Justice for the Persistent

Luke 18:1-8

¹And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ³ And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷ And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

In my job as the Director of Christian Education at a church, I lead several adult Bible studies during the week. I follow the same pattern in every group. We open the Bible, read a passage and discuss it. Every now and then a passage comes to our attention that makes me shudder inside a little because I know that grasping the concepts is going to be a challenge. That’s when I internally look heavenward and silently ask God why He put that in there. This parable is exactly that type of passage.

First of all, let’s examine the culture situation wherein Jesus tells this story. Both of the characters, the widow and the judge, are people bound by the culture in which they live. The widow is indeed completely helpless and the judge controls all of the power. When the widow comes persistently, annoyingly, and without a break she is behaving shamefully. This was unacceptable behavior on her part. When the judge refuses to hear her, he is behaving shamefully because it is his responsibility to hear her plea and give her justice. So both characters are equal in their shame.

Now let’s look at one verse that seems to be the pivot point in the story – verse 5.

“. . . because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.”

“So that she will not beat me down” is rather poorly translated here. It literally means “she will give me a black eye.” That black eye would ruin his reputation (as we would use the term today) as he is not being a responsible judge, or she might actually strike him and give him a physical black eye, although this is certainly less likely. Either way he wants to avoid this. He claims that he doesn’t care what people think, but in the end, he gives her what she wants, so that declaration is rather weak. He is certainly not interested in having his reputation as a judge damaged any further by this persistent woman.

So – how does all of this play into our faith? What could this persistent widow and this shameless judge have to do with us today? Jesus clearly places us into the position of the widow. We are to persist in prayer as she persisted in her pleas to the judge. That’s fairly easy to grasp. But how in the world is the God like the judge? This is where the struggle to understand comes along. God is not shameful or unresponsive. What He is though, is true to Himself.

God will be true to himself and his Word: the time of vindication for his faithful saints will come. Even though vindication is delayed, it will come because God is merciful and long-suffering. If the human judge in the parable, whose reputation is that of shamelessness, finally succumbs to the widow’s persistence and vindicates her, how much more will God, whose reputation is one of mercy and compassion, vindicate his elect. The judge finally gives vindication because he is harassed and doesn’t want a black eye; God will eventually give vindication because he has promised salvation to the elect, who cry to him day and night.

Just, A. A., Jr. (1997). Luke 9:51–24:53 (p. 674). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Just as the judge was true to his need for a good reputation as a judge, so too God is true to His reputation as a merciful and compassionate God. Jesus claims that justice will be accomplished “speedily”. Even as He speaks these words, He is on the way to Jerusalem to suffer and die for us. In the moment of His death and subsequent resurrection our redemption is complete. This parable is told within months (possibly weeks) of this history-changing event. God will prove to be true to Himself in fulfilling His promise to redeem us. While God is not unfaithful to us or unwilling to show compassion and mercy, He is true to Himself and all of the promises He has made. We can rely on that fact and as such we too participate in the Kingdom by faithfully praying for the arrival of that Kingdom and submission to all that Jesus has done for us. Jesus directs our attention to maintaining our prayer lives and our relationship with Him. It’s a strong message and an important reminder.