When the Word of God became flesh and dwelt amongst us, God clearly taught us a very important principle, namely that our human experience is very important and can carry within it divine revelation, good news that can help us towards eternal life and the salvation of our souls. It is not surprising, then, that Jesus drew His parables from ordinary human life, especially the life of the farmer sowing seeds. Even when He spoke more directly than in the story form of parables, Jesus recalled us to our own human experience to help us to understand the way in which God deals with us. So in today's passage from Luke, Jesus uses a concrete example to illustrate the more abstract notion of perseverance, especially perseverance in prayer.

Sometimes we may feel that Jesus' illustrations are somewhat unlikely, but that is part of His technique of story-telling and illustration. Perhaps He felt that if the illustration were too ordinary His audience - including ourselves - would miss the point. The slightly more extraordinary situations He suggests are more likely to make us think and reflect more consciously on what He is saying.