Creepy Judge Comes Through – Luke 18

A text – Luke 18:1-8

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 accuser.’ 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?”

A reflection:

This is a parable that tries to point out the value of persistent prayer to the Lord. In Jesus’s day plenty of people understood about judges and how some were just and some were corrupt, lazy, or disrespectful. The petitioner is a widow, someone who had no rights or power or even standing to bring a petition into court. Her relatives were supposed to take care of her. Yet here she is, persistent and irritating to a judge who was not respectful or even interested in God, God’s laws, or people in general.

Some New Testament scholars say the judge’s little speech to himself actually ends this way: “…I will grant her justice so that she may not keep coming and slap me in the face,” or even “… she will not keep coming and give me a black eye”! The widow’s persistence in showing up gets the judge’s attention and serves her well.

Jesus was exaggerating to make his point. He may have been going for the laugh in the crowd he was speaking to, knowing the justice system his audience had to live under. But many a true point is made by humor. Then Jesus says surely God is more loving to God’s children than this creepy judge, and surely God will see that things turn out for the best for them. Stay in the relationship. Continue to persist in asking God’s help. Keep your attention on the place all your help comes from – the Lord your God who loves you.

It is hard to keep praying, to stick with it. But each time we pray, we are connecting with our beloved Creator, our Redeemer, and our Comforter. Each time we pray we can rest in God’s arms for a moment more and be strengthened for the waiting. Some of us know this long journey of asking God for relief better than others. Patience and stamina can be rewarded with rest and comfort by a God who loves us.

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us Jesus’s examples of how to stick with something that is hard. Help us to follow the example of the persistent widow, and please grant us relief from what nags at us or is difficult to bear. Help us to embody Jesus’s patience. Amen.