In this parable Jesus presents us with the householder who has had a late guest show up. They are out of bread and have to go to great lengths to wake up a neighbor for bread. Jesus then points out that we do not have to go to these extreme lengths to get what we need. God is our generous, loving father who will not make us beg. What is not clear to the modern mind is just what extremes of "shameless persistence" Jesus was presenting to Jews of that time. I was amazed at the degree of trouble that these few sentences represent. William Barclay tells us exactly what the hapless householder had to go through to borrow that bread.
Travelers often journeyed late in the evening to avoid the heat of the midday sun. In Jesus' story just such a traveler had arrived towards midnight at his friend's house. In the east hospitality is a sacred duty; it was not enough to set before a man a bare sufficiency; the guest had to be confronted with an ample abundance. In the villages bread was baked at home. Only enough for the day's needs was baked because, if it was kept and became stale, no one would wish to eat it.
The late arrival of the traveler confronted the householder with an embarrassing situation, because his larder was empty and he could not fulfill the sacred obligations of hospitality. Late as it was, he went out to borrow from a friend. The friend's door was shut. In the east no one would knock on the shut door of a house unless the need was imperative. In the morning the door was opened and remained open all day, for there was little privacy; but if the door was shut, that was a definite sign that the householder did not wish to be disturbed. But the seeking householder was not deterred. He knocked, and kept on knocking.
The poorer Palestinian house consisted of one room with only one little window. The floor was simply of beaten earth covered with dried reeds and rushes. The room was divided into two parts, not by a partition but by a low platform. Two-thirds of it were on ground level. The other third was slightly raised. On the raised part the charcoal stove burned all night, and round it the whole family slept, not on raised beds but on sleeping mats. Families were large and they slept close together for warmth. For one to rise was inevitably to disturb the whole family. Further, in the villages it was the custom to bring the livestock, the hens and the cocks and the goats, into the house at night.
Is there any wonder that the man who was in bed did not want to rise. But the determined borrower knocked on with shameless persistence - that is what the Greek word means - until at last the householder, knowing that by this time the whole family was disturbed, arose and gave him what he needed.
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