And He said to them, Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him; and he will answer from within and say, Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you. …

– Luke 11:5-7

Jesus gave a very unlikely example of a rude friend. In our culture if we went to someone at midnight and asked for some bread, we might receive a response like this guy gave because our culture is very self-centered, convenience-centered, and rude: Western culture in general does not consider hospitality as an obligation.

In the Hebrew culture, what the friend said was unexpected and shameful. He didn’t respond in kind with the word ‘friend’. All he said was ‘Don’t bother me‘—literally ‘Stop giving me troubles.’ His response would have shocked the disciples. Not to say there weren’t any people like that at the time, but the real rude person in this parable is this friend who didn’t want to be disturbed.

The next part of my series on Jesus’ parables is now available. This is on the The Shameless Friend. This series is based on messages I’ve given at Beatty Baptist Church.