There are three parables of Jesus on prayer in the Synoptic Gospel, with all three of them appearing in Luke: the Parable of the Friend at Midnight (11:5-8), the Parable of the Persistent Widow (18:1-8), and the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (18:9-14). Connected with the story of the friend at midnight are two short parabolic sayings about asking, seeking, and knocking (11:9-10) and about a son's requests of his father (11:11-13), which we will consider, as well, with that parable. Luke's presentation of these three parables and two sayings is consistent with his interest on prayer, as seen throughout his Gospel and Acts. Indeed, these parables and sayings bear the evangelist's own stamp. But this fact should not preclude an acceptance of them as being genuinely from Jesus and faithfully interpreted by Luke. Parables cry out for a context. If ive should denude them from their canonical wraps, we would then need to propose some other contexts and some other meanings. The first parable will be given here the most attention, and the last one the least. This is partly because of the complexity of the lexical issues in 11:8 and partly because some of the discussion regarding the latter two parables will have already been anticipated in dealing with the first.
