Being Persistent, Being an Advocate

The New Revised Standard Version The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge

The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge

18 Then Jesus 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.’ ” 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?”

This parable is set in the context of teachings on prayer.

I’ve read this story many times and often, the Spirit draws me to thoughts of persistence in social action. The sense that we have to keep fighting for justice, keep pushing against the evil we witness in the world. We keep standing up for freedom for the oppressed, liberation for the captives of our world. Yes, yes, yes, and amen!

I also remember working with this text years back, during the confirmation hearings of the Trump administration, when there was the classic exchange between Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Sessions during his interviews. They had a heated back and forth where Warren was cut off and redirected, but as the headlines read in the days that followed, nevertheless, she persisted. I remember thinking of this parable through the lens of how our culture continues to deny women equal voices and equal authority in even its highest levels of power. I remember thinking about what the widow and the unjust judge’s exchange might teach us about advocacy and grit, about speaking truth to the powerful.

Finally, I can think of this text as it was taught in my childhood, my upbringing in the church. I actually have the recollection of this and other texts making me feel that we were not supposed to nag God, that we weren’t meant to pester one another, and that somehow, even still, the widow was faithful. I remember being confused by this text, not sure who I was supposed to be. Perhaps this sense comes from an internalized reality that I was a pesky kid, annoying to my Sunday school teachers…though I can never imagine that I was… :)

So what is this parable about?

Well, Luke tells us quite plainly what this and the next parable, which we’ll look at next Sunday, are about: prayer.

And with that, not just about how we are to pray, but the character of God who receives our prayers, the goodness of God contrasted with the unjust judge.

A parable is meant to excavate something in us, to unearth ideas and images that provoke us towards growth and a greater sense of who God is and who we are.

Specifically, Jesus seems to be directing his listeners, and us, into a deeper trust of God’s abiding love and presence when we pray. God is listening.

Some of you know, I’m a big fan of the Pacific Northwest band, Death Cab for Cutie. I’ve seen them live many times, first of all up at Western Washington University my freshmen year of college. I am loving their new album, Asphalt Meadows.

Lead singer, Ben Gibbard, writes lyrics that are full of introspection and questioning. And he names the doubt and struggle that so many of us feel around belief and whether or not anyone is actually listening when we cry out, when we long for something.

The lyrics of the song “I Don’t Know How I Survive”, the first track off their new album, speak to this wondering, this longing. Gibbard sings...

Pacing across the room while she's asleep Tears raining down her cheeks Trying to hold, trying to hold on Praying, even though you don't believe Just in case they are received By anyone, anyone

These nights, I don’t know how I survive.

Isn’t that how we feel as we think about prayer? I mean, certainly, we want to believe that someone is hearing us, but there is also this nagging concern that maybe our words go unnoticed.

We want to believe something else, but we wonder if we will ever survive in a world where it feels like no one is listening.

What I realize is that this concern, this fear, this is based on believing that God is like the unjust judge. We believe that no matter how much we pray, God will not pay attention. Or, we believe that God will only listen if we pray and pray and nag and pray and finally, God will incline an ear to us.

I’m not saying this how God is, I’m just saying that this is how we perceive God to be.

And that’s why we need this parable.

Step back from it for a moment and let’s consider the original hearers of Jesus’ story.

Many of the folks who walked with Jesus would have been familiar with the processes of the Jewish temple for reconciling and receiving forgiveness. Think back to last week’s message about the lepers who ran to the temple to be received after they were cleansed. The people would have had this mindset that they were never good enough, that the judge was always going to require more from them, and this is how we would start to craft our understandings of God’s way too. God demands our persistence, God doesn’t listen right away.

Or put it in our context. Perhaps we grew up in a family where there was neglect or at least some sort of apathy from our parents regarding what might have seemed like minor or simple issues. And we learned that we had to whine or bug our folks to get their attention. We then internalized this and, when we start to think of who God is, we think of God the Father or Mother and connect it with how we felt about our parents abilities to address our needs. Do you see where this is going?

We are apt to think of God like the unjust judge.

And, that is the beauty of what Jesus’ message of Good News of Great Joy to All People is, what the story of the gospel is: it is a retelling, a reframing, an opening up of a different perspective on God, a good, a loving, a listening God.

The judge gets worn out by the widow’s pestering and relents. Fine, have your justice, and please, leave me alone for goodness sake.

If this is how we understand God, then the message is that we must keep persisting and advocating to God like God doesn’t listen or understand.

And here’s where Jesus turns our thinking upside down: If the judge relents, will not God grant justice to God’s beloved people who cry out? Will God delay in helping?

The rhetoric here is clear: NO, God will not make us wait. God will hear our prayers, God will turn an ear to our cries.

We cannot look at the judge and think that is how God functions.

Jesus is teaching us, in prayer, that God listens.

Now, before we go too far, let’s remind ourselves that this isn’t about magical thinking or God granting our every wish. No. Rather, Jesus is teaching us about God’s character: God is like an attentive parent who tunes into their children’s cries. God attends to our cries for justice. Now, justice doesn’t always look like the healing we want right now, the quick turnaround of life we long for, but rather, it might look like God bending the hearts of the unjust judge to grant the widow her need.

What I hear in this text today is an invitation to truly bring my needs to God in prayer. To trust that God is not like the unjust judge, not holding back because of pride or power or some such thing.

What I hear is a call to keep advocating, praying, persisting in our longings. It is through this persistence that we change the way things are, when we do not settle for how it is, and instead we advocate for a different kind of world.

In our world, our context, we are going to need to persist and frequently advocate for the needs of justice. The powers of this world are not aligned to God’s generous, loving way and therefore will not hear our cries, immediately or perhaps at all. So we must fight.

But, we must also rest assured that God hears us now, in the place of our need. And God moves in the work of justice for us.

Earlier, in Luke chapter 11, Jesus also teaches on perseverance in prayer. He says:

The New Revised Standard Version Perseverance in Prayer

9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We are taught to ask God for what we need, for God is good and faithful to provide.

In closing, I know many of us will continue to question this truth. And this is because we have continued to believe God and the unjust judge have the same character, the same response.

This parable is meant to expose the difference, to remind us that God is not like these unjust systems and people we push against. Those people and systems may continue to lay unjust burdens upon our communities, but God is not like this. God does listen, God does hear us. May we risk being persistent in prayer, trusting that God will act in us and in our lives.

And in this season of healing, this time when we are looking at our mental health and how we strengthen the bonds of friendship to support one another, what we can do is begin to act like God would act, for each other.

Will we listen to each other’s needs?

Will we pay attention to the hurting around us?

Or will they have to nag us, pester us, until we relent and help?

Will we listen to our own needs and then name them boldly to each other, trusting that we can help and heal one another in the love of Christ?

I pray that we can find the boldness of the widow to come to God in confidence, trusting in God’s love to heal us and make us whole.

Amen.