Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

This is a parable about persistence in prayer. The conventional read draws a parallel between the widow who will not give up until she gets justice, and us in our passionate and persistent prayer. And this is well and good. The problem is: if we are the widow, does that make God the unjust judge? That doesn’t sound quite right. Sometimes it can be illuminating to turn parables on their head. The unjust judge does not fear God or respect people—frankly, that sounds more like us (in our worst moments) than God. Maybe we are the unjust judge. And maybe God is like the widow, calling out to us from all the broken people and places in our world, calling for justice. That means God is the one who is unrelenting and passionate and persistent in trying to get us to act justly. And prayer is the way we open ourselves to God, listen to God’s call, and commit ourselves to respond. I don’t say this is the only, or even the right, way to read the parable. But it does cast some new light on it and gives us a word I think we need to hear.