Good morning. One of the parables of Jesus that many find difficult to understand is found in the first 8 verses of Luke 18, often referred to as the “Parable of the Persistent Widow”: And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Is Luke comparing God to an unrighteous judge? Of course not! This parable is one that describes contrast and is of the “how much more then…” variety. In this case, “if a wicked man will do what is right from impure motives, how much greater should our certainty be that God in His righteousness will do what is right?”
First of all, I’d like to explain the reference to this judge. By saying that he “neither feared God nor respected man” the Christians of the first century would have immediately understood the reference, because it was all too commonplace in their world. What this phrase indicates is that this judge was motivated not by a righteous attitude regarding his job, nor by a fear of the attitudes of his fellow citizens. What it meant is that this public official was motivated by bribes. He was “on the take,” so to speak, which in 1st century Roman-ruled Judea was all too common.
The other person in this parable is a “widow.” When someone was described in this way it would be assumed that she was poor and without family to speak up for her. We don’t know what her problem was, only that this unworthy judge was her only recourse. She was in no position to bribe the judge, so the only thing she had on her side was what was legally right, and in their corrupt world being on the right side of the law didn’t mean much. Being right would do her no good with a judge who refused to listen to her unless she could pay him. However, the parable tells us that she had one more quality that could come to her aid. That quality was persistence. She was determined!
The widow comes back, day after day, and states her case. She was, to the judge, a royal pain in the…neck. Eventually, although he doesn’t care one bit about her or the rightness of her cause, he gives in and does what he should have done from the beginning. This would be bad for the bribe business should word of this get around, but it was better than being constantly annoyed by this woman who refused to give up. His decision, we read in the scripture is: I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. The phrase you read as not beat me down is literally, so that she will not give me black eyes. This doesn’t mean she was going to punch him, it means that his concern was that she was disturbing his peace of mind to the point that he would get dark circles around his eyes. In short, the parable tells us that she was, as we would say today, driving him nuts.
The lesson of Jesus is this: And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?”
Again, this is a parable of contrast. Jesus’ point is that if the unrighteous judge will act to serve his own interests, we can be absolutely certain that God will act to serve His purposes, and He will act in ways that provide the maximum of blessing to His own.
Jesus answers His own question about God’s timing, saying that God will act in relative quickness. When God determines that the time is right, He will act immediately to accomplish His will for us.
Our lesson for prayer is that God wants us to be completely invested in that which we bring before Him. We are not to pray on a whim. We are not pray for the sudden accomplishment of our own will. We are to pray for God’s will to be done in His time. We are to bring our prayers to God with conviction and certainty, and if this means that it takes time for the Spirit of God to establish the proper mindset within us, so be it. God will be ready as soon as we are, but God will not act before the time is fully right.
Pray with conviction. Pray with power. Pray with faith. Pray with patience, not for God but for yourself as the Spirit prepares you for what is truly needed.
Vern