When the Son of Man Comes, Will He Find Faith on Earth?

"And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The preceding quote is from Jesus and it is taken out of context from the Gospel of Luke 18: 8 (NRSV). Often it is good to read the entire passage to really understand what or why Jesus follows a statement with a question; however, even in context this question seems a bit puzzling, as if Jesus was saying that the future is confusing and uncertain when it comes to the existence of faith on our planet. Yet, if we break up the question we may get varying results with more questions. For instance, what exactly is faith? One can use Hebrews 11:1 as a definition and say: it is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Moreover, the Book of Hebrews elaborates more on the subject by presenting a history of it using many Bible characters for illustrations. But still, in the end, faith means something different to everyone simply because we all understand things differently in a personal way, although we can associate with many similarities. I still want to share the entire passage where the question is found, it is from The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge. Before the parable, Jesus was making emphasis on always praying and not losing heart. But, another good question is what did faith mean to Jesus? I will stop here and let you answer the questions to yourself. The full passage is below, but what do you think Jesus meant when he said: "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

‘"The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge

18 Then Jesus[a] told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”[b] 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth (NRSV)?”’

Footnotes:

1. Luke 18:1 Gk he
2. Luke 18:5 Or so that she may not finally come and slap me in the face

Reference:

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)