The Portrait of a Tenacious Persistence  

Stephen UmMay 19, 2010 

Luke 11:1-13

Our text highlights the persistence and impudence of an individual who is in need, but there is the danger of approaching the topic of persistence as a merit that is self-created rather than as a means in drawing closer to God. Luke 11 shows that persistence is rooted in two examples of a friend and an earthly father, and this is the comparison that Jesus is trying to make as he is instructing his disciples how to pray. Jesus illustrates the parallel relationships of an earthly friend (vv. 5-8) with a heavenly friend along with a picture of an earthly father with that of a heavenly father (vv. 11-13).

Three questions can be asked of the text: What is tenacious persistence? Why are we not tenaciously persistent, bold, and shameless? And how do we get this tenacious persistence, boldness, and impudence?

What is persistence? The Portrait of a Tenacious Persistence.

When Christianity teaches about persistence, it does say that it ought not to be like babbling, a repetitive mantra, or begging. In other words, approaching somebody and repeating something over and over again is merely being repetitive and not prayerful (cf. Mt. 6:5-8, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him”). Could you imagine a marital relationship where a husband repetitively says to his wife, “How was your day? How was your day? How was your day?” And she responds by saying; “It was good, it was good, it was good.” If you were to see the couple interacting that way you would say; “That’s a strange relationship, more than that, that they’re strange people.” It is because this does not describe a real relationship.

So when we engage in repetitive mantras, when we engage in standing before something and bobbing back and forth, or when we pray with rosaries and beads, this is not a biblical description of persistence but rather a form of babbling. If we were to put it within our own tradition, culture or fixed liturgy, then the Christian can also be guilty of saying the Lord’s Prayer over and over again repetitively, but not necessarily praying the Lord’s prayer. That is not the biblical persistence that Jesus is teaching us.

So the portrait of persistence should be understood within the context of a personal relationship: “When you pray, say, Father,” (v. 2), and “friend, lend me three loaves” (v. 5). Jesus provides the picture of a petitioner who has the nerve to ask his friend for bread at midnight (vv. 6-7, “which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed”). The Greek word anaideia (v. 8) is a term that is hard to translate into English but it is probably combining the ideas of a shameless impudence and a persistent boldness. “Thus, the stress is not on persistence or repetition of the request, as much as it is on the boldness or nerve of the request” (Bock, p. 1059). So the emphasis is on a tenacious, shameless confidence as opposed to a persistent repetition. Morris states that “the man is persistent…and he will not go away, nor will he let his friend go back to sleep. And where friendship cannot prevail, his importunity (lit. ‘shamelessness’) wins the day” (213). Jesus in making his point is saying, if a reluctant friend will respond to your request out of his concern for his reputation, “how much more will your heavenly father who loves you?” (v. 13). Therefore, Christians should boldly go before God with their needs for God is far more willing and gracious than a neighbor or friend. “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (vv. 9-10).

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