Luke 18:1-8--The Parable of the Persistent Widow

Luke 18:1-8
English Standard Version

The Parable of the Persistent Widow
18 And 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?”

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Jesus continues to teach them in parables both to conceal the truth from some and reveal the truth to others.  This time, His teaching is about how we should pray expecting that God will answer, especially when we pray for justice to be done (though that justice may not occur in the way we expect or in the timing that we expect).

Jesus tells the parable of a widow who in that system would be seen as having almost no legal rights (an unmarried woman), and she would be an easy target for those with ill intentions to take advantage of.  Her only remedy many times would be the courts, but the courts would not show her any respect as this judge did, making her wait day after day after day to have her complaint heard, waiting for justice to be done.  Her cry was simple, "Give me justice against my adversary."

The judge refused to hear her case, but she came back day after day, hour after hour, and she wore him down until the point where he finally heard her case just to be rid of her.  Jesus says it is because of her persistence that the unrighteous judge will hear her and give her justice, even though that judge admits that he has no fear of God or man, but just wants to do what is best for himself.  That is a terrible judge and against what the oath of office was given to judges in the Jewish nation.  They were to deliver justice for all people equally under the Law of God.

Jesus points out that God is not like this.  He is The Righteous One and all His judgments and decrees are righteous.  He looks out for the poor and the oppressed and while He abounds in grace and mercy, He does not let the wicked go unpunished.  He answers in His way and in His time.  Sometimes "justice" looks like the person coming to Jesus for forgiveness and their sins being dealt with at the cross of Christ.  Other times God will make the evildoers face consequences of their sins in the here and now (even those who have been saved because of the natural law that God has put into place), but ultimately for those that remain in rebellion against God, their sin will find them out.  Justice will be satisfied, and praying for justice is consistent with the nature and character of God, but we should never try to take justice into our own hands.  God has given that authority to the rulers and authorities that He has delegated and He alone will be the one to meet out ultimate justice.  We should trust that God does not need to be worn down like this unrighteous judge because He must satisfy His own character and nature, yet we know it is within our hearts to see what we think "justice" is in the here and now, that is the eye-for-an-eye type of justice.

Let us a Christians instead be willing to accept the justice that comes by the guilty laying their sins on Jesus to have their sin debt forgiven by the one that they owe their debt to.  Let us not be like the older brother in the Parable of the Lost Son who continued to hold past sins against his brother and cry out for "justice" when the father had erased the debt to forgive and restore the prodigal son.  That too is a form of justice that we cannot forget about, and it is not our place to demand that God's wrath fall down on those He has forgiven.  We should celebrate their forgiveness as we studied in that set of parables about that which was lost being found.  Pray knowing that God hears you, but pray in a way that is consistent with God's character and nature, for He came to seek and to save that which was lost first, and only after people choose to reject Him will His wrath, which is being stored up for the end times, be poured out.