The Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow

by    15th November 2007    0 responses

This article is a study of Luke 18:1-8.

Always pray and never give up. There is a wristband in circulation amongst the Christian community that says “PUSH”, which is a variation on the “WWJD” theme, and stands for “Pray Until Something Happens”. While this may be an encouragement to some, I have always resented the theology behind that statement, and to a certain extent also the implication of this passage in Luke. Somehow it has always grated against my perception of God and the way He works. The idea seems to be that if you pester God enough he’ll eventually have to do something. That doesn’t seem to fit in with the loving and ever-patient God I know.

Taking a closer look at this passage shows that in fact Jesus is not likening God to an unjust judge, but rather contrasting the two characters. The implication is that an unjust judge can be pestered, and he will eventually cave in and bring justice just to shut up the nagging old woman. God, on the other hand, hears us first time and is the great justice-bringer, always willing and ready to act for the downtrodden and needy. To gain justice from that judge, you would need to go back again and again until you got what you asked for, whereas with God you can be assured to swift action. However, that leaves us with something of a problem – if God hears first time and is quick to take action, why do we need to keep praying?

I have often wondered about this problem, especially when it comes to praying for healing or a change in someone’s life. Surely if I pray once, that’s enough? Surely God doesn’t forget my prayers, so that I need to keep reminding him? Even if the answer isn’t to come right away, do I really need to keep praying for it until I get the answer? Surely I can just leave it in God’s hands that once and leave Him to sort it out? Why then does Jesus (and others) encourage us to keep praying, continually bringing things before God again and again?

Well, the first thing to note is that God does indeed hear us the first time. In fact, we’re also reminded that God knows what we want before we ask him. Our prayers to God are not for his benefit – he knows better than us what’s going on in his world, after all – but for ours. By coming before God in prayer we humble ourselves, declaring again our dependence on God for whatever it is. If we pray for something once, we can rest assured that God has heard our prayer. However, if we leave it at that and don’t pray for it again, that is a reflection on our own state of involvement. When Jesus encourages us to keep praying, what he’s actually doing is encouraging us to keep that issue at the forefront of our minds, reminding ourselves that it’s in God’s hands, refreshing our healthy concern for others, strengthening our dependency on God. By bringing situations and people to God continually, we show God and ourselves that it is important to us. Anyone can pray once, but it takes commitment and passion to come back again and again.

In many ways we can liken God to a father. I’m sure there were many times when my Dad came home from work, tired after a long day, and listened patiently and lovingly as I explained to him the difference between knives and forks, or how to tell the time, or some other detail that I had learnt that day. My Dad no doubt knew all of that already, but he would have been pleased to see that I knew too. In the same way, God can see the bigger picture in life, and has had far more experience of it than we have, but still takes pleasure in hearing what we have to say. He knows about the starving children in far-flung countries, he knows about Edith from church who is sick in bed, he knows about your friend who is running away from salvation. Those things are important to God, and if they are important to us too, we should keep praying for them, not because God hasn’t heard, but because he has.

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Matthew has long had a strong involvement with Christian websites. He was a keen contributor to the original Crossring site, and subsequently launched his own website, Focus On Faith. Focus On Faith was incorporated into Crossring in September 2009, and Matthew took on the role of lead writer for the site. Matthew works as a web designer, and lives in the West Country with his wife, Ellie.

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