, Jesus was mocked with these words. They said, he saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. That phrase, chosen one, is the same word as the word elect here in our passage.
You see, Luke is presenting Jesus as God's chosen one who suffered injustice at the hand of an unrighteous judge. Jesus was the only truly innocent victim. But as these people mocked Jesus, the irony was thick. Of course, Jesus could have saved himself, but he chose not to, so that he could save others.
And so friends, if your faith is in Christ, then your sin has been paid for and you are united to him in his death and his resurrection. and you will remain united to him on the day when he returns to judge the living and the dead. You see, the justice which Jesus brings for his elect is categorically different from the justice everyone else receives.
If your faith is in Christ, That justice, that righteous punishment has been paid. Hallelujah. And so when Christ returns, you will not stand against him. You will stand with him. Friend, if you're not a Christian here this evening, consider that day and put your faith in Christ. See how your desire for justice is met perfectly in him.