The Widow and the Unjust Judge - Luke 18:1-8

Jesus continues with parables and gives the moral of the next one before getting into the story, which is, “that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” We’ve talked about what it means to “pray always,” which sounds exhausting to me, and besides, we can’t spend all day on our knees praying because we have things to do, that would be irresponsible. For me, to pray always means to have thoughts and intentions that invite the Holy Ghost to enter at any time to teach or to prompt or to warn. We don’t have to constantly be thinking prayers in order to be receptive to the Holy Ghost. Jesus has said that a song of the heart is a prayer unto me, singing hymns or just uplifting music, being happy and grateful is enough to keep a prayer in our hearts. It’s where our intentions are, are they positive toward God or negative toward the natural man? The IM says, “The Greek word translated as ‘to faint’ means to become discouraged or weary or to tire of something. In the parable, praying without giving up is represented by a widow who repeatedly appeals to a judge to remedy an injustice. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: ‘When lonely, cold, hard times come, we have to endure, we have to continue, we have to persist. That was the Savior’s message in the parable of the importuning widow… Keep knocking on that door. Keep pleading. In the meantime, know that God hears your cries and knows your distress. He is your Father, and you are His child.’ Perseverance is rooted in the foundational gospel principles of faith and hope. Perseverance reflects our faith that our actions will bring the Lord’s blessings into our lives.” This is where I’m at, I’ve given up in a lot of things. I need to keep trying to improve, keep reaching out.

The parable is of a widow who goes to an unjust judge, “which feared not God, neither regarded man.” I think it’s ironic that a man who is in a position of power and holds control over people’s lives is unjust. Just a lesson in how important it is to have integrity in all the places of influence which we hold. The widow goes to the judge repeatedly “saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.” I don’t know who exactly this woman is talking about or what they did, but when my grandpa died a few years ago, the level of exploitation that came to my grandma was obscene. I was shocked to hear the first several instances of people learning her situation and swooped in like vultures to get what they could from her. I honestly never understood what perceived vulnerability of a widow until it happened to us, it was disgusting.

This widow doesn’t give up and keeps going to the judge for help and finally “he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her; lest by her continual coming she weary me.” I have always had a problem with this parable, but I think one of the reasons is because I always think that the person in a leadership position represents God. I have always felt that Jesus was saying, “hey keep praying for what you want because eventually we’ll get irritated with you and just give you whatever you want to shut you up.” This doesn’t sound like a God who has an individual plan for me and gives me certain blessings as I become ready for them. This doesn’t sound like a God who has endless patience and kindness and love for me. I don’t want blessings because God found me irritating and just wanted me out of his face for a while. That’s how I interact with my children, and I want God to be a better parent then me. Thankfully I finally got some closure and understanding by the IM saying, “the parable is another instance when the Savior taught about God’s perfection by contrasting it with human imperfection; Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained: ‘If an evil magistrate, caring nothing for a poor widow, will finally adjudge her case, how much more shall the Judge of all the earth, who loves his saints, finally, in the day of vengeance at his coming, avenge his elect upon all their enemies.’”

I’ve never been one to pray for revenge, I find it exhausting and I think that I learned really early on that revenge is not fulfilling adventure that people think it is. Revenge is the opposite of forgiveness and wishing bad things for people keeps anger and destruction in your own heart. In that sense, the widow asking for revenge isn’t that relatable for me because I don’t think vengeance will do her any good. However, the IM shows that in this case, the widow wasn’t asking for revenge as much as she was asking for justice. Again, seeking justice isn’t the balm of Gilead people think it is, especially if we consider that Jesus is the ultimate judge and we can’t demand that others be punished for sins and ask for our own sins to be forgiven. The Lord will extract the punishment that is just for the situation and factor in who has repented of what, mental states, etc. There are a lot of factors that go in to just judgment and Jesus can be the only truly just judge because he loves us all equally, he wants the same happiness for all of us, he doesn’t want to punish anymore than absolutely necessary, he sees all and knows all, and we don’t.

With that being said, it’s not necessarily justice that the widow wants. The IM explains, “The Greek word translated as ‘avenge’ in Luke 18:3,5,7-8 means ‘give justice; see that justice is done.’ Thus the parable, given in context of the Savior’s teachings concerning His Second Coming, affirms that the Lord will see that justice is done for his Saints at His Second Coming and during the Millennium that follows. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: ‘Many of the most important deprivations of mortality will be set right in the Millennium, which is the time for fulfilling all that is incomplete in the great plan of happiness for all of our Father’s worthy children.’” This might be similar to the widow asking for her husband back, or for me asking for an amazing man to marry, or for a couple to ask for a child back that passed on. As the eternally just and merciful judge, Jesus will make sure that we will all get what we want and what we were promised, but the point is to have faith that when the time comes, it will be the best time for us, which is very difficult to understand. But by persistently praying for those blessings, it can become quite discouraging when we keep asking and the answer is always “no” and there’s nothing we can do about it. I guess that’s the Lord’s lesson in this parable, keep asking, retain those righteous desires and don’t let bitterness or despair take over when the answer is “not yet.”