Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”Many folks, upon reading this, are troubled by two things:
Problem #1: We're not used to hearing stories with unjust people as the main character in the Bible, especially when that story appears to justify nagging.
We have to remember here that the point of any parable is not contained in the story itself. A parable points to a message beyond itself. The parable of the sower is not about farmers and birds, but about how God's word hits us. This parable is not about grumpy judges and persistent widows. The Bible tells us what it's about before word one: always talking to God and never losing heart.
The unjust judge doesn't really exist. You can tell he's a caricature by the way he's described: neither fearing God nor caring what people think. He's the most darn dastardly judge there's ever been. If this were a Western movie he'd be wearing a black hat. He even describes himself this way! "I am Black Bart, the judge who neither fears God nor respects other human beings! Mwahahahahaaaa!"
The widow doesn't exist either. All we know about her is that she is a widow, which means she's probably poor, neglected, of little standing. We have no idea of the merits of her court case. Her adversary isn't named. She just calls him "my adversary". We do know that she won't stop asking the judge for justice no matter what. She bothers him day and night to get whatever she's in desperate need of.
Neither character is the center of the story. Rather the judge's conclusion is. He doesn't care about her, about her case, about justice at all. He just wants to get her off his back. So he grants her request, if nothing else to hush her up! This dispensing of justice by the Worst Judge in the World is the main act, the tipping point of the story.
The message here gets explained by Jesus himself. If the worst black-hatted guy in the world will grant justice to a woman of no standing just because she needs it enough to keep asking (to not give up) won't God grant his children justice as well? After all God is the best being in the universe, not the worst. If even the lowest common denominator person does this, how much more will God?
Problem #2: At first glance the story appears to say, "Ask for anything you want and you'll get it, just as long as you ask every day!"
This bugs us even more than the first. Each of us has a story of wanting a pony more than anything else in the world when we were little, of asking and asking, but never getting it. Broken hearts, getting sick, people dying, and a hundred other things all appear to give the lie to this story. We're tempted to be cynical or to express our anger by saying, "I didn't get what I needed, Jesus! None of this is true. If you really cared you would have helped me!"
Really, though, this isn't a parable about getting everything you want. This is a story about what happens precisely when you don't get everything you want...when those prayers appear to go unanswered.
Lots of people say--or at least imply--that faith is about winning. If you get rich, stay healthy, appear to live a charmed life then God has blessed you. That's his job, to make you happy. That's the "reward" you earn for your "faith". Plenty of churches and individuals trade on this message. "We have the super secret way to get God to bless you! You can be a winner too!"
Faith isn't about winning. We know this because none of us wins! Nobody gets out of this life alive. Nobody gets out of this life without getting hurt really badly either. From that first broken heart to the last goodbye, the world seems to be in the business of emptying us out and roughing us up. No amount of money or distraction will let us avoid that reality.
In the theological sense, none of us remains sinless throughout our lives. It's impossible. If we claim it, we're fibbing. Jesus Christ died on the cross not for the winners, but the losers...those destined to perish without him. That's all of us.
Faith isn't about winning. Faith is what happens when you lose. Jesus defines faith at the end of this gospel by asking how much he'll find on earth. But he's not asking how many winning, holy-seeming people with charmed lives he'll find. He's asking how many people he'll find who haven't given up despite their hardships. He's not asking how many people he'll find whose prayers have been answered; he's asking how many people he'll find with enough trust and courage to ask anyway even if they thing they're not getting a response.
This gospel reading isn't for the magically charmed, the holier-than-everybody. It's for everybody who has cried out in the night with a problem impossible to solve. It's for everybody who's mourned something that's never coming back this side of heaven. It's for everybody who's ever looked at themselves and seen a flawed, unworthy person...anything less than beautiful. The message is simple: hang on. God is coming. And he will deliver justice. He will uplift you. It's real and it's yours. There will be a life of peace, love, and joy for us and for our loved ones. Nothing will stain that life, nothing bad will remain, and it will never, ever end. We will get glimpses of it in earthly joy and earthly justice, but even those are only temporary reflections. Justice is on its way. Truth will prevail. Love conquers all. None of that is in doubt. The only question is whether we'll remember to believe in that promise...whether our hope for a brighter day will endure and whether we'll remember to keep asking for it to come.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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