Luke
18:1-8
Jesus
tells us a parable. About a Judge and a Widow.
The
Gospel writer begins by telling us Jesus told a parable about how to pray and
not give up. Now, I don’t know about you, but as I have been working through
the gospel of Luke this year, I have noticed that what seems to be the main
point at the beginning of a parable is always really the point. Most parables
are not so straight forward for us to be able to interpret the intention from
the beginning.
Sometimes
forget what it means for something to be a parable. Images of lost sheep, women
making bread dough, and farmers planting seeds, might lull us to believe these
are nice stories, with a simple point. Often times we think of parables as
things which can be summed up in a child’s coloring picture, or can be
presented simply on a felt board with minimal attention to details, but when it
comes to parable the meaning is often in the details. We can only really come
to understand the hard truths Jesus is attempting to teach us when we really pay
attention. This is because parables were not
simple morality tales presenting simple ideas which could be half-listened to
and easily understood. They were storied that were on the edge, just a bit
avant-garde. Nobody does what they are supposed to be doing. Father runs after
wayward sons and masters invite people from the street to the banquet. These
stories are told to make us think, they turn normal convention on its head and
never end the way they are supposed to. So when the Gospel writer says, Jesus
told a parable to teach them to pray and never give up, know there is more to
the story than just that.
So
let’s look at this parable closely. Who
are our characters? We have the Judge, and the woman. That seems pretty
straight forward. So we have this judge, but he is not just any judge, the
first thing we are told is that this particular judge, neither fears God, nor has
any respect for people. He has no respect for God or God’s laws, most notably,
in this instance, would be any laws which told the people of God how to treat
widows. This is a short hand way of saying that this man did not care about the
laws of God, or the laws of the land. It is also another way for Jesus to let
his audience know this is the kind of person who does not follow what he calls
the greatest commandments, to love God and to love others. This judge, he does
neither. He is in it for himself. He is a self-serving, selfish man and we can
only assume when it comes to his judgments, his judgments are those which benefit
himself; he serve his own needs.
This
kind self-serving nature is not highly sought after in most human beings, but
it is particularly poor set of traits to have in a judge who is supposed to settle
disputes, right wrongs, make sure the community is run fairly and that everyone
is properly taken care of. We can only
assume that this particular judge is not a very good judge at all.
Then
we have the widow. A widow, at this time and place in history, would have been
totally reliant upon others for her existence. As a widow she had no husband to
take care of her, and would more likely than not, she had small children who
depended upon her, and she had no way to provide for them. God gave
instructions about how widows were to be cared for and not neglected. Extended
family were to provide for them, the community was supposed to have safe
guards, such as leaving the edges of your field un-reaped, so that a woman
would never be completely without a way to feed herself and her children. Not
only did women have no way to provide for themselves but they were not allowed
to speak at all in court, so others were to be advocates for her. Apparently this
particular widow had no one who was willing to speak for her in court. Her
father was probably dead, she had no brothers. There was no one who could seek
the justice she deserved on her behalf. She is forced to find other means to
seek justice from the judge.
So
she comes to him seeking to be heard. But she does not come to him once or
twice; scripture tells she keeps coming to him. The image we get is that she is
incessant, unrelenting; persistent is the word we like to use. She does not pause,
she does not give up. She just keeps
coming demanding justice from this judge.
But
it is more than “justice” she is seeking, the word used in the original
language actually stronger than “justice.” The word here is closer to
recompense or vengeance; she wants her adversary punished, to have to pay the
price for his/her misdeeds. This is the kind of thing a person demands when
terrible damage has been done. She has been abused, misused. Someone has
repeatedly taken advantage of her, and it is no small thing. She needs a good
judge, a fair judge, one who believes in righteousness and requiring people to
pay the consequences for thier misdeeds. She needs a judge who is willing to
step in and not only make the person stop, but force her/him to repay her for
what was done to her, and dole out a just punishment to assure that this person
can never do this to her (or others like her again.) But there is no just judger in this community
there is just this judge. He does not care about justice for her or for anybody
for that matter.
She
is hopeless, she is alone, she has no one to speak for her, and no one to
defend her. She is at her wits end. So she is continually coming to this man seeking
justice in the face of a dominant opponent. She is not coming quietly or
kindly. She does not come to him with her head bowed and her eyes down cast to
meekly beg that he do what is right by her. She comes with eyes blazing, with
her voice raised, with her fist in the air, ready to do battle to fight for
what she deserves.
Now
let’s face it this is not the image of helplessness and hopelessness to which
we are most drawn. We don’t like it when people raise their voices too loud. We
don’t like it when someone, especially a woman, speaks with fire in her eyes,
and venom in her words. We especially don’t like it when there is anger and
rage behind that fire. But the image Jesus is painting is of a woman will to
fight, her way out of the corner she is in. She is a caged warrior, with her
voice and her fists raised.
Her
adversary is misusing her in some way and her only hope is this dishonest,
self-serving, judge who cares nothing about the law, cares nothing about God
and therefore what the Torah says about taking care of and defending the widows;
who cares nothing about other people or what others in their community think.
So there is no social pressure to do the right thing, so that others will think
highly of him. He is only in it for himself and she has nothing to offer. So
she pesters him, night and day. She comes at him with all her anger, all her
frustration, all her pent up aggression and rage.
And
it works. The judge is afraid of her. He is literally
afraid her. The Greek says he gives in least she punches him in the face and gives
him a black eye. I am serious the word here, it is a boxing term, which means
just that; the act punching somebody in the face and giving them a black eye.
He thinks she will do him bodily harm. So in the end giving her justice and
retribution is in his best interest, out of a sense self-preservation.
And
least this parable is too transparent, too easily understood, Jesus then
compares God to the judge. Except, God
the GOOD judge. God is not like the judge. If even the unjust judge would give the widow
the vengeance, the justice, the retribution she deserves, don’t you think God
is better than that. God will give the widow her justice, not because she
badgers, or comes with her fists raises, but because God is always on the side
of the righteous. God is righteous and will do what is righteous. So widows who
come to God seeking justice will get the justice they deserve.
So
when it comes to praying, we can assume God is just, and fair. If the judge in
the parable who has no respect for God, the laws of God or other people, what
they think or the laws of the land, will eventually relent and give into the
widow’s cry for justice, won’t God, who is GOOD, be much more willing to answer
your prayers, to give you the justice you deserve? God is good and gracious and
desires to answer your prayers
That
is a nice thing to say about God and not at all untrue. Somewhat unsatisfying?
When looking at the introduction and
the decision to choose the unjust judge as a primary character we can say
perhaps that God is more than Good but God is JUST.
Even
the unjust judge is moved to justice when the widow pursues him and pesters
him. God is not like the unjust judge,
god is good. God will actively pursue justice for those who have been wronged.
God is on the side of those who are abused, misused, tormented and broken down
by others, by our society, by the unjust systems which surround us every day.
God is just, God is righteousness and it is God’s desire to bring justice and
righteousness into the lives, to societies, to systems where justice and
righteousness are lacking.
If
the unjust judge will hear the widow’s cry for justice won’t God also hear our
cries? When we feel that the injustice
in the world around us is too much; when we see our own lives and the lives of
those around torn to pieces; when we are abused, when those around us are
misused, when people are disallowed from speaking out for themselves, we can
cry out to God in our distress and keep crying out to God, knowing that God too
desires justice in our world. And we don’t have to be pretty about it. We can
cry out in our anger. We can come to God with our voices raised, with pain in
our voices, with fire in our eyes, with our fists raised ready to fight for
what is right. That is
comforting. Even as we see the injustice
in our lives and in our world, we can know that God hears our cries for justice
and can be confident that, in time, God’s justice will prevail. God is always
seeking justice, and recompense. It is God’s desire that all wrongs will be set
right, that justice and righteousness will be restored to all the earth; THAT
is what it means when we say Jesus came to bring redemption to all. The
salvation Jesus brings if not only for us, and for our spiritual lives, but it
is for our whole beings, for our wholes lives. It is salvation for you and me;
for society and for the whole world. God will not stop, bringing justice and
righteousness until all things are set right; till God’s kingdom reigns in all
thing, till God’s will is done on all the earth, as it is done in Heaven.
This
brings us to the final sentence in this passage, Jesus ends by asking the
question, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Jesus tells
this parable about this horrible judge and this angry widow and then looks up
at his disciples, at all those who have gathered around him, listening to him,
trying to figure out what in the world is he trying to tell them. God is a
heathen judge. God listens to loud vengeful women. He looks them all straight
in the eye and he says, “Will I find faith here on earth?”
This
is a question for the community. Not for the judge, not for the widow. It is a
question for us, for the people of God everywhere. Jesus asks this question of
his audience. He poses it to all those listening to this parable, to all those
who had gathered there that particular day and all of us who are leaning in
close to listen, all these centuries later. Jesus asks us, when he returns, “Will he find
faith, among us?”
Where
justice is required where will we
be? Will the “widow” be by herself crying for justice, or will we join her in
her plea. Will we stand beside her, amplify her cry, so it will be heard. Will
we work, so that she can be set free from her oppression, will we be advocates
for justice. Or will we stand by while she fights against an unjust system,
where her voice cannot be heard? Will we
tsk and shake our heads at her fury and tell her to calm down. Tell her that
her yelling is hard to hear, that her anger makes her wrong? The rage within
her is ungodly and unseemly. A woman in her position can’t afford to raise her
fist, to fight so hard. She is doing more damage to her cause than good. Sshh,
calm down, be still. Will allow ourselves to step aside from her plight, to
turn a blind eye and ignore he pain, her suffering? Will stand with the unjust
system in our complacence? Will we be more like the unjust judge, who does not
care about her or plight? Or will we join God in God’s work to bring justice?
Will we cry out with her? Will we raise our voices, raise our fists, and allow
her anger to fuel he fires of justice within us?
Will
we join with God, as God seeks to bring justice to the widows who are all
around us? You see, this is not about will God join us in our search for
justice for ourselves and for others, but will we join God as God works to
bring justice to our world; to all those
who suffer from injustice. We should be
persistent in this, BECAUSE God is a God who is ALREADY seeking justice and we
should join God’s persistent pursuit. We should be as persistent about is as
this woman, because God is.
Three
ways to understand this passage, three things we can walk away with this today.
One
tells us God is good and that we should expect goodness form God. We should
pray for the things we want and keep on praying, expecting God to hear our
pleas and answer our prayers. Pray and keep on praying, to never give up, to
continually seek God. It tells us that it is ok to come to God in our
anger. We can yell at God, scream at
God. We don’t have to be quiet, nice, and demure with God. We can come to God
with all our raw, loud, unseemly emotions and know that it is Ok. God is not
turned off by it. God will not look away because we cried to hard, screamed too
loud, or spoke out in our anger and our rage. (Or our hurt or our fear, our
loneliness, or whatever real emotion with which we might cry out to god) That
is one way to understand this passage and it is not wrong.
We
could also walk about from this passage knowing that God is just and that we
should expect justice from God. God will work and is working to right the
wrongs all around us. God is always at work bring restoration to all the broken
places in this world. We can rest assured that God’s salvation is bigger and
broader than perhaps we previous believed. God is seeking to bring salvation to
all those who are beaten down, torn apart, abused, disused and thrown out. God
is working to bring redemption to all the dark places of this world. God not
only wants to restore lives, but to
bring restoration, to the broken systems in our world God is seeking bring
justice into our societies, to bring righteousness into the fabric of our
nation, of all nations. God’s redemption, God’s righteous is international.
God’s plan for redemption is global. God is seeking to set right all the
wrongs, in all the places where humans are hurting, abandoned, and broken by
systems, by movement, by agencies and by one another, where ever they are.
Finally
this passage informs us about who God is, shows us the heart of a Good, Loving,
Just God. It does not tell merely tell us what we can expect from God, it invites us
to join with God in what God is doing in this world. Jesus is holding out his hand and saying, “I
hear you; I understand your plea, because my heart is already there. Join me and we will seek this together.” Jesus is calling us to stand with the widow,
and with all those who need justice, whose voices cannot be heard as they cry
for vengeance, for the wrongs committed against them to be made right, who are
ignored when recompense is needed. Just says, stand with me, join with me. I am
the a just judge and I will work for the good of all who are wronged, you can
be the community who surrounds these who are broken and beat down, you can
stand with the ones who are abused and misused, who are ignored and cast aside,
you can be a part of the people of God who speak out on behalf of the
voiceless, who raise join in their plea and make known the plight of those who
would otherwise go unseen. Join with me, because this is the work I am doing.
Will I find faith among you?
Let
us join together; knowing that as we do so, we are joining with God to bring
justice into our world. We are still
called to pray, we are still called to persistence but we are also called to
action.
No comments:
Post a Comment