Jenelle Smith

This parable assumes that hearers understand how much more closely knit was the community in which the people in this story lived together than the average North American family. A community that seems to be very close to such a community is that of the college dorm.

Listen to this parable: Suppose one of you Sophomore girls living in Culver Hall on the campus of Northwest Nazarene University have some late-night visitors. You live together on a hall with ten wonderful girls. You have become so close that you love hanging out with your hall-mates whenever possible. You often stay up late talking, and even more often stay up late talking. You share clothes, hairdos, makeup, boys, and food.

Once in the middle of the night some friends from home call; they have just driven into town and want to see you. When you hang up the phone, you realize they will be hungry and you have nothing but candy to feed them. So you decide you should wake up the girl down the hall, even though it’s the middle of the night and she is sound asleep. You know she has lots of Top Ramen, the bread of college life, because she recently made a trip to Costco to stock up on all the important items.

So you run down the hall to her room and say to her, “Friend, lend me packages of Top Ramen, for some friends of mine have arrived, and I have nothing to set before them.”

Can you actually imagine your friend answering from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my roommate and I are in bed, I cannot get up and give you anything.” Of course, your friend will get up and give you three packages of Top Ramen. She would even get up and give it to you if she did not want to, because you would keep knocking, and even then she would get up and give it to you, because the whole wing would know about it in the morning, if she had told you no. She would never dream of making you a bad hostess to your friends, because you are such close friends. Even if it were the last three packages of Top Ramen, she would give it to you, so you could be a good hostess.

Setting

Let us talk about bread. Bread was the "all-important commodity of the ancient Near East" (Martin 145). The grain of wheat was used as the basic unit of weights, and cereal even took the place of money. Bread was rarely sold because each housewife made her own. Bread was so important that it became the byword for food as in the Lord's Prayer "Give us each day our daily bread" (Luke 11:3). Also the 'breaking of bread' was just another way to say "the eating of a meal." The "Bread of the Presence" was even bread that had a place of importance in the sanctuary. Other places in the New Testament, Jesus evidences the importance of bread in Palestinian life by saying He was the "Bread of Life" (John 6:35). Jesus even chose bread as the symbol for us to remember His broken body (Martin 145-146). We see that Bread was an important element for everybody in the daily life of Palestine.

"The reason for the petitioner's request is hospitality. It is unthinkable not to receive a traveling friend into one's home, even in the middle of the night. Hospitality was considered a sacred duty throughout the Mediterranean world of antiquity, even when the visitor was a stranger. In this particular case, hospitality is required on two grounds: the visitor is not only a stranger but a friend as well" (Hultgren 229).

Exegetical Analysis

There is confusion on the Greek word anaideia. This word can be translated in many different ways including shamelessness, troublesome persistence, impudence, audacity, or obtrusiveness. The translators are not sure if this word describes the man who is knocking or the man in the house. It seems that it would describe the man who shamelessly asks during the middle of the night for a mere three loaves of bread.

Once we realize the importance of hospitality in this Mediterranean community, and we realize that bread was not always saved through the night, we can understand that this would be the logical thing to do. The man would ask his neighbor for bread and feel no guilt or shame for inconveniencing his neighbor.

Some scholars think that anaideia describes the man in the house. Even if he will not get the requested bread out of friendship, he will do so to avoid being shamed before his other neighbors. Although the man who comes calling is quite polite -- he does not even bang on the door, anybody who calls in the middle of the night would be troublesome. The man in the house would not want to ignore the knocking neighbor and thus bring shame upon him and his family. The whole community would soon know that he was inconsiderate and did not help his needy neighbor. “The latter must finally accept the bothersome inevitability of what must be done. He will get up and serve the visitor at the door not on the basis of their friendship, but because he is obliged to do so even in an annoying situation" (Hultgren 232).

"The parable is set within a series of sayings on prayer. Following the Lord's Prayer, it sets for the message that one ought to call upon God persistently in prayer, even thought that might seem impertinent, for God will indeed respond. The seemingly troublesome person gets the attention and response of God. Following the parable, the thought is drawn out by additional sayings: 'Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you' (11:9). The parable, in short, exhorts the hearer and reader to pray. In this regard the parable is much like that of the widow before the Unjust Judge (18:2-8) in both content and function" (Hultgren 232).

Message/Statement of Teaching

We must be careful when trying to understand this parable. It is easy to assume the parable is over in verse eight, but we must read through verse thirteen to find the conclusion. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Yes, this parable reminds us that we should “approach God in prayer without reservations" (Hultgren 233), but if this is all we learn, we are missing the point. The parable asks, “Can you imagine a friend who refuses to assist you in your undertaking to provide hospitality at the arrival of an unexpected friend?” (Green 447). It is preposterous that anybody would refuse to help in this situation. “If the friend, roused from his sleep in the middle of the night, without a moment’s delay hastens to fulfil the request of a neighbour in distress, even though the whole family must be disturbed. . . how much more will God! He is a God who hearkens to the cry of the needy and comes to their help. He does more than they ask. Hence you may in all confidence leave everything to him” (Jeremias 159).

Application

We must learn from this parable and first realize “how much more will God!” We must realize how much more gracious, loving, and forgiving God is. We must realize how much more God will answer our prayers, how much more he will give us His Holy Spirit. When we finally realize how much more God will do, we then need to live it out. When we see a man sitting by the rescue mission drinking out of a paper bag, we must try to help him and tell him how much more God loves him. When we see a teenager acting out, we must love them and show them how much more amazing is God’s love. We must learn to live this amazing revelation out, how much more will God!

Bibliography

Fitzmyer, Joseph A. The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV. The Anchor Bible. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc, 1983.

Green, Joel B. The Gospel of Luke. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997.

Hultgren, Arland J. The Parables of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000.

Martin, W. J. "Bread." New Bible Dictionary. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1996.

Nolland, John. "Luke 9:21-18:34" Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas, TX: Word Books, Publisher, 1993.

The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

[1]The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Duh!