Unlike with some parables, here we are told bluntly what this one is all about (v 1). What is unusual in this story is that it teaches us what our Father is not like. He is not distant, uncaring, grumpy, self-focused or merely pragmatic (vs 4,5). He is close. He is loving. He listens. And above all, he is powerful and eager to act (vs 7,8). 

This leaves us with an interesting challenge. Why should we persist in prayer and why doesn’t God usually drop everything and answer our prayers as we would like? For many of us it often feels like we’re dealing with the judge in the parable. It’s as though we need to get his attention by our persistence and wear him down until he gives in and answers us.

Prayer is part of a bigger scheme. When we pray, we are not letting God know about something that has skipped his attention. Nor are we letting him in on news he hasn’t heard yet. Prayer doesn’t change God. Prayer changes us! It is God’s way of letting us into his mind and heart so that we might be changed into his likeness and join in his agenda for his world.

Pray for Christians in positions of leadership, whether in government, business, public service or the church. Ask God to strengthen them with wisdom and courage.

Luke’s introduction suggests that we sometimes lack the stomach for the fight. ‘Lose heart’ (see v 1, NKJV) is a literal translation where the NIV has ‘give up’, but the root of this word is cowardice. Jesus is telling us that we sometimes lack the courage to keep praying over the long haul. Jesus wants us to be more like this irrepressible widow. She has no leverage: women had no place in court proceedings at the time. That she has to appear for herself shows that she’s isolated with no male relative to take up her cause. Her isolation may well be why she’s been exploited. Her lack of means may be why she has lost, through not being able to bribe the judge.

The judge has no interest in justice, people’s opinions or God’s purposes. He enjoys the position for the power it gives him in the community (and probably the bribes). The widow has no leverage; the judge has no obvious weakness to target. Yet she has the courage to ask and keep on asking. She makes such a persistent nuisance of herself, badgering him shamelessly, that in the end the judge rules justly, simply to shut her up. 

Our prayer, Jesus says, is to be as courageous as that, refusing to be denied. What does our prayer say about how we see the God we’re approaching in prayer? When we don’t persist, we suggest that God is even less interested in doing justice than this pathetic judge. Yet Jesus insists that God’s heart is for justice, not delay, and that even shameless badgering won’t antagonise him (the last part of verse 7 stresses God’s patience towards us). That’s the kind of faith the Son of Man longs to see on his return: courageous, persistent faith as shown by this woman.

Faith is opposed to fear as much as doubt. Ask for courage to overcome any fears that make it harder for you to show faith like that of this widow.