Ep. 256. Luke 18 | The Persistent Widow

EPISODE 256

THE PERSISTENT WIDOW: LUKE 18

I love the first parable in today's reading, though I must admit I don't think about it as often as I should. The unrighteous judge hears the widow's persistent cries for justice and complies. If that is how an unrighteous judge behaves, how then should we expect our righteous God to react? I would point out to you that the issue on the table is "justice." I am not convinced that we can use this text for anything we desire, but neither would I say we shouldn't bring our requests before God. Remember, in Matthew 7, when we looked at "ask, seek, and knock," we found that the context was likely the Holy Spirit and salvation. Here, the context seems to be the justice of God. It immediately reminds me of the place in Revelation 6 where it is written,

"When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been."

It is good to know that our God will bring about justice, and it is good for us to cry out for it.

If I can draw your attention to Luke 18:9, you will see what we were talking about a couple of days ago in Luke 15: the idea that some people who believed themselves righteous actually weren't. In this case, we see again a Pharisee who finds himself superior to the lesser tax collector, but at the end of the story, it is the tax collector who goes home justified. I think this plays directly into the idea of the 99 "righteous" sheep or the "older brother." When Jesus said he didn't come for the righteous but the sinners, he was not saying that there were people who were righteous apart from him, but rather that there were people who believed they were righteous. Every time Jesus is recorded as having made this statement, it was in response to the criticism of the Pharisees against Jesus for "eating with tax collectors and sinners." Jesus is basically telling the Pharisees, "I'm not here for you."

ADDITIONAL READING: Luke 15:1-2; Matthew 9:11-13; Mark 2:17