Then, teaching them more about prayer, He used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, [if you keep knocking long enough], he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless [persistence]. [NLT]Luke 11:5-8
I am convinced we have been looking at the wrong man! Following on from yesterday, I think our focus ought to be on the fellow in bed, not the man at the door. In fact I had a very exciting night last night when I woke in the wee small hours of the morning thinking about this passage. Its like the Lord took me back to a story I have told you before (Gem 323). A story reminding me to look at things from a different perspective.
One day while living in Matamata, New Zealand before we became involved with Wycliffe I had been thinking about the things of God. I had been musing on worship and people being eternal. I took Tania to the hairdressers and while I waited for her, was sitting in the car which was angled-parked to the curb. I had a cassette playing worship music at the same I was reading my Bible and praying. I started looking at people passing on the street, some I knew; some I didn’t. Suddenly I noticed the car beside me was reversing out of the car park WITHOUT A DRIVER. I was amazed and totally focused on this car backing out without a driver. Then my car hit the curb. I had not put the handbrake on and the car had been in equilibrium until my moving around caused it to roll forward. While my senses told me the car beside me was backing out, in fact it was my car moving forward.
God took that moment to download to my spirit in an instant gigabytes of thought. He seemed to say to me just like with the car, you have to see from a new perspective. My perspective! (God’s). In a instant I was aware of His perspective related to worship and the souls of people and what God wants of us. What His plan in this world is all about. All that dropped into my spirit in a nanosecond.
Last night I got very excited about all this because this passage became even clearer than ever it has been before. At the same time, in thinking about hospitality, friends and family, it is like God gave me a new perspective on this passage. Last night God seemed to give me a much wider perspective on this passage which I will unfold for you in the days ahead. What if the point here has been masked by assumptions we have made. For so long the teaching on this passage has been about persistence in prayer. The passage is structured to show it is about that.
Compare translations between the LITV (below) and the NLT (above):
And He said to them, Who of you shall have a friend, and will come to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine arrived to me from a journey, and I do not have what I may set before him. And answering from within that one may say, Do not cause me troubles. The door has already been shut, and my children are in bed with me. I cannot rise up to give to you.
I say to you, Even if rising up he will not give to him because he is a friend, yet because of his shamelessness, rising up he will give him as many as he needs. And I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone asking receives, and the one seeking finds, and to the one knocking, it will be opened. [LITV]Luke 11:5 -10
Notice the handling of verses 11:9-10 in the NLT. Take note of the sections I have bracketed in following verses in the NLT as well.
“And so I tell you, [keep on asking], and you will receive what you ask for. [Keep on seeking], and you will find. [Keep on knocking], and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Luke 11:9-10
This translation and many others have picked up on the idea that this passage is about persistence, so persistence is emphasized in the translation through the bracketed parts – the additions. But we have made this passage about persistence in prayer and so the translation is bent to fit the sense of persistence –ask and keep on asking. But what if the passage is not about that at all? What if we have been looking at the wrong man. It is not about the man at the door. It is about the man in bed. Remember from yesterday Jesus uses the word “suppose”, “what if one of you”, “which of you would do such a thing as to . . .” ?
It is impossible for this to happen in a culture which is focus on hospitality and is also a shame culture. There is no way such a thing would happen. Oh it might happen in the aloof West. Where people travel to work everyday beside “the same stranger” on the bus and never say a word. Where people can treat their “neighbour” as a stranger and never blink an eye. Where people are so focused on individuality and live private lives which compartmentalises much of what they do. Where often a group of people can stand and watch an atrocity perpetrated on someone else and not lift a finger to help. That would never happen in Indonesian villages let me tell you. It only happens when things get too big and out of control that we become separated from our roots. Our roots of caring and compassion for the feelings of others. Even more so if this person is a FRIEND, as the text tells us ! Oh the shame to treat a fellow villager like that. How much more so if he were our friend?
I thought of my best buddy in all the world (not including Tania who is my wife buddy – she would be with me in bed) Mike Clancey or other people special to me – I won’t list you but you know who you are. How could I treat you like that? It is impossible. It wouldn’t matter what time of day or night it was, if Mike came to me with a need I would gladly get up to answer the door and take whatever time was needed to help with Mike’s problem. Isn’t that what is being said here?
Let’s take the additional translation “helps” away from this sentence and see how it reads.
But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, he will get up and give whatever he needs because of his shamelessness. [aneideian] “so as to be without shame1“,
1 – This is what the text actually says. He would get up and give him what he needs in order to be without shame. How? The guy inside. In an attempt to “explain” it, it has been interpreted to mean “persistence in prayer”. I don’t think Jesus is referring to persistence in prayer at all. I think He is using shock tactics with his audience. You wouldn’t treat a friend this way, would you? Well if the impossible did happen and you wanted to refuse him, you would likely to help him anyway to prevent your own sense of shame in having treated a fellow villager and a friend in that way. It is the desire of the guy inside the house who doesn’t want to be ashamed.
Now apply this principle to God the Father. How much more will He be ready to receive you if you come to Him with your requests? As a friend and as family!
Oh yes there is more to come. Take time to investigate how this passage connects to what follows. Don’t forget Luke is arranging his material with a purpose. But in this case I don’t think it is Luke’s arrangement at all. I think Jesus is making His point in a very dramatic way. Suppose, shock horror, this was to happen . . . Well even if it could happen in the midst of your cultural values of hospitality and your sense of shame to bring you into line if it did happen, consider this in the context of God’s willingness to answer your prayers.
We have just been given the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for asking. Now we are challenged about how we would treat a fellow villager and a friend. If the fact that he is friend isn’t enough to move you, then the sense of shame in not doing anything to help your friend will. Well think how God must be willing to get up out of bed at midnight (ha ha – God doesn’t have a bed) to help a friend. [as Israel Houghton sings “I am a Friend of God – – – God calls me FRIEND.”) How much more must He be willing to help you. I call Mike Clancey my midnight friend.
Ahh but there is more. Look at how it connects to what follows.
A friend is someone who reaches for your hand, but touches your heart.
Anon
Whenever your friend needs you, be there at whatever time of the day or night ! Is midnight really a problem? Of course not, not for a friend.
Ian Vail
Never spend more time on a critic than you would a friend.
Anon
It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.
Marlene Dietrich
In Jesus, you have a friend in high places to whom midnight is no problem at all. He never sleeps.
Ian Vail