Luke 18:1-8; Hebrews 11:1
Jesus used parabolic language to relate to common people about deep things and hard topics in faith.
Here Jesus put us in the position of a woman seeking justice from an unjust judge.
A widow is a woman who has experienced great loss of her spouse and who wishes to fill up the emptiness left in her heart caused by the loss.
We may also have undergone some losses too, that of people or something precious to us, spirituality, passion for God to do His work, or loss of answers to life and faith.
This unjust judge who neither fears God nor has respect for people seems to have all the power in the world. In contrast, the widow is weak, of second class and without family and influence. It appears that the widow has an insurmountable mountain to climb in order to attain justice.
The widow has two choices.
1) She can simply give up, accepting things as it is.
2) Persistence is her other choice in face of this great obstacle.
Because the woman keeps bothering the unjust judge, she finally receives what she wants. It teaches us of the importance of persistence which contains more power than all the power in the world that the unjust judge has.
Persistence means enduring faith.
There are two ways of going against the seemingly insurmountable obstacle in front of us. We can either rely on all the forces we have or go to God in prayer asking for His power. People in the world who have understood the power of persistence often choose to rely on their own strength because it makes sense in appearance, depending on something tangible. However there is a limit to what they can do.
People who seek power from God in prayer seems to the world to have done nothing, but they do not recognize the intangible nature of prayer that God can do anything – even the impossible – like raising the dead as God has done in Jesus.
People of faith should persist more in prayer. In prayer, we bring something greater into our life. May we be commended for our faith as all ancestors of faith before us!
By Jeremiah Chan
Bible Portal Contributor