There is an old saying
that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We all have probably heard it, said it,
and most likely witnessed the truth of the saying. The saying of course means that whoever makes
the biggest fuss, and is most persistent about it will usually get responded to
quicker. We have all probably seen this happen countless times, whether at work
with a coworker, or at home with kids. Just go into a grocery store or a
superstore on a busy day when a bunch of kids are there, and you’ll see it at work.
A child sees a toy or a piece of candy and cries and cries until finally the
parent who doesn’t want to make a scene
gives in. It seems to be part of our most basic nature, after all it is a
baby’s cry that signals when it needs a diaper change, or when it is sleepy or
hungry. As we read our scripture for
today we find a scenario that seems very similar to our squeaky wheel
scenarios. There is a widow who is refused by a judge, but after countless
pleas her persistence pays off and the judge sides in her favor. On face value this
parable seems to support the notion that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, in
fact it even sounds like it is telling us to all be squeaky wheels. Is that
what the parable is really saying? There
has to be some deeper meaning to this parable right? Well, let’s look deeper
into this story, and when we do I believe we will find that this parable has a
lot more to say to us than what meets
the eye.
Our passage for this morning starts out by saying, “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray
always and not to lose heart.” This opening line makes it pretty obvious that
this parable is about prayer, and yet when we look at the passage closely it
seems as though justice is the theme that is focused upon the most. So which is
it? Is this parable about our need for prayer, or is this parable about
justice? That’s kind of a trick question. We always like to present questions
as either/or scenarios but far so often in life, and especially when reading
the Bible, the answer is not an either/or but as we used to say in seminary all
the time, it is a both/and. This passage
is about both prayer and about justice.
Oddly enough the parable is also about both the widow and
the judge. We often call this the parable of the persistent widow, but if we
focus on just the widow, we lose a large part of the message. This parable is
pretty incredible in that we learn something when we focus on each character.
The first character that we have in our parable is the judge. Jesus tells us, “In a certain city there was a judge who
neither feared God nor had respect for people.” Jesus doesn’t give a name to
the judge, and yet he still tells us a lot about him. Jesus says that the judge
was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. Today we may
interpret this as just saying that he was a mean man, maybe images Ebenezer
Scrooge come to mind, but what Jesus is saying here holds a much deeper
meaning. We live in a time of separation of church and state, where a judge can
be Christian, but the role of judge is one that pertains to the state; it is
not a religious occupation like clergy. In the times of Jesus the same type of
separation did not exist for the judges. In fact, the judges were supposed to
declare God’s judgment.[1]
We see this in Deuteronomy 1 when Moses tells the judges, “And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes
between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two
Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. 17 Do
not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be
afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God.” We start to see that the role of the judge
is not just to hear and judge upon different trials, but to in fact attempt to
enact the justice of God. That means that a judge should be fair, that a judge
does not get intimated by others, and at the same time a judge does not look
down upon other because of their caste in life.
It was a very noble and religious position.
And yet we see that this judge who
is supposed to be fair, this judge who is supposed to enact the justice of God,
does not even fear God, and does not care for people. This instantly tells the
readers that this judge is not just. And so when the poor widow is introduced
next in the story we know that it is not going to end well for her. At first that is exactly what happened, the
judge rejects the widows pleas for justice on many occasions, and yet the woman
keeps coming back. Finally, after being worn down by the widow, the judge gives
in and grants the widow’s plea. Earlier, I spoke about how this parable is a
parable both about prayer and about justice, well here as we focus on the role
of the judge, we begin to see how this parable pertains to justice.
The judge is the epitome of the
unjust. After all what type of person refuses a widow in the midst of her
transgressions, and yet still we see that through the persistence of the widow,
this horrible, this unjust judge changes his mind and grants the woman her
plea. Justice still finds a way to
prevail, even with this horrible judge. This parable just goes to show us that
even in some of the most extreme cases, justice is possible. The parable
however tells us much more than this. A comparison between this unjust judge
and God is expected to be made, but at the same time it is understood that God
is nothing like this judge. God is just,
God cares for all of his people especially the poor, the downtrodden, and the
widows. When we make these comparisons between God and the judge in the parable
we see that they really are nothing alike. And yet, even with the horrible
judge ruling in the parable, justice eventually prevailed. If justice is able
to prevail when someone with a judge like that, then why would we expect any
different from God? In fact, we should
be able to expect so much more. God is all loving, all knowing, all powerful,
God is just, so what is there to stop God’s justice from rolling down like
waters. It is as Paul says to the Romans, “What, then, shall we say in response to these
things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also,
along with him, graciously give us all things?33 Who
will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” When we look at this
parable from the perspective of the judge then we can learn about God’s amazing
justice.
There is
however, much for us to learn from the perspective of the widow in this parable
as well. We have already talked some about the status of the judges back in the
time of this parable, but let us also look at the role of widows. In those
times widows were some of the more oppressed and marginalized members of
society. While there were certainly exceptions of women working and providing
for themselves, Lydia for example; many wives relied on their husband for
support. In our day and age when a
spouse dies, the widow or the widower is able to inherit the finances and
property of their spouse. That was not the case in the time of Jesus. A woman
was not allowed to inherit a property; this privilege was reserved for the next
male kin, usually either a son or brother. [2] This often leaves a widow extremely vulnerable because they
truly have no way to support themselves and are at the will of their husband’s
kin.
While it is
true that widows were some of the most marginalized and vulnerable members of
society, at the same time they were also according to scripture some of the
people to be protected first and foremost. There is a story found in 1 Kings about the
prophet Elijah where he feeds a widow throughout a drought and then later heals
the widow’s son who was on the verge of death.
In the New Testament we find many more calls for the protection of
widows, from the book of James to 1 Timothy, and of course Jesus on multiple
occasions not only speaks about the need to take care of widows, but actually
does it. All of this goes to show that
even though the widow may have been one of the most vulnerable and marginalized
members of society, they were also expected to be taken care of by those
members of faith.
So when we
get to the widow coming before the judge asking for justice, one would expect for her to receive a
fair trial. After all as we mentioned before, the judge was also a religious
position, and so he should certainly know to take care of the widow. And yet,
this poor widow’s luck seemed to be bad.
She had lost her husband, she has been wronged in some sort of legal
dispute, most likely a relative of her late husband who is not helping to take
care of her, and now she has brought her case before the judge, who should help
her in her situation, but she has the bad luck to come before a judge who
neither feared the Lord nor had respect for people. This down and out woman had
every reason to give up. It seemed as if the whole world were against her, it
seemed as though no one heard her cries for help, would anyone really blame her
if she had simply quit, given in and counted her life as a loss? And yet this widow did not give in, despite
all of the setbacks in her life telling her otherwise. She received the verdict
from the judge and came back and pleaded. Time after time she was rejected and
yet still she returned. This widow showed so much heart, so much persistence
that in the end the judge could not take it anymore, and justice was served.
Jesus tells
us at the beginning of the parable that this parable is about prayer, and when
we look at the story from the perspective of the widow, we will find that this
is true. At first glance however, this parable still seems to have nothing to
do with prayer; after prayer isn’t even mentioned within the parable itself. Thankfully, Jesus put the parable in
perspective for us and shows us that the widow’s persistence is what we should
learn about prayer. He says, “Listen to what
the unjust judge says. “And will not God grant justice to his chosen
ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the
Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
When we read the parable as a
parable about prayer and the persistence of the widow, it becomes easy to think
that it once again is talking about the squeaky wheel. We could interpret it as
if we pray hard enough to God, God will give us what we want, if we bug God
enough then we will get our way. The problem is that we are saying that God is
like the judge, but we have already determined that the judge is unjust, God is
just. We don’t need to beg and plea,
because God is already good. And yet this parable is a parable about
persistence in prayer, but if the reason we are persistent in prayer is not to
get our get our way, then why should we be persistent?
It is so that we can answer this
question that we should look at this parable as being both about justice and
about prayer. As we stated earlier, when
we read the parable from the perspective of the judge, then we can begin to
understand God’s justice. That even a unjust judge can eventually do the right
thing, so why wouldn’t we expect so much more from and all loving and just God?
This parable tells us that we can count on the justice of God, and if we can
count on the justice of God, why would we need to persistently bug God trying
to get him to change his ways? The answer is that we don’t. When we go
persistently to God, it is not to change God mind, but rather it is to put ourselves
in full reliance on God. It is a way of saying, I trust you, even though things
are tough. It’s a way of expressing our frustrations with God, all while still
relying on the will and grace of God in our lives. It is also a way for us to
be in constant contact with God even when things are well, because though
things may be good for us, through constant prayer we may find ways in which
God is calling us to serve the widows and marginalized in our society, and how we connect with others through prayer.
God’s justice and mercy allows us to be persistent prayers, trusting in that
mercy and grace to carry us through, and realizing our need to be in constant
communion with Christ.
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