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The Parable of the Persistent Widow
So this widow is probably persistent because when husbands died back then, everything they had died with them. Widows were generally helpless and destitute. This woman wouldn't give up tho. She was persistent... constantly demanding.
The comparison to God is for the purpose of recommending a particular style of prayer. In this parable Jesus recommends that you pray like the widow. On the one hand, it is that she was persistent. She kept asking, demanding justice. But it is also the tone of her prayer that is recommended. She demands that the judge give her justice.
Jesus' recommendation of a style of prayer is to be mouthy like this widow and to state what you want in short sentences, not going on and on and on "like the Gentiles."
It's a cool story about prayer don't you think?
Jesus' last question, with which the parable ends, is skeptical. When Jesus comes, will He find faith on the earth?" The implied answer is no, He won't. Why? Because people don't believe. So the end of the parable is an injunction to the listeners to pay attention to their own faith and to be an exception to what Jesus clearly expects, that when He returns, He will not find faith on the earth. Show your faith... right?
Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
So this widow is probably persistent because when husbands died back then, everything they had died with them. Widows were generally helpless and destitute. This woman wouldn't give up tho. She was persistent... constantly demanding.
The comparison to God is for the purpose of recommending a particular style of prayer. In this parable Jesus recommends that you pray like the widow. On the one hand, it is that she was persistent. She kept asking, demanding justice. But it is also the tone of her prayer that is recommended. She demands that the judge give her justice.
Jesus' recommendation of a style of prayer is to be mouthy like this widow and to state what you want in short sentences, not going on and on and on "like the Gentiles."
It's a cool story about prayer don't you think?
Jesus' last question, with which the parable ends, is skeptical. When Jesus comes, will He find faith on the earth?" The implied answer is no, He won't. Why? Because people don't believe. So the end of the parable is an injunction to the listeners to pay attention to their own faith and to be an exception to what Jesus clearly expects, that when He returns, He will not find faith on the earth. Show your faith... right?