The Parables of Jesus
Week 2 Lesson
Questions to Get You Started
1. Read Luke 18:1-8 for yourself (try two or more different translations). What stands out to you about this parable? What questions arise in your mind as you read it?
2. On a first read, what do you think Jesus is trying to communicate with this parable?
2. On a first read, what do you think Jesus is trying to communicate with this parable?
Questions for further discussion
1. Why do you think we can “grow weary” or “lose heart” in prayer? What obstacles get in the way? How does this parable (and this lecture) help to strengthen your resolve to “pray always” (Luke 18:1)? What else can help us to “pray without ceasing”
(1 Thess. 5:17)?
2. Before we say the Lord’s Prayer in the context of the Eucharist, we acknowledge that “we are bold” to say it. Why is the Lord’s Prayer a bold prayer? How is it rebellious to pray for God’s kingdom and will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, in the way that Dr. Anderson (quoting David Wells) has suggested? What other rebellious prayers might we pray these days?
3. In “The Weight of Glory,” C. S. Lewis wrote that God “finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.” Given Dr. Anderson’s concluding” diagnostic, do you think our prayers are as big, or as strong, as God’s vision is for this world? Do you think we could be more persistent, more bold, in our prayers?
2. Before we say the Lord’s Prayer in the context of the Eucharist, we acknowledge that “we are bold” to say it. Why is the Lord’s Prayer a bold prayer? How is it rebellious to pray for God’s kingdom and will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, in the way that Dr. Anderson (quoting David Wells) has suggested? What other rebellious prayers might we pray these days?
3. In “The Weight of Glory,” C. S. Lewis wrote that God “finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.” Given Dr. Anderson’s concluding” diagnostic, do you think our prayers are as big, or as strong, as God’s vision is for this world? Do you think we could be more persistent, more bold, in our prayers?
