#19 God is More than an Unjust Judge - Father Parables (2)

[1]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 for what people thought. [3]And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with a 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 will get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  [Luke 18:1-8]

We must set something straight right away. The judge is not unrighteous in his judgments. It is not a question of him giving a fair verdict; the issue is when? He will hold court when he feels like it and in this, he is unrighteous. The question is not whether we will get our income tax rebate, but when. The only unrighteous thing the IRS could do would be holding our money too long. Parkinson’s Law of Delay[1]: The boss never says “No” but he won’t say “Yes.” If someone sees another person drowning, the one on the shore has a lot more time than the one in the water. It would be unrighteous not to spring into action.

And this is precisely the point. Here we imagine an old widow (are there any young ones in our imagination?) who needs help NOW, not eventually. It seems from this brief story that she has no other family to help or take care of her, and a woman alone in that society is truly helpless. This widow in the story has no other resources, and neither do the poor, the starving, the orphans or the elderly in this present world. Our indignation is aroused and we wonder if there is any God at all, why does He allow/permit this to happen?

So Jesus tells the story of a judge who is beleaguered into giving this lady a hearing. Even though there is nothing men or God could do to make him! He is as safe as a Supreme Court Justice! The judge is anonymous, indifferent; he holds court when he feels like it, yet because of the constant pleading of this widow, he gives in – not from pity, compassion or sympathy but from just being worn down.

Thus even if we believe that God doesn’t care, we can see He can be moved to action! If we plead our case (a just one!) long enough, He will hear us. And Jesus’ last statement puts us right into the parable as the pleading, praying widow. He can even take our bad image of a good God and tell us that God will hear us.

[1] “Delay is the deadliest form of denial”, The Law of Delay (1970), C. Northcott Parkinson, Wikipedia