This parable appears in the
Gospel of Luke immediately after Jesus teaches the
Lord's Prayer, and can therefore be viewed as a continuation of Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray, while the
verses which follow help to explain the meaning of the parable:
Joel B. Green suggests that the question that opens the parable ("Which of you who has a friend...?" also expressible as "Can you imagine...?") is intended to be answered as an emphatic "No!", since no friend would refuse to help under such circumstances The
parable of the Unjust Judge has a similar meaning.
John McEvilly comments on this parable, writing, "Our Lord illustrates by the following parable—which St. Luke alone records—or familiar comparison, founded on what might occur in daily life to any of themselves, the necessity of fervour and perseverance in prayer. All the circumstances are of a very pressing character—the hour of the night so inconvenient, the urgent necessity of the case, not even the simplest means of meeting the wants of the stranger, fatigued and hungry from his journey. Hence, the petition for “three loaves,” one for the host himself, one for the hungry, fatigued guest, and a third in case the two did not suffice. In the East the home-made cakes were small."
Cornelius a Lapide gives a similar interpretation, writing, "God wills that we should continue instant in prayer, and is pleased with our “importunity,” for persistent prayer is “violence pleasing to God.”
Tertullian." ==Depictions==