Persistence pays: I can see clearly now

The Lesson: God bears long, so must we

According to Luke, Jesus understood people reach a point where they give up on God and then give up praying. Jesus responded with a parable (Luke 18:1-8).

The story is about a widow whose rights had been wronged and she wanted justice. The judge heard her case but didn’t rule. She appeared again—silence again. The woman persisted until the judge began to grow weary and relented. “I will avenge her,” he promised.

Jesus closed with a question. If the woman’s persistence moved this judge, “shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?”

Unlike many other parables Jesus told, we don’t need to wonder about the meaning of this one. Luke tells us right up front: Pray, and don’t lose heart. An unjust judge yields to persistence; how much more the Judge of all the earth.

Jesus doesn’t just preach, He also practices, and two occasions come soon after.

Setting 1: The man by the road

Jesus and His followers were approaching the city of Jericho when a voice cut through the chatter of the crowd (Luke 18:35-43).

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” a man shouted.

Those on the front fringe shushed him, but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

To cry out was all Bartimaeus could do, apart from begging, because he was blind. The beggar kept calling and Jesus called back, “Bring him here.”

Setting 2: The man up a tree

The lesson takes to the streets again to a setting so well-known that a children’s song has been written about Zacchaeus, “a wee little man” (Luke 19:1-10). Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, despised by his fellow Jews as a money-grabber for Rome and resented for his wealth. But this wasn’t the main obstacle for Zacchaeus, who wanted to get a look at Jesus. He was short and the crowd around Jesus was big. He couldn’t see.

Spotting a tree on the path where Jesus was going, Zacchaeus dashed ahead, climbed up, and waited.

The tax collector got more than the glimpse he hoped for. Jesus stopped, looked up, and called, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

The reward of persistence

Looking at these street scenes, coming as they do so soon after Jesus’ teaching about persistence, I see these points of interest.

• Two men have a problem in common: one wants to see, the other wants to see Jesus but they can’t because of physical limitations. One is blind, the other short.
• Other people—the crowd—come between them and Jesus.
• They persist and Jesus grants what each desired: To see.

From these points of interest, I learn a few lessons.

We do not see well, or at all, because of personal limitations. Bartimaeus was blind and Zacchaeus was short. I’m neither short nor blind, but I’ve learned in nearly seven decades of living that I am often nearsighted, shortsighted, or have a blind spot altogether in my relationships and circumstances. I know firsthand what the Bible says is true, “hearing you shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive” (Matthew 13:14). The passage goes on to explain why: my heart becomes calloused, my ears wax dull, and I shut my eyes.

I am no different than Zacchaeus or Bartimaeus; I want to see but, for my own reasons, I can’t.

Other people—even followers of Jesus—get between me and Jesus. Those following Jesus were aware of Bartimaeus and tried to silence him. The crowd was oblivious to Zacchaeus—they had Jesus for themselves.

Have you felt pushed aside, overlooked, or ignored? Even by, or maybe especially by, Christians? The resentment, the hurt, the shock are enough to make you want to walk away. This especially stings when I am the one in the way and the rebuke smarts, “And you call yourself a Christian!“

Jesus responds to persistence. The beggar did not keep quiet nor did the tax collector slink away. Both persisted and Jesus paid attention. This, says Luke, is what Jesus taught in the parable and what He brought to life in the streets: God rewards and delights in those who persevere.

Many things can get between me and Jesus; some personal, some because of others. But this blind beggar and scoundrel tax collector teach me to push on, to push ahead, to persevere. Jesus knows what’s in my way and He knows I cannot see clearly. But He promises, “I am the Lord who heals. Blessed are your eyes for they see” (Matthew 13:15-16).

Jesus blessed Zacchaeus and Bartimaeus. I can hear them singing the lyrics of Amazing Grace,

I once was blind,

But now I see.

My friend, press on. God responds to persistence.