Comparison & Contrast I - The Unjust Judge and the Tenacious Widow

22nd Sunday after Pentecost (Ordinary Time/UM Kingdomtide), C

United Methodist Laity Sunday

Luke 18:1-8

October 20, 2013

(Image courtesy of Misioneros del Sagrada Corazon en el Peru)

Introduction

For two Sundays, we will be having two comparison-and-contrast texts. Today we have the Parable of the Unjust Judge and the Widow (Luke 18:1-8); next Sunday we will have the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14).

As an English teacher, I cannot help but notice that the rhetorical pattern used in these patterns is comparison and contrast. According to Patterns of College Writing (8th ed.) by Laurie G. Kirzner and Stephen R. Mandell (2001), comparison “shows how two or more things are similar” while contrast “shows how they are different”. However, these related processes are often used together in writing situations.

In today’s Gospel reading, we compare the persistent widow with the “elect” (v. 7) and the unjust judge with God (v. 7).

The Parable. Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples (cf. 17:22, on one of Jesus’ sayings on the end times) “that they ought always to pray, and not faint” (v. 1, John Wesley New Testament). The two characters are “a judge which feared not God nor reverenced man” (v. 2) and a widow who is asking him to do her justice against her adversary (v. 3). The judge, though he admits that he does not fear God nor reverence man (v. 4) eventually did the widow justice because her continual coming will weary him out. (v. 5). Jesus goes on the compare the widow with the “elect” and contrast the unjust judge with God.

I. The Unjust Judge and God.

The unjust judge is described as one who “feared not God nor reverenced man” (v. 2)—and he himself admits that he is such (v. 4). Jesus used an unjust judge as a character in his parable not that God would be compared to him but so that God would be contrasted with him. This makes the contrast between the two even clearer.

Meanwhile, the Father is described to be good. In another passage on prayer in Luke, Jesus compares and contrasts “evil” fathers who are kind enough to provide for the food of their children to the heavenly Father:

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, for fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:11-13)

Another thing about the unjust just is that while the widow was asking for justice, “he would not for a while” (v. 4) (i.e., he would not give justice to the widow for a certain length of time). However, he finally relented because the widow “giveth me trouble” and he was worried that she would “by continual coming…weary me out”.

Meanwhile, Jesus said that God “will vindicate his own elect” (v. 7) and vindicate them “speedily” (v. 8). But does this mean that God gives the answer of prayers immediately? We will discuss this below.

II. The Persistent Widow and the Elect.

According to Bishop Emerito P. Nacpil (1998), in his book Jesus’ Strategy for Social Transformation, the widow, along with the orphan and the stranger, are symbols of poverty in the Bible.

The “widow” is one who through the death of her husband has been deprived of her means of support and protection. She has been rendered poor, and no one would provide for her. And so the widow symbolizes the deprived one, the one who has been made poor through no fault of her own, and for whose care, provisions, and protection no one is under any obligation to render. She is also completely dependent on the goodwill of others who would voluntarily help. (p. 42)

Since widows have been deprived of a husband who will protect and provide for her, we can imagine that they are often the victim of others. In the parable, the widow is asking the judge to “do justice” for her (Greek εκδικεω, ekdikeō, which means ‘to vindicate one’s right’ or ‘to avenge’) because of her adversary (αντιδικος, antidikos, ‘an opponent in a suit of law’). Her “adversary” may be someone who has hurt her in some way, or someone who is her opponent in court (or perhaps trying to defraud her in court?).

The widow needed to be persistent in this case because the unjust judge has been denying her justice for some time. And judge finally yielded because she was “troubling” and “wearing him out”. But God is not like the unjust judge. In the Apocrypha we read,

But offer no bribes [to God], these he does not accept!

Trust not in sacrifice of the fruits of extortion,

For he is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.

Though not duly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cries of the oppressed.

He is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint.

(Sirach 36:11-14, New American Bible, 1987)

The elect does not need to “trouble” or “wear out” God because he not an unjust judge. Jesus promised that God “shall…vindicate his own elect” because they “cry to him day and night” (v. 7).

Does Jesus promise that God will immediately answer all prayer? Because he said, “I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily” (v. 8). This would contradict the tenor of the whole passage, and the “whole tenor of Scripture” because immediately preceding Jesus said that the elect “cry to him day and night though he bear long (μακροθυμεω, makrothumeō; makro ‘large’ + thumeō ‘heat’ = ‘to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart’) with them” (v. 7).

Conclusion: Will he find faith upon earth?

“Yet when the Son of man cometh, will he find faith upon earth?” (v. 8) These words of Jesus may seem cryptic at first, but we can see how this fits to the whole passage. Jesus told this parable so that the disciples—and we—ought always to pray, and not faint. Jesus gave us the parable of the persistent widow as an example of crying out to God day and night, though the answer may take long. It may take so long that perhaps some of us may lose heart. So when Jesus returns, will he still find us persistent in prayer and not faint? Will he still find faith upon the earth?”

Yet notwithstanding all the instances both of his long suffering and of his justice, whenever he shall remarkably appear, against their enemies in this age or in after ages, how few true believers will be found upon earth! (Notes Upon the New Testament)

* * *

Two of today’s lectionary readings in quoted in John Wesley’s sermon “The Means of Grace” (Sermon 16). Here we have the second reading, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, which is on Scripture, and the Gospel reading, Luke 18:1-8, which is on prayer. What does Wesley mean by “the means of grace”?

By “means of grace” I understand outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God, and appointed for this end, to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men, preventing [now called “prevenient”], justifying, or sanctifying grace.

 These “means of grace” include public and private prayer, searching the Scriptures, and receiving the Lord’s Supper.

He goes on to say that these outward means of grace are meaningless without the Spirit of God. On prayer, Wesley says, “[A]ll who desire the grace of God are to wait for it in the way of prayer. This is the express direction of our Lord himself.” One of the scriptures he uses on prayer is parable of the persistent widow.

The application of this our Lord himself hath made: “Hear what the unjust judge saith!” Because she continues to ask, because she will take no denial, therefore I will avenge her. “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him? I tell you he will avenge them speedily,” if they pray and faint not.

On Scripture, Wesley says,

All who desire the grace of God are to wait for it in searching the Scriptures. Our Lord’s direction, with regard to the use of this means, is likewise plain and clear. “Search the Scriptures,” saith he to the unbelieving Jews, “for they testify of me.” (John 5:39.) And for this very end did he direct them to search the Scriptures, that they might believe in him.

And one of the scriptures Wesley uses in this section is 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5:

And that this is a means whereby God not only gives, but also confirms and increases, true wisdom, we learn from the words of St. Paul to Timothy: “From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 3:15.) The same truth (namely, that this is the great means God has ordained for conveying his manifold grace to man) is delivered, in the fullest manner that can be conceived, in the words which immediately follow: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God;” consequently, all Scripture is infallibly true; “and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;” to the end “that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17.)