Parable of the Unjust Judge

Luke 18:1-8 ESV And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. (2) He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. (3) And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' (4) For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, (5) yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" (6) And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. (7) And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? (8) I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Unrighteous judge. Something of a contradiction in terms? Well not really. In fact we know it occurs all the time. The people who Jesus spoke too could identify with it as well. Nothing new under the sun. Perhaps analogous to the parable of the good shepherd this is an ordinary selfish judge. He cares for nobody but himself. If it fits his agenda he will judge justly. But this is an aside.

Jesus summarizes the moral at the beginning. He did not normally do that. He must have done that because he wanted people to be not confused. And I think readers are often confused about what the moral is, even with this said.

I was reading an article. They gave a diagram that really helped me. We are to see an analogy between ourselves and the helpless widow. We are to pray confidently and persistently. Whether we feel faithful or not the act of praying without losing heart is an act of faith. Do not be discouraged.

But we are to contrast God and the judge. I think that is where we are tempted to go astray. The judge and God are opposites. God is always just. He is always faithful. He is never selfish in the way the judge is.

But there is the fact that God seems to wait to answer prayer. That seems unjust to us, doesn't it? And mean too. But Jesus is encouraging us to see God as wishing to answer speedily. God is not unjust or selfish when he does not seem to answer immediately. We are to know that, believe that.

Perhaps that is why Jesus concludes how he does. Will Jesus find faith when he comes back? Remember faith is persistent asking for justice. It is not necessarily feelings. Feelings follow.

Unbelief is embodied in the judge who neither fears God nor respects man. There are things we can do to help God with justice. But often we try to be gods and do justice on our own. It is too complicated. Actions have consequences that are often as bad or worse that the problem we intend to solve. This national health care is like that. This is not just. But it is man's idea of justice. However it falls far short of true justice. Only God can do justly and we need to persistently ask God to do justice. Will he find faith on the earth? Will we continually ask God for justice or give up and try to do it ourselves?