Parables of Jesus: The Persistent Widow

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0:00 The rest of us are going through these parables that Steve can daily us helping us learn about. And the parable that we're walking through today, we're moving through Luke, is in Luke chapter 18. If you want to look there right to the beginning of Luke chapter 18.

0:35 And it's kind of a tricky parable. He spends a lot of time, Dan Bailey does, thinking about the translation of it. And if you remember several of these parables, it's interesting because one of the things that I love about these parables, and the reason I want to look deeper at these parables, is it feels like so many of them are stories that just fell out of Jesus's brain, that have these deep meanings that we spend, you know, volumes trying to understand.

1:09 What's interesting, thanks, Ken Bailey, when you get into them, several of them are stories that exist in the Israelite canon, that Jesus is reinterpreting. And the points of similarities and differences can really, when you see where Jesus is going along with, say, the story of the vineyard we talked about or the great banquet, when you see where he's going along with it, you can understand what he's keeping.

1:39 But then when you look at the points of differentiation, you can see really the points that Jesus might be trying to make. And this one, this one, he quotes a parable that's very similar from this dude Ben Sirach, which I didn't, I had to look at, I had to google Ben Sirach. And Sirach is, there is a book called Sirach in the Apocrypha, and then, and then Sirach also wrote a enthusiasticist, which is also in the Apocrypha case, what is that? But there is a parable very similar to this one in the apocryphal books that are in the consciousness of first century Israel,

2:22 especially in the scholars of first century Israel. And there's a couple points of key differentiation, which we may re-enact it into. But let's look at Luke chapter 18 verse 1, Jesus, and he told them a parable to the effect that they always ought to pray and not lose heart. It's interesting that Luke, the writer here, tells us the intent for which Jesus gives this parable from the beginning.

2:58 So Jesus has just had this teaching about the coming of the kingdom of God and how you won't expect it, and it will come surprisingly, and you won't be able to predict who ends up on the good side of things and who ends up on the bad side of things when Jesus returns and the end comes. And then he tells them a parable that they might not lose heart in waiting. And he said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

3:28 The reason that tough is because the judges have to decide a lot of random things, and there's not a sense of particular order with which they decide the cases, meaning they can kind of take whichever cases they want. There's a story he describes, Ken Bailey does, of a courtroom similar, where there's all these people in front of this one judge, like in a room, clamoring, yelling for their case to be heard, and some kind of quiet counselor sitting here.

4:06 And the ones who get their cases heard are the ones who are able to go and get the ear of the counselors and usually pay them enough money that they go and whisper in the ear of the judge, and then the judge calls out the one in the room. There's a whole clamoring for things. And Jesus says that there is a certain judge, and then this idea of who neither feared God nor respected man, he said, is really understood as like, you can't embarrass the guy by talking about a sense of propriety or what ought to be done.

4:40 He, you can't shame him saying, I can't believe you would say this in front of God, or you would do this in front of women, or you would decide this case this way. There's no ethic you can appeal to the guy. So immediately when Jesus gives this description in first century of a judge in a place who neither respects God nor respects people nor fears men, you know that in order to get him to decide for you, he's not deciding based on what he does. He's not deciding based on what's right or wrong, and he's not taking cases in any kind of order.

5:14 In order to get him to decide for you, you have to either coerce him or bribe him. You have to either strong arm him or pay him to get the decision that you are. And so he's describing the situation where people that then hear it would know when you say that who neither feared God nor respected man, you got a strong arm this guy or bribe him. I feel like I got a lot of microphones thrown me off. And there was a widow, and it says, and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary.

5:51 So then the widow is the shorthand for, I mean, a widow is an actual person, but culturally they would know this person is completely disenfranchised. It's not hard to imagine that she doesn't have the money to bribe or the power to coerce. She's in a bad spot. Some widows had money, but if she had money, she wouldn't be yelling. She would be sliding it over.

6:21 So this one is one, and lots of times in the stories of scripture, God comes on behalf of the widow, right? Like the marginalized and the disenfranchised. And so Jesus is saying that there is a judge and this widow approaches her asking him to decide in her favor a problem. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary.

6:51 And for a while he refused. But afterward he said 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. But it is clear that the judge is not in the true, in a pure sense, a stand in for God because God does respect man and fears his own judgment.

7:26 He's trying to say that this judge is crooked and bad. And even a crooked and bad judge gives justice to this widow just to get her to go away. She's persistent. She's always here among the crowd, always calling out, hey judge, give me justice. She does not give up. I used to always think about this woman in the context of Jacob, remember, when Jacob wrestles with God on the banks of the river.

8:00 And he refuses to let God go until he blesses him. And he has this focus intent that says, this is the one who can give me something. And so I will continue to pursue him until he does. And then finally, of course, he carries the blessing along with the limp. And this woman does something similar. He recognizes he's got no other place to go. This judge is the only one who can do the right thing. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't help her to go somewhere else and try and get something.

8:32 The judge is the only one who can do it. And so she comes once and he ignores her. She comes again and again and again. And he ignores her. But she realizes I've got nowhere else to go. You might also remember when Jesus thanks to disciples and says, are you going to leave me? And they say, where else do we go? To whom shall we go Lord? You're the ones with the words of eternal life. So this woman recognizes the judge is the only place he can go. And so she just keeps coming to the judge.

9:02 And finally, the persistence pays off and the crooked judge gives her justice. 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. And the Lord says, hear what the unrighteous judge says, which I will give justice. And will not God give justice to his elect who cries at him day and night?

9:43 That can be you. His elect who cry to him day and night. And I was thinking, I mean, I have conversation pretty regularly with God. I don't know if it's every day or every night, but definitely feels like that. But I don't know that the content of my prayer often is God give me justice.

10:16 That interesting. I've been thinking about justice affair amount almost a year ago. I spent a good amount of time kind of researching what is justice in the reign of God. And landed on this idea that the justice in the reign of God is built on the Latin phrase the Imadogade, the image of God in all humanity.

10:49 Justice means that the image bears of God get appropriate honor, respect, dignity and do glory. They get the proper glory meaning we see the image of God and acknowledge it as such and treat it as such in all humanity. And so if the justice of God is not litigious, I think part of the reason that I struggle with asking God for justice is because the notion of justice in our culture is so kind of compounded and weird.

11:33 There's a whole system built up around insurance and losses and money where Morgan and Morgan is for the people somehow. Again, I believe he's like doing their good work in there, but like justice is not merely taking money from large companies and insurance companies and giving it. Justice is also not like disproportionately doled out on the marginalizing of disenfranchised, like our cultural notion of the criminal justice system where somehow like people of color get far worse.

12:23 I think we have trouble surfacing a fair and noble notion of justice. Even to the fact where it's like sometimes the idea of pursuing justice might be merely vengeance or retribution such that pursuing justice might be actually beneath God because it's caught up with an inability to forgive

13:01 if we could merely forgive then we don't need justice. And so for me, my conversations with God are very rarely petitioning him for justice. I began to think if I were, then before I go there. Then justice in the reign of God would mean that you get all that you are due as an image bearer of God.

13:45 The justice of God is appropriately within the scope only of the divine. So it's hard to imagine it even being possible that you would get all respect that you are due from the time you are born until the time that he calls you home, that you would get all love and affirmation that you are due, that you would get all respect and resources. That you would not be robbed or deprived or you would not experience lack.

14:22 You are an image bearer of God. You walk with authority, power and creativity in the world. Justice of God would mean you get all that that is due. And I begin to ask then to consider if I were to ask God for the justice I am due. Oh, actually faces come to mind of people who have wronged me, who have not loved me as they are, who have taken, who have used me,

15:16 who have inappropriately assigned blame to me. People who have genuinely wounded me. And I realized as I sat with the question if I were to ask God for that kind of justice, the justice of the reign of God, what would my prayers look like? I realized I gave up on the justice of God a long time ago.

15:47 I just gave up on it. Somehow that it was not attainable for me or practical or worse actually that I did not deserve the justice of God. That actually I got the love I deserved. I got the respect I deserved. I got the opportunities only that I deserved.

16:19 I got wounded when it was appropriate, when it was my fault. I gave up on the justice of God. That's why it doesn't come into my prayers very often. Not because I need justice. Not because I don't need justice. It doesn't come into my prayers very often because I've forgotten one that's forgotten what the justice of God is, and then two I gave up on the justice of God.

16:49 And Jesus tells this parable of this woman, God bless her, who did not give up on justice and kept coming back. Then it is interesting that Jesus says, and the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge said, and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? God's love for you is such that he will not let injustice go.

17:40 He will not let injustice stand. He will give you back what his image in you demands, what who you are demands, the respect, the love, the opportunity, the agency. He will repair the wounds, and he will extract from others who have taken from you.

18:14 I don't know what that looks like, but I know that folks have used me to do something for themselves. And what I hear God saying is, he'll take the portions of me that they have robbed back and restore me to whole. He'll undo the pain. He'll take the ways that people have robbed from me. He will take back to them and restore me to whole. God says, he will give justice to his elect. Look at you.

18:48 Justice. And then there's this phrase that I'm grateful for, can daily giving to us here, because he says that this thing about, will he delay long over them? Is a bad translation, that it shouldn't be a question, and the delay is about the patience of God.

19:21 He's about to flip it. Jesus is about to flip it here. So the first part that I have missed so often when I read this is the part which is covered. Because I had given up so thoroughly on the justice of God for me. So the first part I want you to see is the whole premise of this parable is that you, like the widow, need justice. And he's encouraging you, like the widow, to know where to go, to get the love that you are deserving.

20:01 To repair the wounds, don't run other places that can't solve your need for love, agency, wound, goodness. Run to the judge, no matter how many times you feel like he turns you down, run back there. The only one who has the authority to give you justice, and Jesus says that he will. But then he does, says this thing, it says he will not, he will have patience or he will not delay. And the same word is used in Romans chapter, a couple of places, but first let's look at Romans chapter 2, verse 4.

20:37 The same word here that's translated delay long over them. He, in Paul, in Romans, says, he's talking about how we should judge others. Do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God, verse 4.

21:08 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Jesus does this thing where he flips the parable in order to communicate two things at one time. Because when I begin to ask the Lord for justice and take honestly the question of what justice I owe, I mentioned faces come to mind of people who have not loved me the way they ought, people who have taken from me when they ought not, people who have inflicted wounds on me in order to make themselves feel better.

21:50 All these faces start to come to mind, they say, Lord give me justice in these places. And I don't walk down that road very long until I begin to wonder whose mind does my face flash in when they ask the Lord for justice. I need justice and also I am a terrible perpetrator of injustice in the world. No matter how hard I try, I cannot love my kids and my wife the way I ought.

22:24 I cannot serve in the city the way I would like. I cannot be the brother that I hoped I would be. I just can't be the friend that I'd like to be. In fact, I find myself taking from others, just as others have taken from me. And so Jesus says, will he not give justice to his elect and then he will have patience with his elect.

22:57 And Paul calls us out that his patience with us is intended to lead us to repentance. And that's the same word here in delay long. And I want to look at one other place because it's really cool. In 1 Timothy, oh, a couple more places. 1 Timothy, stand by. 1 Timothy 1 verse 15 and 16.

23:32 This is Paul again. This thing is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. The Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners. This is Paul of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the king of ages immortal and visible the only God the honor, glory, whatever, and never on that.

24:05 Paul says this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. And I received this mercy as the foremost that Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example. It's okay that you are this imperfect mess.

24:49 That's okay. Jesus says that God the Father is perfectly patient. In fact, He came into the world to rescue the imperfect ones. He can restore justice for them as well.

25:19 Trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And then the last one looks like a second Peter chapter three all the way to the right. First of all, at the end of this Peter talks about how hard it is to understand his brother Paul. I never read that part.

25:49 Paul wrote some things that were hard to understand don't be distracted by his complexities and let us stray because you can't understand what he's writing. Which I never caught that in there before but it's at the end chapter three here. In every verse nine first, well verse nine verse eight, but do not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise of some count slowness but is patient towards you.

26:20 Not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. And then down to verse 15. Well 14 therefore beloved since you are waiting for these be diligent to be found by him without spot of blemish and that peace and count the patience of the Lord as salvation. Just as our beloved brother Paul wrote according to you the wisdom given him.

26:50 Count the patience of God as your salvation. Will he delay long over them? He will not. And so I tell you he will give justice to them speedily. He will give justice to them speedily. The last thing I want to say here and it comes up here. Nevertheless when the son of man comes will he find faith on earth.

27:23 The whole premise of this parable is that there is wrong in the world that needs to be dealt with. That you and I have had wrong done to us and we have perpetrated wrong in the world. Jesus tells the parable in order to paint the picture that the God from whom he comes,

28:01 whom he represents and whose image you all bear. This God knows how to rescue justice from all the wrong mired down in the world. And the answer for us is to come to that judge, repentant of our own wrong and asking for justice for the wrong done to us. Both. Repenting of our own wrong and asking for justice for the wrong done to us.

28:37 Both. And when we recognize that God is the only one who can rescue justice from our mess. Then we begin to find salvation like rescue. Things set to right again in him. He says we'll get it speedily. I think this is what Paul is explaining when he starts to find out that he has a foretaste of the kingdom to come.

29:13 He calls it a deposit of the spirit in one place. He calls it the fruit of the spirit in another. He can't believe he's begun to taste salvation now. Everything is set to right. What it looks like feels like experiences like to live as we were intending. Whole and just. It comes at the gift of the judge. So I hope that we can be people who don't give up on God's justice for us.

29:47 Who aren't so wounded that we give up. Like the widow we keep coming back that God would execute justice for us. And that we would also come with humility and repentance receiving his forbearance as salvation. Right. Hey Lord thank you for the clarity that your image in the world in each of us deserves honor and respect and glory.

30:23 That image is the bedrock of justice. Or teach us to be people who pursue you for justice in the world and for justice for ourselves. Or that your love is not obligatory but passionate and defend us. And Lord also give us humility and repentance that you might forgive us for the long we have perpetrated in life.

30:58 And Jesus name we pray.