I always thought that this coming Sunday’s text, Luke 18:1-8, was about personal prayer. The last sermon I preached on it, 24 years ago, took that approach. Just keep after God long enough in prayer and you will get what you want. I said it a little more subtly than that, but that was the gist.
A little study and reflection today shows I was a bit misled. There is certainly a call here to persistence in prayer. That’s how the parable is introduced in verse 1. Yet this is not just a repeat of the themes of the parable of the neighbor coming at midnight in Luke 11. The call to persistent prayer is for the church together, the gathered community of Jesus people. And the object of prayer is not personal needs, but the coming of the kingdom, the final vindication of God’s people. It is prayer for justice.
It is very significant that the primary character of the parable is a judge. Unlike the parable in Luke 11, the object of the request is not food, not basic needs, but justice. Widows were one of the poorer and more abused classes of people in Jesus’ time. This parable is a window on the downtrodden, especially the downtrodden of God’s people, seeking a just response to their suffering.
Praying for justice is thus not quite like praying for daily bread or healing or even immediate economic well-being. It has a future focus. It’s the same focus as the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come…” So we need to read the last verse, verse 8, to fully understand the promised answer which will “quickly” come. It is the coming of the Son of Man which finally answers the constant and faithful prayer for justice. It’s when Jesus returns that God’s people, especially the poor, will be vindicated and given what is just.
Verse 8 also tells us the attitude this parable teaches. It’s faith in the midst of injustice and adversity. It’s clinging to trust in God and a habit of prayer even when evil and injustice seem to have the upper hand. And I think we could argue that it is also faithful working on the side of God against injustice wherever and whenever it is found, waiting in hope for the Lord to complete that work.
It’s a difficult parable, but read thoughtfully and carefully it has much more to offer than just a call to keep praying for personal needs.