The first is the “Parable of the Unjust Judge” (vv. 1-8). In the first verse, Luke provides us with a lens for understanding the subsequent parable. He says that Jesus taught this parable about the “need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Jesus begins the parable in the next verse by setting the scene. In a certain town there was a certain judge. In the Hebrew Scriptures and tradition, the role and duty of a judge was to maintain social harmony and adjudicate conflicts between Israelites. Judges were expected to be fair and impartial. In Deuteronomy, a biblical book, Moses’ instructions to judges include these words: “Give the member of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between one person and another; whether citizen or resident alien. You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s” (Deuteronomy 1: 16-17).
Judges were also expected to watch out for and protect weak and vulnerable members of society. Among the most powerless members of society were widows. According to the Jewish law, widows were prohibited from inheriting any property when their husbands died. Instead, by law, all of the deceased man’s property went to either his brothers—or, the husband’s sons, if they were of legal age. Since in Jewish culture there was no Social Security or Medicare or other forms of social support, widows and their orphaned children were some of the most vulnerable and marginalized persons in the community. This meant that there were frequent legal disputes among families.
In his parable, Jesus describes the judge as someone “who neither feared God nor had respect for people.” In other words, this man was not fit to serve as a judge because he could not be relied upon to be fair and impartial--or to watch out for the marginalized members of society. Sure enough, when a widow brings a complaint to him for judgment, he has no interest in helping her receive justice. Jesus does not tell us what the widow’s complaint is, but he clearly intends for us to infer that the widow’s case is legally justified.
Since the judge refuses to act on the widow’s case, she is forced to press it repeatedly. We can imagine that every day, the widow seeks out the judge, pleading for justice. At first the judge ignores her, but after some time he finds her constant supplications tiresome and bothersome. So, ultimately he decides to rule in her favor, just to get her out of his hair.
At this point, Jesus draws a comparison. “Listen to what the unjust judge says,” Jesus tells his audience. If an unjust judge will grant justice because he is worn out by the constant supplication of the widow, how much more likely is God to grant justice to “his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?” Jesus’ comparison is a special type of comparison, moving from the lesser-to-the-greater. That is, if an unjust judge will grant justice because he is tired of the widow’s persistent pleading, how much more likely is it that God, who is compassionate and just, will respond to our continual prayers? Then, Jesus goes on to affirm: “I tell you, God will quickly grant justice to them.”
There is a serious danger with mis-interpreting this parable, if we are not very careful here. Read superficially, the parable seems to imply that God will grant all of our desires if we are simply persistent in our prayers. Unfortunately, this is the way many Christians think about God and prayer in our culture. Viewed erroneously from this perspective, God becomes nothing more than a giant genie from a magic bottle, who will grant our every wish and desire, if we only pray long enough, pleading with God to grant our wishes and desires.
The key to avoid such a superficial and erroneous understanding is to focus on how Jesus describes God in the parable. God is compassionate and just, seeking the well-being and flourishing of all. As the biblical scholar R. Alan Culpepper observes in The New Interpreter’s Bible:
“Once God’s
compassionate nature has been clearly stated, then the call to pray and not
lose heart takes on a different tone.
The God to whom we pray is compassionate, ready to respond to the needs
of the powerless and oppressed. How does
such a God hear our prayers if they are self-centered, concerned with only petty
issues, or irrelevant to God’s redemptive purposes? To those who are worn out, hard pressed, and
lacking in hope, Jesus says to pray night and day. …To those who have it in their power to
relieve the distress of the widow, the orphan, and the stranger but do not, the
call to pray night and day is a command to let the priorities of God’s
compassion reorder the priorities of their lives. …therefore, the unjust judge and persistent
widow calls for a reexamination of our faith.”
For those of us who are privileged and
comfortable, prayer may be more about re-ordering our priorities and aligning
them with God’s priorities, rather than making a wish list and treating God as
a magic genie. In a second, complementary parable on prayer, Jesus tells the story of two men who went up to the Temple to pray. The first man was a Pharisee. In the culture of the New Testament, Pharisees were very devout Jews. They were very assiduous in keeping all of the Jewish laws, including fasting two days a week and giving a tenth of their income to the Temple. They were religious over achievers. And, in the parable, this Pharisee was very proud and arrogant of his devout religiosity. His prayer is one of self-congratulations: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”
The second man was a “tax collector.” Here, it is important to understand that a tax collector in New Testament times was not the same as someone who works for the tax division of the government today. At the time when Jesus tells this parable, tax collectors were seen as evil, dishonest, traitors of their country. We need to remember that Jesus’ country had been militarily conquered and occupied by the Roman Empire, which took out money and resources and reduced it to servitude. To collect taxes, the Romans recruited Jews who went around their home region and collected the taxes from their Jewish countrymen. These tax collectors did not receive any salary. Instead, the Romans simply assumed and encouraged the Jewish tax collectors to over-charge their neighbors on their taxes and keep the extra money for themselves.
A tax collector could become quite wealthy, if he was willing to over-charge and cheat his neighbors. This meant that tax collectors were despised as traitors and cheats by their communities. In Jesus’ parable, the tax collector is painfully aware of his sinfulness and his prayer is one of contrition: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
Jesus concludes his story by observing that only one of the men—the tax collector—went home justified; “for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted” (v. 14b) Taken together, these two parables convey some important truths about prayer and spiritual self-care. They stress the importance of humility in prayer; constancy in prayer; as well as seeing prayer as fundamentally a realignment of our wills with God’s Will.
Come, join us this Sunday (August 9th), as we explore more deeply prayer and spiritual self-care. During the message, I will suggest a simple model for daily prayer that I have found feasible for adults and youth alike. Christ United Methodist Church is located at 4530 A Street in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our classic worship services are at 8:30 and 11:00 on Sunday mornings.
Everyone is welcome and accepted
because God loves us all.
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