A Christian Facing Death (v 6-8)
Paul is counting on a conviction and is facing martyrdom. It is therefore possible that he does not have long to live. In the face of martyrdom, he does not feel bitterness towards his judges. He knows that he is a offering on God’s altar, and that this offering in some way will benefit the gospel. He is ready to move on. After all, death is not the end, but a gateway to the real life, at home with the Lord Jesus Christ. His life has been full of struggle. He has given everything, like a runner on the last leg. Now he is almost at the finish line. He knows that he owns the only necessary thing. He has kept the faith. Everything that is behind him is covered by forgiveness. Before him is laid up a crown, one that requires a whole-hearted effort as if only one could win it, even though it is for all those who believe in Christ and who longingly run to meet with him.
Paul’s First Defense Before the Court (v 16-18)
We do not know what Paul is referring to when he talks about the first time he was to defend himself before the court. For those who believe that he is now writing from Caesarea it is clear that it has to be a hearing in Jerusalem or Caesarea. Those who prefer to think of Rome as the scene have to choose between the year when the process was finally taken up at the Emperor’s supreme court or the first court hearing in a second captivity. One has to remember that what Paul mentions here should have been news for Timothy. It causes some difficulties for the theory that the letter would be written in Caesarea, because the first hearings should have taken place while Timothy still was with Paul. Those who count on a second captivity have often placed it in connection with the persecution by Emperor Nero (some time during fall 64 or into the year 65). However, it is highly unlikely that there would have been an orderly process against Paul during this persecution, when the whole legal system seems to have ceased to function. It seems impossible that he would have asked Timothy to come to Rome and take Mark with him during the persecution. Thus, this captivity must have begun before the persecution or occured a few years after. It is possible that the trial was going on when the persecution broke out and that they then cut the process with Paul short.
Anyway, what Paul has to say is that no one came to help him by offering to testify in his favor. That the case nevertheless had a somewhat good ending Paul sees as a proof that God still wanted him to carry out his message. This is almost exactly what is told about his dispute with the Jews and the Roman authorities in Jerusalem in the summer of 57 (Acts 23).
Paul is counting on a conviction and is facing martyrdom. It is therefore possible that he does not have long to live. In the face of martyrdom, he does not feel bitterness towards his judges. He knows that he is a offering on God’s altar, and that this offering in some way will benefit the gospel. He is ready to move on. After all, death is not the end, but a gateway to the real life, at home with the Lord Jesus Christ. His life has been full of struggle. He has given everything, like a runner on the last leg. Now he is almost at the finish line. He knows that he owns the only necessary thing. He has kept the faith. Everything that is behind him is covered by forgiveness. Before him is laid up a crown, one that requires a whole-hearted effort as if only one could win it, even though it is for all those who believe in Christ and who longingly run to meet with him.
Paul’s First Defense Before the Court (v 16-18)
We do not know what Paul is referring to when he talks about the first time he was to defend himself before the court. For those who believe that he is now writing from Caesarea it is clear that it has to be a hearing in Jerusalem or Caesarea. Those who prefer to think of Rome as the scene have to choose between the year when the process was finally taken up at the Emperor’s supreme court or the first court hearing in a second captivity. One has to remember that what Paul mentions here should have been news for Timothy. It causes some difficulties for the theory that the letter would be written in Caesarea, because the first hearings should have taken place while Timothy still was with Paul. Those who count on a second captivity have often placed it in connection with the persecution by Emperor Nero (some time during fall 64 or into the year 65). However, it is highly unlikely that there would have been an orderly process against Paul during this persecution, when the whole legal system seems to have ceased to function. It seems impossible that he would have asked Timothy to come to Rome and take Mark with him during the persecution. Thus, this captivity must have begun before the persecution or occured a few years after. It is possible that the trial was going on when the persecution broke out and that they then cut the process with Paul short.
Anyway, what Paul has to say is that no one came to help him by offering to testify in his favor. That the case nevertheless had a somewhat good ending Paul sees as a proof that God still wanted him to carry out his message. This is almost exactly what is told about his dispute with the Jews and the Roman authorities in Jerusalem in the summer of 57 (Acts 23).
The Evil Judge (Luke 18:1-8)
This brings us near to the end of the “moral stories” of Luke. There remain only two sections. Both contain parables which only appear in Luke. The first one is about a corrupt and dishonest judge, who does not seek what is right, but who in the end gives in to a stubborn widow and lets her have what is her right. It is one of the many parables which use a picture of impious and immoral man’s life and lets it illustrate something in God’s kingdom. Our word “parable” is not exactly right when it comes to these “moral stories.” It leads man to believe that there is to be a real likeness between the people in the parable and a Christian - or in some cases God himself. And because man so often imagines that morality must be the essence of religion, they look for this likeness first and foremost in this moral sphere. Then they ask indignantly: Should one really live like this? Like the dishonest steward? Or the man who schemed to get a field where he knew a treasure was? Is God really like this judge here, so that he only hears a prayer if one nags him and wears him out?
How one then totally misunderstands such stories, Luke shows us here. Already from the beginning he says what, in this case, was the purpose: to exhort the disciples to persevere in prayer. He records Jesus’ own explanation: If even a bad judge listens to a poor widow, who does not stop praying, how much more, then, must the good God hear his own children! The meaning is thus that they will know, that he will set things right. And justice here does not mean their private matters, but faith in God and His kingdom. The words, “Does he wait to help them?” is a sentence in which both the text and the meaning are unsure. According to another reading, one could translate “...even if he seems to delay to help them.” When it says that God will help his elect “with haste,” it probably refers to that he suddenly and unexpectedly intervenes and lets His Kingdom come. This explains the subsequent melancholic question: But will the Son of Man find faith on earth when He comes? This is a glimpse of the future which is consistent in the New Testament. The Gospel shall be preached to all people. The majority will reject it. Those who believe until the end will be a persecuted minority. Then God lets the end come.
The promise of help and the exhortation to persevere, of course, does not only concern extreme tribulation. Jesus just said to the disciples that there will come a time, then they would like to see “the day of the Son of Man.” But they will not see it (17:22). Yet they are to pray and be sure that God hears their prayers, though He answers them in a way they had not expected.
This brings us near to the end of the “moral stories” of Luke. There remain only two sections. Both contain parables which only appear in Luke. The first one is about a corrupt and dishonest judge, who does not seek what is right, but who in the end gives in to a stubborn widow and lets her have what is her right. It is one of the many parables which use a picture of impious and immoral man’s life and lets it illustrate something in God’s kingdom. Our word “parable” is not exactly right when it comes to these “moral stories.” It leads man to believe that there is to be a real likeness between the people in the parable and a Christian - or in some cases God himself. And because man so often imagines that morality must be the essence of religion, they look for this likeness first and foremost in this moral sphere. Then they ask indignantly: Should one really live like this? Like the dishonest steward? Or the man who schemed to get a field where he knew a treasure was? Is God really like this judge here, so that he only hears a prayer if one nags him and wears him out?
How one then totally misunderstands such stories, Luke shows us here. Already from the beginning he says what, in this case, was the purpose: to exhort the disciples to persevere in prayer. He records Jesus’ own explanation: If even a bad judge listens to a poor widow, who does not stop praying, how much more, then, must the good God hear his own children! The meaning is thus that they will know, that he will set things right. And justice here does not mean their private matters, but faith in God and His kingdom. The words, “Does he wait to help them?” is a sentence in which both the text and the meaning are unsure. According to another reading, one could translate “...even if he seems to delay to help them.” When it says that God will help his elect “with haste,” it probably refers to that he suddenly and unexpectedly intervenes and lets His Kingdom come. This explains the subsequent melancholic question: But will the Son of Man find faith on earth when He comes? This is a glimpse of the future which is consistent in the New Testament. The Gospel shall be preached to all people. The majority will reject it. Those who believe until the end will be a persecuted minority. Then God lets the end come.
The promise of help and the exhortation to persevere, of course, does not only concern extreme tribulation. Jesus just said to the disciples that there will come a time, then they would like to see “the day of the Son of Man.” But they will not see it (17:22). Yet they are to pray and be sure that God hears their prayers, though He answers them in a way they had not expected.
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