The Friend at Midnight is based on Luke 11: 5-8
Retelling
The first question is whether this parable need retelling. Even ten years ago, the idea of having to nip round to a neighbour to borrow some bread/sugar/coffee wasn’t that unusual. But nowadays, in my urban environment, getting food for an unexpected guest involves googling ’24 hour food delivery’. My friends would be justifiably annoyed if I decided to wake them up rather than just ordering a pizza. Or chicken wings, or a restaurant style meal…
On the other hand, this isn’t the case everywhere. If getting food for an unexpected midnight guest is still impossible, that part of the parable remains immediately understandable.
Honour
Another reason for retelling might be the honour/shame background for this parable. Jesus’ audience knew that showing hospitality was important, a matter of honour. Not being able to feed a guest was shameful. If they didn’t rally round, then the dishonour of not being able to feed a guest properly would spread to the rest of the village. The guest had turned up at midnight (probably apologising profusely) and everyone in the village would know they had to pitch in to stop this mild embarrassment turning into a major social disaster.
Several commentators point out that, if the neighbour hadn’t lent the three loaves, his name would’ve been mud. The village reaction the next morning would’ve been something like: ‘You wouldn’t lend him three loaves of bread? Seriously? I lent him my best plates and gave him a raisin cake!’
Wedding
What type of event could we use to replace the ‘your name would be mud’ implication of the original parable? A guest unexpectedly arriving at midnight is still a problem – but not a community problem.
In looking for possible scenarios, we need to find some event where not helping out is still shameful. Generally, big life events are still ‘community’ events. Ruin a friend of a friend’s wedding by refusing to do something relatively easy? The person who does that may need an entire new friendship group. So what if it was midnight? All the former friends would see is that the person had the means to save the wedding for the cost of twenty minutes sleep – and they refused!
In retelling, we’re looking for the same kind of ‘what kind of person would do that?’ image that Jesus creates in the parable.
Bread
You wouldn’t think something so simple as bread could be confusing, but when it comes to Bible commentary, anything can be confusing. The argument over bread is whether, in Jesus’ time, it was normally eaten the day it was made. If it was, the neighbour having three loaves left is unusual. Alternatively, was there a communal oven/rota system? Villagers would make several days bread at a time in a communal oven system, because they had to take their turn with the oven.
As far as I can work out, this seems to have depended on the region, or maybe the village. However, Jesus having the rota system in mind makes more sense. He may have used it in the story knowing his audience knew that system, even if they baked bread daily themselves. With the oven-on-a-rota system, the guest has arrived early and so the planned fresh bread hasn’t yet been baked. But the householder knows who did bake today….
For retelling, therefore, the possibilities are something people might run out of. Or, use a problem with what they’ve normally got, such as the internet going down. Perhaps it’s something that isn’t available in the middle of the night and couldn’t be left until the morning. The ‘shortage’ might also be that the borrower needs something not found in every household – I used a CD burner.
Persistence
This parable is often used to demonstrate ‘persistence’. However, that’s really not its main focus – its main focus is on one friend unashamedly asking for what he needs and another friend, despite initial grumbling, giving him what he wants (and possibly more besides).
The parable itself is sandwiched between the Lord’s prayer and a series of illustrations about God’s response to prayer. Rather than persistence, it’s more likely main focus is on being unafraid to pray for the things we need. Don’t be embarrassed about banging on God’s door in the middle of the night – unlike the neighbour, he’ll still be awake.
Previous parable: The Good Israeli Settler: Luke 10: 30-36
Next parable: The Watchful House Sitter: Luke 12: 35-38
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