Simon the Zealot shares his own perspective on a story Jesus told:

I wasn’t there at the time, so I missed Jesus telling the story of this unjust judge and his bad dealings with the widow.  When the others filled me in, they said Jesus told this story to encourage us to be persistent in prayer.  I can see their reasoning, but the story set me thinking further. I have a feeling that a too simplistic understanding in that direction might well be misleading.

For a moment, I almost felt sorry for this poor fellow. Just imagine it: at every corner the judge turned, there she was; this pestering widow!  There was no escaping her and her demands!  I imagine him, every morning, opening his door a crack and peeping out to check the coast was clear, only to despair at seeing her there and ready to pounce. “Does this damn woman never give up?” he might well have asked!

But my sympathy for him does not run far.  In fact, I side firmly with the woman.  I’m not the only one in our group who is politically aware. I’ve heard it rumoured that Thaddaeus was a member of the same party as me, when he used the alternative name of Jude or Judas (something like that) – but he has kept quiet about that.   Even if he wasn’t, I am sure he’d share my revulsion at everything this judge stood for.  

I may have made the Romans the main target of my criticism, but I know that that there are plenty of officials in our own set up who are careless (to say the least!) in their use of power.   Even judges, who are charged in our law to stick up for the rights of the vulnerable; widows and orphans chief among them.  They can and do abuse their position.  This man Jesus was describing may have been made up, but believe you me, there are many just like him.  And when the judiciary becomes lazy or corrupt, so many of the most vulnerable in society are deprived of their rights.  There is not much justice in this world.

So, I think this woman Jesus describes is a bit of a hero!  She will not just lie back and accept her fate. She fights with everything she has got. It may not seem a lot, but her daily protest pays off.  In the end she just wears the scoundrel down.  For the sake of a bit of peace and quiet, he finally in.  In praising that persistence, I’m completely one with Jesus.

But what I think I have heard him saying, which the others have not picked up on, is that this determined, unwavering demand for justice in a world that does not always give it, is a right and worthy thing.   The woman is right to make her protest.  She is praised for her persistence which, in this case, pays off.  In other cases I have known, it has not.  The vulnerable are not listened to. The protesters are reviled, imprisoned, ‘disappeared’ and even killed.  But their determined fight for justice is nonetheless good and right.  Jesus praises it.

What angered me in Jesus’ story is that the woman was the only voice crying out for justice. She was left to fight her battle alone.  Where were the other voices?  Where were those who should have been standing beside her, making her protest their own?  Were the majority content to remain quiet, turning a blind eye?   Did they consider that the protest was none of their business, or not what good and respectable people should be doing?   God forbid it!  But surely the silence of good and godly people is one of the cruellest things the vulnerable have to contend with.   Why are they not there in Jesus’ story, standing alongside this widow in her fight for justice?  Why are we all not protesting with, for and alongside vulnerable people just like her?  If her persistent protest is praised – what would Jesus say about ours?

Alright, you say, calm down!  It was just a story!  And you are right. In this case. I remind you that time and time again it is a real and terrible thing for people all around the world, left alone in their trouble.  And, as I think someone has said, all that it takes for evil to thrive is for Godly people to remain silent.

Mind you, even if this is just a story, I find myself wondering if it is a really good one?  It is so easily misunderstood!  How many of us will fall into the easy trap of thinking that Jesus is saying that God is just like that judge?  That he is careless and slow to answer? That we have to pester, pester, pester, to get his attention and get things done?

But that is definitely not what Jesus is saying.  I’ve heard him use this technique before.  He is not comparing God to the judge, saying they are alike; he is contrasting God with this judge, pointing out how different they are.  He is saying, if this despicable fellow (who thinks nothing of the poor and vulnerable and cares nothing for the justice he is supposed to stand for) will eventually back down for the sake of a little peace and quiet, then how much more will God ( who is justice itself, and who loves his children and calls us to live in love for one another) … how much more will he hear our prayers and petitions, because we are crying out for exactly the things he stands for in the first place?!

In our world, justice may be slow to come and many will be denied it altogether.  Those in power and authority will often forget their duty and fail to act as they should.  They may well misuse their position to look out for their own interests; just as the judge in Jesus’ story acted only out of self-interest.

But in God’s world – his kingdom that is coming – the only judge is God himself.  And he will see justice established.  Wrongs will be righted, and swiftly too, because God is justice and God is love.  That’s why we should be persistent in our prayer.  That’s why we should never give up, even in the face of the huge injustices in our world, where nothing seems to change, and when the voice of protest can seem powerless and ineffectual.  Not because we have to pester God to make him hear us, but because we have truly heard him and will not give up on hope and purpose until the blessings of his rule are known by all people.

The prayer that Jesus taught us is that God’s kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.  And where Gods rule is difficult to see, surely, we must raise our voice of protest and keep up our words of prayer.  We must stand with the widow and speak for her and all who are like her.  And not just for those who are shouting loudly, but also for those who have become so drained and worn down that their cries have dried up and they have become voiceless.  We cry out, not to a God who has to be persuaded, but to the God who wants to persuade us.  And we must not give up praying and protesting, until his Kingdom comes.