Jesus gives further instruction about prayer
18
📚And he spoke a parable to them to showthat men should always pray and not lose heart 📖, 2 📚saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3 📚And there was a widow in that city, and she came to him, saying, ‘Get me justice against my enemy.’ 4 📚And he would not for a while. But afterwards he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God, or respect man, 5 📚yet because this widow is troubling me, I will get her justice, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.’ ”6 📚And the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 📚And will not God obtain justice for his chosen ones, who cry out day and night to him, also bearing patiently with them?
18:7 The Lord Jesus is not at all saying that God is like this unjust judge. His meaning is that if even an unjust judge will give in to repeated requests for justice, how much more will the just and righteous Judge of the world bring about justice for His people who pray persistently, continually (and remember that this just Judge is also a loving and compassionate Father). Of course this does not mean that His people can demand anything they want, whether good for them or not, and get it if they keep on asking. But if they ask for good and right and just things, or anything according to His will they will get it. Compare 1 John 5:14-15.⚜
8 📚I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of man 📖 comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
The illustration of the Pharisee and the tax collector
9 📚And he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
18:9 See Luke 16:15; 7:39; 5:30; Prov 30:12-13; Isa 65:5; Jer 2:35. Such people both then and now remain ignorant of the truth of Isa 64:6; Jer 17:9. This ignorance is revealed in the Pharisee’s prayer in vs 10-12. The enlightenment men need is to see themselves as they really are and God as He really is – holy and infinitely above all men.⚜
10 📚“Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector. 📖 11 📚The Pharisee stood and prayed with himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men: robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 📚I fast 📖 twice a week. I give tithes 📖 of all I get.’
13 📚“And the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’
18:13 Here is a brief prayer indeed, but it went from the heart of this sinner to the heart of God. It reveals the kind of knowledge people need – to know their sin and to know that God is merciful. Let us learn that a feeling of our sinfulness and unworthiness does not disqualify us in prayer. In fact, just the opposite. It shows the work of the Holy Spirit in us and is pleasing to God. See Ps 51:17; Isa 6:5; 57:15; 66:2; Matt 5:3; 6:12. On God’s mercy see Ps 51:1; Eph 2:4; Titus 3:5; 1 Pet 1:3.⚜
14 📚“I tell you, this man went down to his house justified 📖 instead of the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”.
18:14 This means that God counted the tax collector righteous and the Pharisee a sinner, though the Pharisee thought he was righteous and the tax collector knew he was a sinner.⚜
Jesus welcomes little children
15 📚And they also brought infants to him so that he would touch them, but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 📚But Jesus called them near and said, “Let little children come to me and do not forbid them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 📚Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter it at all”.
Jesus and the rich young ruler
18 📚And a certain ruler asked him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 📚And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? God alone is good, no one else. 20 📚You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honour your father and your mother”.
21 📚And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth”.
22 📚Now when Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”.
23 📚And when he heard this, he became very sad, for he was very rich.
24 📚And when Jesus saw that he had become very sad, he said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25 📚For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”.
26 📚And those who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”
27 📚And he said, “Things that are impossible with men are possible with God”.
28 📚Then Peter said, “See, we have left everything and followed you”.
29 📚And he said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 📚who will not receive many times as much in this present time, and in the world to come, everlasting life”.
Jesus speaks of His coming death and resurrection
31 📚Then he brought the twelve near and said to them, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man will be fulfilled.
32 📚For he will be handed over to the Gentiles, 📖 and will be mocked, insulted, and spit on. 33 📚And they will beat him with a whip and put him to death; and on the third day he will rise again”.
34 📚And they understood none of these things, and this statement was hidden from them, and they did not know what was being said.
Jesus heals a blind man in Jericho
35 📚And this happened when he had come near to Jericho: a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging.
18:35 Matthew and Mark say this happened while Jesus was leaving Jericho. Is there then a contradiction in this? No. The old city of Jericho was there though few people lived in it. Just south of it a new city of Jericho had been built. Matthew and Mark speak of Jesus leaving the old city of Jericho, Luke speaks of Him approaching the new one. See note at Mark 4:1.⚜
36 📚And when he heard the crowd passing by, he asked what it meant. 37 📚And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38 📚And he cried out, saying, “Jesus, son of David 📖, have mercy on me”.
39 📚And those who were going in the front rebuked him, telling him to keep quiet. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me”.
40 📚And Jesus stood still and ordered him to be brought to him; and when he had come near, he asked him, 41 📚saying, “What do you want me to do for you?” And he said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight”.
42 📚And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you”.
43 📚And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God. And when all the people saw this, they gave praise to God.