Jesus tells the parable of a persistent widow who repeatedly pleads with an unjust judge for justice. The judge, who neither feared God nor cared about people, eventually grants her request simply because she wore him down with her constant appeals. Jesus uses this story to illustrate the importance of persistent prayer and trusting that God, who is just and loving, will answer those who cry out to him day and night.
Jesus tells us this story to encourage us to continue in prayer and not to lose heart. What’s the point? Is the unscrupulous judge a portrait of God? I don’t think that’s what Jesus has in mind, though certainly that is how some people look at the practice of prayer. They paint a picture of God as an unscrupulous judge or a petty bureaucrat or an arbitrary boss or an abusive parent. With such a picture before them, it’s startling that they ever pray at all.
God is not like that. Instead, the Lord is the author of all justice and compassion. It may be that we are to imitate in our prayer the persistence shown by the widow, but if so, it is not because God is hard-hearted and uncaring.
Many people have trouble with prayer, or even give up the practice, because they think that praying is an exercise in telling God what he already knows, or persuading God to do what he wouldn’t do otherwise, or somehow changing God in one way or another. Prayer, any prayer worthy of the name, is quite the opposite. The primary effect of prayer is not on God, but on us. God’s love is already unconditional, his justice perfect, his compassion without limit. He recognizes our needs even before we do. It’s not God who needs to change, it is up to us to get in line with God’s program, and prayer is a large part of how that comes about.
The story is told of a girl who watched a holy man praying at the river bank. Once the man had finished his prayer, the girl approached him and asked, “Will you teach me to pray?” The holy man studied the girl’s face, and agreed to her request. He took her into the river. The holy man instructed her to lean over, so her face was close to the water. The girl did as she was told.
Then the holy man pushed her whole head under the water. Soon the girl struggled to free herself in order to breathe. Once she got her breath back, she gasped, “What did you do that for?” The holy man said, “I gave you your first lesson.” “What do you mean?” asked the astonished girl. He answered, “When you long to pray as much as you long to breathe, then I will be able to teach you how to pray.”
In this gospel, Jesus used a parable to highlight that you can always be sure of God’s help. A widow lady, a nobody, with nothing in her “corner” to convince an unjust judge to help her, went to him. An adversary was taking advantage of her. She could do nothing about it, so, she went to the judge. He was unjust. He had no respect for God, nor cared for anyone under his charge. He did not even care for right and wrong. He cared only for HIMSELF! “Serving SELF” is a big temptation for every government official. There is power and access to money. It’s been that way for years. In the Bible King Saul wanted what was good for King Saul! not what was right for serving the Lord or the Lord’s people. He tried to kill David, the future king. Are you ever tempted to operate that way? “What’s in it for me? I don’t go out of my way to help anybody, unless I can profit.” Not what God wants.
Just like an Olympic athlete who is injured during a race and picks herself up and keeps going to the finish line, we, too, are to keep Praying Until Something Happens (P.U.S.H.). God’s delay does not mean denial. Even if what you have been in need of has not come to pass, the fact that you wake up to see another day gives you another opportunity to press forward in your request. We may not win every battle we fight in this life, but with God on our side and because of his death, burial, and resurrection, we will have the ultimate victory, partly in this life but completely in the life to come.
This widow had no advocate to speak on her behalf, which left her in a hopeless state. But rather than giving up, she was relentless in her pursuit of justice. The unrighteous judge finally gave in to her plea because he knew that she would not stop coming to him until she received justice. Resilience manifests itself both in being and doing. Resilience is more than something you do; it is who you are. It’s about understanding that your strength comes from the power of the Spirit of God that is in you. It is the inner core of strength from which action in the world comes. At the same time, once you learn to be resilient, you can sit in the midst of a storm and be still.
May each of us long to pray, and learn to pray, and persist in our prayer–not so that we can change God, but so that God can change us, and help us enjoy that fullness of life he intends for us.
– Deacon Terry Murphy