Tell Me a Story

The following meditation was written by Rev. Nathanael Hood, Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Junction City, Kansas.

“He also said to them, ‘Imagine that one of you has a friend and you go to that friend in the middle of the night. Imagine saying, “Friend, loan me three loaves of bread because a friend of mine on a journey has arrived and I have nothing to set before him.” Imagine further that he answers from within the house, “Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.” I assure you, even if he wouldn’t get up and help because of his friendship, he will get up and give his friend whatever he needs because of his friend’s brashness. And I tell you: Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. To everyone who knocks, the door is opened.‘” Luke 11:5-10 (Common English Bible

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Jesus of Nazareth was one of the greatest storytellers who ever lived. How many other storytellers from antiquity remain so ubiquitous thousands of years later? I don’t just mean writers, philosophers, or even the founders of other religious traditions, I’m talking about storytellers who specialized in telling tales with a definitive beginning, middle, and end. Homer? Perhaps, but some historians question whether he was a real historical person and if his surviving works all flowed from the same pen. Aesop? Certainly many of his fables are favorites among educators of small children—The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Tortoise and the Hare in particular remain perennial classics. (If I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure there are a bunch of Bugs Bunny cartoons based on that last one!) But again, many historians doubt Aesop really existed, as his stories were all handed down and collected by other writers.

Indeed, from this ancient dawn of recorded history, few storytellers that we know historically existed reign as supreme as Jesus. As with Homer and his epic poems and Aesop with his fables, Jesus specialized in a very specific kind of storytelling—the parable. Inspired by the writings of Israel’s prophets and rabbis, they are short stories that illustrate moral truths. And while Homer’s epics have gods and goddesses, witches and monsters and Aesop’s fables animals that act and talk like people, parables focus on ordinary everyday people doing everyday ordinary things with everyday ordinary objects. They are stories of shepherds tending sheep, workers tending vineyards, bakers making bread. They center on things like lost coins, wineskins, and lamps. And, importantly, their endings leave their meanings ambiguous. Many of Jesus’ parables have become so famous that even two thousand years later their characters have become archetypes in themselves: the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Wise and Foolish Builders.

One of these parables, the Parable of the Friend at Night, is perhaps a bit lesser known than Jesus’ more famous stories, but it’s nonetheless one of our savior’s most significant for the simple reason that it is one of the only ones he told about one of his favorite topics: prayer. It starts simply enough: in the middle of the night one friend goes to the house of another friend and tells them that a hungry third friend on a journey has arrived at their house. The rules of ancient Middle Eastern hospitality required that the first friend would feed the third, but not having any bread they go to the second and ask for some. The second friend, however, presumably tired and annoyed at having been awoken, refuses. But the first friend doesn’t take no for an answer. They continue to make a scene in their doorway until the third friend relents, not because of their mutual friendship, but because they’re ashamed of the first friend’s shameless behavior.

Many commentators have mistaken their interpretation of this parable by assuming that the shameless first friend represents someone praying, their constant late-night begging prayer, and the curmudgeonly third friend God. But this depicts a capricious God that must be badgered, cajoled, and harassed before they respond. This is far from the truth! As that great writer Thomas G. Long once explained, if a shameless, annoying person might manage to humiliate another to fulfill their needs through begging, how much more will our benevolent God give to those who simply ask for things in sincere prayer? Of course, we know that oftentimes God answers our prayers with a “no,” and often for reasons we cannot understand. But what matters in this parable is that ours is not a God who must be forced, ours is a God who delights in helping those who ask for help and guidance. Ask, Jesus assures us, and you will receive. Seek, he tells us, and you will find. Knock, he explains, and the door will be opened to you.

Joy,