The Friend at Midnight
Luke 11.5-13: 5 Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
7 “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s persistence he will get up and give him as much as he need.
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The Lord’s Prayer is followed in Luke by two parables that we should interpret in the same messianic perspective: “Your kingdom come.”
Usually, these two parables are seen as a teaching about the certainty with which God will answer persistent prayer, an exhortation to put all our needs before God. The lesson that is sometimes drawn from them could almost be expressed like this: If we keep hounding God, he will finally give in and grant us what we are asking for.
As a matter of fact, the emphasis put on the verbs “ask” and “give” in this text do not necessarily mean that Jesus is talking about prayer, at least not about prayer in general. More is expected here than just an answer that is certain; what is expected is a certain answer, a specific answer to the request: the gift of the Spirit (Luke 11.13).
The parallel passage in Matthew words the conclusion in somewhat different terms: Matthew 7.11: 11 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to hose who ask him!” The “good gifts” that the heavenly Father will give to Jesus’ listeners are not so much the “ordinary” blessings of our material existence (health, food, houses, clothes) as the messianic blessings that the reign of God will bring to the chosen people: forgiveness, peace, life, redemption.
Here is the certainty that Jesus wants to give to his listeners who belong to the last Old Testament generation: not that God will answer without fail all of the prayers of all men (on the condition that they persist long enough), but that God will bestow generously and freely the gifts of the messianic age to every Jew who turns to him.
In Luke 11.13, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit represents and sums up all of the messianic blessings. In fact, the giving of the Spirit is the grace par excellence of the new age (John 7.37-39; Acts 2.38). The image of the bread given in abundance (“give him as much as he needs”) reminds us of the bread created overabundantly for the feeding of the 5000 (Luke 9.17) and evokes full participation in the rich blessings of the messianic feast.
In the two following chapters of Luke, Jesus will use three pairs of verbs (ask/receive, seek/find, knock/open), not to encourage his readers to pray but to exhort them to do all they can to enter into the coming kingdom. “Seek” first the kingdom of God rather than getting caught up in the worries of life (Luke 12.31). The kingdom will be “given” as a promise to a little flock, a small minority of the people of Israel (Luke 12.32). The Jews must make every effort to “enter” through the narrow door which gives entrance to the great feast of the kingdom, for only a small number of Israelites will make it through the door in time (Luke 12.22-30). The others will “knock”, but it will be too late. They will find themselves excluded from the feast and deprived of the promises that God had made to them through their ancestors.
The minds of the disciples should remain centered on the reign, which God has promised them and which is near but which they have not yet received. Indeed, there is one great obstacle they have to overcome to make it in: the scandal of the cross. Their prayer consists basically in asking to enter the kingdom.
What then is the practical lesson that the disciples should draw from the parable of the persistent midnight friend? Now that the reign of the Messiah is at hand, they should not be afraid to insist with “persistence” (literally, “troublesome importunity”; the idea is making a nuisance of oneself) in order to force their way in through the door. Luke 16.16: 16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.”
The Jews must respond to the call of Jesus without fear, without letting themselves be held back by the hostility and opposition of their religious leaders. The friend who dispenses the messianic blessings is God the Father and not the scribes and Pharisees. The Jews should not be afraid to take the kingdom by storm. They need to know how to grab hold of the opportunity that God is offering them.