Persisting in Prayer

Psalm 119:97-104          Jeremiah 31:27-34             2 Timothy 3:14-4:5               Luke 18:1-8

Persisting in Prayer

In what way is God like an unjust judge?

To many believers, such a question is simply inappropriate and completely unacceptable. There is no resemblance between the character of our God and the man described in this parable. The God revealed to us in the Scriptures is nothing like an unjust judge! 

And so we will all agree…

Until perhaps at a time when the wheels of life come off in a brutal and vicious way…or when we are confronted with the horrors of disease or death…or when we witness the inescapable evidence of barbaric inhuman crimes committed against the defenceless in war or in other acts of violence…

At such a time, our cries to God for intervention appear to bounce off the ceiling. 

Then we might well be tempted to ask…is God like this unjust judge? If not, why does he appear to be as disinterested, as indifferent, and as inactive as this despicable judge?

With those uncomfortable thoughts echoing in your minds, I’d like us now to ask the question: what exactly did Jesus want to teach us in this strange Gospel parable?

Now, before we look at the parable itself, we need to take note of two things about the immediate context: 

Firstly, the parable is sandwiched between Luke’s purpose statement in verse one (on how one should not give up on prayer), and then our Lord’s own basic interpretation of the parable in verse 7 (concerning God’s certain positive response to his children’s prayers). 

Then secondly, we need to note yet another layer to this sandwich  - that the parable was told just after Jesus’ teaching on his return at the end of time…a time at which he will put all things to rights…and also that the parable was followed in verse 8 by another reference to justice achieved at the return of the Son of Man. 

As such the parable fits snugly between two layers – the first championing the value of persistent prayer and the second dealing with discouragement as a result of an apparent delay in the coming of the final just kingdom of God…a time, according to the prophet Jeremiah, when all will know God and when his Word will be internalized and thus be the source of just governance. 

So, given these two elements to consider, there are three dissimilar and yet similar interpretive possibilities.

The first focuses in on God as the Good Judge

The point here is precisely that God is not like the unjust judge who eventually gives in to the persistence of the widow. In one sense it is an echo of Jesus’ earlier teaching in which he compared human fathers with our Divine Father in the giving of good gifts to children. In Luke 11:13 Jesus stated: “If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father not give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” If we compare that teaching with what Jesus said in our parable here, then the meaning is quite simple: “If this unjust judge who neither feared God nor cared about people, would finally yield to the persistent supplications of a powerless and unprotected widow, then how much more will God — who is a good judge — answer your supplications!”

The point of the parable would then be that if persistence pays off with a corrupt human authority of finite power, how much more will it pay off with a good God of infinite power. As such, the purpose of the parable would be to encourage believers to persevere in their faith against all odds. 

But it also can be applied to those who work in positions of leadership. The comparison between a bad judge and a good God suggests that God’s purpose will be established even in a fallen and broken world in spite of a lack of human justice. This echoes the proverb: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21) In fact we can see this clearly if we look at history…no human being…no empire…no matter how powerful or how awful…triumphs in the end! 

They all come and go like the tides – but God’s kingdom continues forever. As the Psalmist says: “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever; the purposes of his heart through all generations.” (Psalm 33:10-11)

So, we could say that in this parable, Jesus teaches us that there is hope that even amid systemic breakdown of law and order, justice will be done. Consequently, as followers of this good God, we must endeavour to always work together towards this hope. Of course, we cannot right every wrong in the world in our lifetimes. But we must never give up hope, and we must never stop working for the greater good in the midst of the imperfect systems of our respective communities.

The second possibility focusses in on God as the Just Judge.

When I taught on the Intertestamental Period at St Frumentius College in Gambela, Ethiopia, the students (many of whom were refugees from South Sudan) identified with the painful struggle of Israel during this period between the two testaments – the so-called 400 silent years in which devout Jews repeatedly cried out to God for deliverance from foreign domination…seemingly without any positive Divine response. These students were also oppressed and exiled and were wondering why God appeared to be absent…why God seemed to be silent – indifferent to their anguish. 

Now, seen against this dark and sad backdrop, the parable may be seen to address the discouragement of Jesus’ followers who were and are still waiting for him to usher in the final kingdom of God, where there will be no more sorrow, or sadness, or strife.  As such, the parable is teaching us that, while it may seem that God is like this unjust judge, distant, aloof, unkind, or perhaps even cruel, it is not like that at all. God’s actions are always just, and he will vindicate his people BUT at the proper time. 

All we need to do is look at God’s track record, as it were…God has never abandoned his people…he has always come through for them.

Undeniably, it is true that ultimately only God can bring about justice in a broken and fallen world, but this means that we who claim to follow him must persist in prayer and not give up working towards establishing his kingdom here, so that his will might be done on earth as it is done in heaven. We must believe that God can and will bring miraculous justice in a corrupt world, just as God can bring miraculous healing in a sick world, as this is what Jesus wants us to understand when he adds at the end of the parable: “Will not God grant justice for his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?”

In this case, the focus of the interpretation of the parable would be to comfort and embolden those in distress and discouragement to persevere in faith and prayer. In other words, like the widow, we should persist in prayer and petition without ceasing, confident that God is just and that his justice will prevail in due course.

The final possibility focusses in on the widow as a pursuer of justice.

Widows at that time, as well as in many other societies today, were and still are extremely vulnerable. For this reason, the Scriptures often speak about the care of widows, orphans, and resident aliens, as being something we, as believers, ought to be concerned with because they need particular protection. 

But it is the persistence of this widow in her appeals for justice to the point of creating sufficient pressure to influence the actions of an unjust judge that teaches us not to desist in clamouring for justice in our world!

The reason why this unjust judge relented in the end is because of the effect this widow’s ceaseless complaints had on him. A more literal translation of the judge’s begrudging reason for capitulation would be that the woman was giving him “a black eye.”

The widow’s persistent complaints were like a two-edged sword, inflicting both physical and social distress. If there is one thing most leaders do not like it is public embarrassment or disgrace. Note that the judge relented, not because of a change of heart, but because his “appearance” was being damaged – and so his reluctant response was perhaps to deal with possible exposure and censure from society in general or even perhaps those in higher positions of authority. 

But my point is this: Sometimes it will take even intolerable behaviour…the proverbial dripping tap, if you will…to bring about justice.

When we look at the parable from this angle, we see that it functions as an encouragement for those suffering injustice, or for those who campaign on their behalf, to continue their complaints and calls for justice. We are reminded often in the Scriptures that our God gives special attention to those who are most vulnerable and so, as his children, we should also stand up for those who are oppressed in any way, even to the point of embarrassing the powers that be in order to induce change.

Whichever way we choose to look at our Lord’s parable, the main point remains the same. Persistence…never giving up even in the face of unrelenting resistance or of repeated defeat or of overwhelming discouragement. Never…never…never give up.

Now, I would like to end this talk with a story about a Native American by the name of Jim Thorpe. Jim represented the United States at the 1912 Olympics. 

Before the second day of the competition, Jim's shoes were stolen. Undeterred and unwavering in his resolve to compete, he managed to find two different shoes in a nearby garbage can.  One of the shoes was too big, so he wore an extra sock to make it fit. But here’s the kicker. Jim went on to win both the high jump gold medal as well as the 110-meter hurdle race gold medal with a time of 15.6 seconds. 

Wearing discarded, dissimilar shoes, Jim won two gold medals that day. He could have given up – no one would have blamed him – after all his shoes had been stolen…those he found did not fit him properly. Had Jim focussed on his losses…on his misfortune…on his lack of adequate equipment…he would not have persevered, and he would not have won two gold medals. 

Like the persistent widow, Jim teaches us that we ought not to give up nor resign to the excuses that threaten to hold us back from achieving whatever just and virtuous goal we may be pursuing. 

We must persist…we must persevere…

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2022