One of my little areas of interest within the broader subject of Theology is the way the Bible, and especially Jesus, uses humor. I think we have an example of that today, with the parable of the persistent widow. Now, of course, Jesus is no stand-up comedian. And his humor always serves the purpose of teaching. So, today, as Luke tells us, the purpose of the parable is this: that his disciples should always pray and not lose heart. So too, for us.
Take this persistent widow. We might fill in the gaps of the story a bit
with our imagination. Jesus says she’s
seeking justice from her adversary. But
he doesn’t say what exactly the matter is.
Surely, it must have been something that seemed of no consequence to the
high and mighty people of the world. The
concerns of a widow are lowly, like the widow herself. Scraping by on a day-to-day basis, begging
perhaps and relying on the kindness of strangers. She had little, and had little hope. Little standing in society, or in a court of
law. She was one of the least of the
least, forgettable and insignificant.
Especially to someone like this judge.
Jesus tells us the judge is someone
who neither feared God nor respected man.
Sounds like a nice fellow, eh?
You can imagine he rose to this high position through treachery and
politics, trampling over whomever he needed to in order to get ahead and climb
the ladder. He’s the very opposite of
this poor widow – he’s respected, or at least feared in the community. People know not to cross him or get on his
bad side. He’s probably mean and grumpy
and self-centered and just a real specimen of a person.
And here comes this widow,
pestering him. Persistently, over and
over again, she begs the judge for justice.
Something about this is just funny.
She may have seen him first in the courtroom, but that won’t be the last
he’d see of her. She finds out where he
lives. She camps out by his front door. She nags him on the way to work. She nags him on the way home. For a while he ignores her, hoping she’ll get
tired and go away. But this woman is
tenacious, like a dog champing down on a meaty bone. She simply will not give up until the judge
grants her the justice she demands.
And finally, after she practically
exhausts the fellow to death, he says 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.”
In other words, “I know I’m a scoundrel, and I’m not doing this out of
some sense of justice, but I’m just plain tired of this woman and want to get
rid of her. So I’ll give her what she
wants!” He’s annoyed. He’s exasperated. He’s sick and tired of this woman and her
badgering! Enough already! I’ll do what you want!
It's a funny picture. The characters are a bit exaggerated. But the point is clear. Jesus is making an argument from the lesser
to the greater. It goes like this: If such a wicked, callous, disrespectful
earthly judge can be made to answer by a lowly widow who is simply persistent….
And if he does so only because he wants to be done with her pestering…. Then how much MORE will your loving, kind,
gracious, merciful judge – who is also your father – how much more will he hear
YOU, his dear people when you pray?
The answer, of course, is much
more. We have a God and Father who wants
us to bother him, and bother him persistently.
Who delights in our prayers because Jesus makes them delightful, and the
Spirit brings them before him. They’re a
pleasing aroma to him. He invites us to
pray, and to pray without ceasing, and to never lose heart. Will God not give justice to his elect? Of course he will. And will he not do it speedily? Of course he will.
Justice. Not the kind of justice that we deserve –
where we are on the receiving end of punishment for our sins, oh no. That kind of justice has already been done to
Jesus. He took the guilty verdict. He suffered the death penalty. He bore the wrath of God that had our name on
it. He made it his own. Divine justice is done in the strangest of
ways at the cross – but what wonderful, beautiful, alien justice it is! Thanks be to God!
What Jesus is referring to here is
more so the justice over our adversaries.
That we, like the little old widow, would find help against our
adversaries from the judge. Only, her
adversary may have been someone who stole her mites, or cheated her at the
market, or took advantage of her weakness.
Our adversary is a roaring lion seeking to devour us. He’s a great dragon who sweeps stars out of
the sky. He’s a foul tempter, and old
evil foe who seeks to do us woe. And he
wants nothing more than to drag us away from Jesus and to the misery of his
company for eternity. He is a fearsome
adversary, and we ought not take him lightly.
The Devil would have us, if he
could. He would accuse us, that’s what
Satan means, accuser, and he would love to rub our noses in our sin so much
that we doubt even God can forgive us.
Or, if he can, he would blind us to our need for Christ, harden our
hearts, and lull us into a false sense of security and into the lie of
self-righteousness.
Sometimes, it seems like the
adversary is winning. It seems like my
own sins get the better of me. My Old
Adam gets the upper hand on the New Man.
Sometimes, it seems like the righteous judge has forgotten me, or is
even judging me for my sins, giving me what I surely deserve. Sometimes it seems like his ears are deaf to
my cries, and he can’t or won’t answer my prayers or regard them at all.
In fact, sometimes it can seem
that God himself is our adversary! Take
Jacob in our Old Testament reading. He
wrestled with “a man” all night long.
That’s all we’re told at first, this was “a man”. But later that man shows himself to be more –
as he pops Jacob’s hip with a touch like a kung-fu grandmaster. He could’ve beaten Jacob all along.
But still Jacob persists, “I will
not let you go unless you bless me!” And
so the man, the angel, the Lord himself, blesses. He changes Jacob’s name to Israel, “He
wrestles with God”. And he becomes a
picture of every believer, every true Israelite, who wrestles with God, who
clings to God and persistently seeks blessing, and is not disappointed.
Likewise, Jesus, with this
parable, calls us here to persistence in prayer. And that’s not him speaking law. He’s not saying, “pray night and day or
else!” He’s encouraging us. He’s inviting us. He’s reminding us of the character of our
righteous judge who desires to give us all good things, and promises to deliver
us from the Adversary, and who delights to be bothered by the prayers of his
people.
Nevertheless, Jesus concedes that
all this calls for patience. “When the
Son of Man comes, will he find faith on Earth?”
He seems to be referring here, to his second coming. When he comes again to judge the living and
the dead. When he comes to bring his
final justice, to close out the books, and to give to each either a final
reward or final punishment.
And what will the Son of Man be
looking for when he comes again in glory to judge both all flesh? Faith.
Faith in him. Faith, trust,
belief – a reliance upon him and him alone.
He will not regard kindly those who bring their own resume, but only
those who rely on his. But rather he’s looking for faith, dogged, unwavering,
unflinching, patient, persistent, pestering faith.
And if your faith doesn’t seem
that persistent, no matter. We can all
pray, “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief”.
He would point you not to the quality of your faith, but to the
character of the Judge. We don’t put our
persistent faith in our faith. We put it
in the character of the judge who always, always wants to answer our prayers
with good things. The one who loved us
so that he even sent his own Son that we would not perish but have eternal
life. Won’t he also graciously give us
all things?
And that faith – the assurance of
things hoped for and the certainty of things not seen – will be fulfilled at
his coming. When all that we have hoped
for comes true. When every eye will see
him. And when all of our prayers are
answered with an eternal, “Yes”. We will
not be disappointed. We will see justice
done, and we will receive eternal joy.
Do not lose heart, dear
Christian. Do not lose faith. Pray for blessings spiritual and earthly,
temporal and eternal. Ask that your sins
be forgiven for the sake of Christ, and know that they are. Ask that God will save you at the last, and
he will. Pray, day and night, for we
have a righteous, kind, loving, merciful judge who loves to be bothered. So bother him. In Jesus Christ our Lord.
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