Luke 11:5-8 And he said to them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves;… Because the word "importunity" occurs here, the parable is sometimes read as enforcing persevering prayer. Its lesson, however, seems not so much to be perseverance as intercession. So the subject is, God giving His people bread for others in answer to prayer. I. Here, first of all, we have, GOD'S FRIEND CALLED TO GIVE BREAD TO THE HUNGRY. Indeed it is more than the hungry. The traveller in the parable has lost his way ("out of the way," it is in the margin). That represents the call which, except he be sunk in deep spiritual indifference, the Christian hears, More urgent than any plea for the bread that perisheth is that for the bread that endureth unto everlasting life. Whilst he rests in the mercies which the gospel brings, outside are some who in darkness and sadness have lost their way, and pine for bread in the strength of which they shall press on to the light and home. The man of God hears their knock at his door, and their cry beneath his window, and in these a summons from a higher source to rise and give. 2. We hear it in the Divine pity wrought within us. For the desire to save a soul from death is "from above"; it is the spirit that led the Son of God to become incarnate and die. If He has made us pity the hungry wanderers in the dark, that pity is a Divine summons (it were criminal to refuse) to give. 3. And we hear it in the Divine direction of the hungry soul to us. For how often we can say "A friend of mine, out of the way, is come to me!" God makes some our special care: the children He has given us, the ungodly, the unconcerned, and the uncared-for. And they do ask; their look asks if not their speech. But why do they come to us? For the reason that Cornelius in his need sent to Simon in Joppa — because heaven told them to God who creates the hunger, does not leave them to satisfy it as they can, but tells them where to go for bread, and points to us, and that is why they come. 4. And we hear this summons in the method of the Divine working. Be sure it is of no use simply praying for our neighbours, nor for our friends and children; God is ready to answer prayer, but it is His plan to answer it through us; "Give ye them to eat," He says. If we lie self-indulgent in our spiritual repose, afraid to rise because of the cold and the tiredness, and only idly pray for the perishing without, the prayer will be of no use. God's very method is the solemn call to us to rise and give. II. But we have here next, GOD'S FRIEND WITH NO POWER TO FULFIL THIS CALL. We hear the call and desire to obey it, we rise and look into our storeroom, but — there is nothing! "A friend of mine in his journey is come to me," we say, and alas, "I have nothing to set before him." Now that tends to the idea that God does not mean the supply to come through us; He cannot, we think, expect us, who manifestly have nothing, to dispense something; it must be a mistake for the hungry to come to our door; at least, as we have no bread we may as well lie still, and leave others to do what we cannot. That reasoning makes idle, miserable Christians. Whilst their brethren work their life away in feeding the perishing, many Christians are useless, not always because they have no heart, but because they persuade themselves that they have no gift, and therefore no responsibility. Friends, have we not learnt that our responsibility is not measured by what we have, but by what we can get! We are sure to come to that if we try to obey God's call, for this conscious impotence is Divine preparation for the work. It is God preparing him who has nothing to receive something. One of the best signs when we know we are called to Christian service is the conviction of personal inability. But then we have here, GOD'S FRIEND TURNING TO GOD IN HIS HELPLESSNESS. From the thought that he has no bread he turns to remember a friend who has bread, and he goes to him: "Friend, a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him, lend me three loaves." Let this be the first thought of the helpless helper of others: God can give me what I need the right truth, the right words, the right manner, and (far more than these) through them, unseen by me, He can impart Christ. God can do this. But the next thought is, God will; with confidence we can turn to Him for "loaves" when we call Him, as in the parable, "Friend." And we prove that He and we are friends when, self-forgetting, we make another's wants our own. Never can we be more sure that God will show Himself our friend than when we are anxious about the necessities of our fellows, for He can look on nothing with greater friendliness. To plead for others is to please Him more than to plead for self. Oh, we cannot doubt, when we think thus, that God, who can give the bread we need for the traveller, will. Then the needy worker goes and asks Him. III. For we have here, GOD'S FRIEND SUPPLIED WITH WHATEVER HE WANTS. 1. This, then, is a call to prayer. God awakes to give when we awake to ask. 2. And our prayer is answered as we obey. 3. Then see what the praying friend of God may do! The limit to God's giving is "as many as He needeth." (C. New.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; |
    |