A Pepper Grinder Post

Will He Find Faith on Earth?

Let me set the scene for the passage I'll look at today. Jesus was nearing the end of his ministry. He was about to head up to Jerusalem, where he would first be greeted with wild joy, and then a short while later, be unjustly condemned to death and shamefully crucified. He had just explained to his disciples that difficult days were coming, but that he would return to make things right. In that context, the story he told next made perfect sense, but it ended with an unusual question.

Jesus told them a parable to show they should always pray and not give up.

There was a judge in a city, who didn't fear God or have respect for people. There was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, "Give me justice against my opponent!"

For a long time, he didn't want to help her. But finally, he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or have respect for people, because this widow keeps bothering me, I'll give her justice, so she won't finally wear me out by coming over and over."

The Lord said, "Listen to what the unrighteous judge said. Will God not give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay for long? I tell you that he'll give them justice quickly! However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:1-8, my translation)

You might think that in the U.S. in the present day, the courts favor the rich over the poor. However, there is no question that that was much more the case in Jesus's day. And the people who were generally the poorest and least powerful were widows and orphans. The parable Jesus told pitted this powerless person against a judge. We aren't told the details, but it is apparent that the widow was being treated unfairly by some nameless opponent (the Greek word used generally refers to a legal adversary, though it is used once in 1 Peter to refer to the Devil). This is not surprising because widows were some of the easiest people to take advantage of since they had so little power.

There was no appeal process. The widow couldn't go over the judge's head if she felt she wasn't being treated fairly. What's more, Jesus said the judge didn't fear God or have respect for people. This means that he wouldn't be inclined to treat the widow well out of any desire to please God or avoid his punishment. If he didn't have respect for people in general, he certainly wasn't going to care about the opinion of one of the poorest and most powerless people in that society. The judge does not appear to have had any heart strings to pull. The widow could certainly not have afforded to bribe the judge. There was no reason in the world why this judge needed to listen to this widow--except one.

The widow had one secret weapon: persistence. She kept on coming and asking for justice over and over again. For a long time, there was no apparent effect. I suspect that the judge gave the widow no hint that his resolve not to help her was weakening. She may have felt discouraged, but she knew that the judge was the one who could help her, and she kept asking. Finally, the judge, for entirely selfish motives, decided to grant the widow's request.

Jesus's application of the parable asks the question: if an unrighteous judge would respond like this, how much more will the loving and just God of the universe give justice to his chosen and beloved children?

Fair enough. So, if we want something, we just have to keep asking God for it, and he'll give it to us, right? Say that your kitchen cabinets are getting kind of dingy. Some of the handles keep coming off; some of the doors don't close properly. Every time you go in your kitchen, you feel unhappy when you look at those cabinets. But, new cabinets are not cheap and you don't have the spare cash for them. You decide to start praying every day for money for new kitchen cabinets. You feel confident that God will answer your prayer because of this parable. The problem is, I don't think this parable applies to that type of request. I don't think it's wrong to pray persistently for new cabinets, and it's very possible God will say yes to that prayer, but I don't think that we can take this parable as a guarantee that anything we ask for persistently will be given to us.

There are two crucial things we need to understand about this parable and Jesus's application of it.

1. The widow was specifically asking for justice. The Greek word that is used when she asked for justice gives the specific connotation of making things right and obtaining vengeance. To right the wrong, the unjust action must be undone, if possible, and the wrongdoer must be punished. One of the clearest examples of the meaning of this word is found in Romans 12:19-20.
   Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." (NIV)
   I think modern Christians are often uncomfortable with the idea of vengeance. I once heard a very godly woman explain how, in the passage from Romans quoted above, dumping burning coals on someone's head was actually an act of kindness (since people would bring coals to their houses to start fires in baskets on their heads), but I think this is completely missing the point! God is not saying that it is wrong to want justice to be done and wrongdoers to be punished. He is saying that he, not we, must be the one to carry it out.
   You might argue that the parable has the widow asking for justice, but that Jesus is using this example to make a general point about persistent prayer, but Jesus's explanation of the parable doesn't bear this out. He specifically said,
   Will God not give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay for long? I tell you that he'll give them justice quickly! (Luke 18:7-8a, my translation)
   The Greek word used in this explanation has the same root and meaning as the thing the widow was asking for--the only difference is that the one is the verbal form, while the other is a noun. Just as both forms are used here, both are used in Romans 12:19-20, quoted above.
   God is specifically saying that when we are treated unjustly (and if you are a serious Christian and have not yet been treated unjustly, I am almost sure you will be), we can cry out to God for justice, and he will answer. We should not try to punish the wrongdoer ourselves, but this does not mean we are not seeking for the wrong to be made right.
2. God's timetable is not the same as ours. This point is made most clearly in 2 Peter 3:8 where Peter says:
   But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Peter 3:8, NIV)
   I think that many times when we are victims of injustice, we will see that wrong righted. The people who were victims of Nazi cruelty, but who managed to survive World War II, saw many of the authors of those acts go down to defeat and often death. At the same time, it is not an accident that Jesus gives this teaching after he has been talking about his second coming. The clear teaching of Scripture is that even if we do not live to see the wrongs against us made right, they will be. A day is coming when Christ shall return to earth and ALL wrongs will be made right. Jesus promises that this will be done quickly, but quick in God's timetable might not always seem quick to us. God is doing things according to his perfect and righteous plan, which carries out his justice, his love, and his mercy to all people. When we look at that plan from our small corner, it may appear that God is inactive, but Jesus assured us that he is acting, and he will bring justice.

This brings us to the last phrase in our passage: However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8b, my translation) Wouldn't having faith mean that our prayers would be answered right away? When Jesus healed a person, the healing happened immediately, and he often told the person that his faith had saved him. And yet, Jesus has given, as an example of faith, a woman who kept asking and asking for something without seeing an answer for a long time.

I think there are two crucial elements to this type of faith.

1. We have to believe that God is able to right the wrong. Praying with faith requires us to believe that God is all-powerful, and that nothing is outside of his ability to set right.
2. We have to believe that God is just and is determined to see justice done. It is easy to look at all the evil that takes place in the world and lose sight of this, but we must remember it! We must nourish the attitude in our souls that however long God may delay recompense for wrongs, that recompense is coming and is unstoppable. This is not to say that an evildoer (as we all are to one extent or another) cannot be forgiven because of Christ's incomparable sacrifice, but one way or another, every wrong will be paid for.

When Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on charges of sex trafficking and then committed suicide before standing trial, I thought it was interesting that some people expressed anger that he had not had to face his accusers in court. This says to me that although many things once thought wrong are now considered perfectly okay, we still want to see justice done. When someone has done something wicked, we think the evildoer should have to pay for his wickedness.

Christ didn't come and say something like, "You bad people, you shouldn't want those who have treated you unfairly to be brought to justice." Instead, he encourages us to cry out to God when injustice is done to us, and he points out the widow who wouldn't stop asking for justice until it was done as an example of faith.

- Pepper
Posted 2020-12-26

*Image Credits: Scales drawn by darktaco, widow by Akbar Nemati.