Sermon, October 16-17, 2010
Text: Psalm 121, Luke 18:1-8 (appointed Psalm and Gospel)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear Christian friends,
In our Gospel text for today Jesus tells a parable. You may know this parable as “The Parable of the Persistent Widow.” The narrative begins with letting the hearer know that the parable is about the necessity of prayer. Not only prayer, but persistent prayer. The parable is set up with an absurd parallel. And notice this is how most of Jesus’ parables go. They have absurd aspects to the story. Whether it’s the incredible amount of money one is in debt over and has forgiven to them, or whether the son blows his inheritance in seemingly no time, Jesus’ parables are a teaching point, usually to show the extent of grace, or how great the reign of God is. So it is with this parable today. St. Luke tells us that Jesus told a story of a judge who did not fear God and, I love this, had no regard for man. This was a person out for himself and nobody else.
So you see the absurdity that the comparison is drawn with God! The parallel being drawn is simply not compatible. God and this, fearless toward God and no regard for man, judge bracket this story of the widow. And as such they are both important for telling the story of the widow. We know from Israel’s history that God’s Torah requires justice and vindication for widows. We even see this in early church history in Luke’s second volume, the Book of Acts, that concern for the welfare of widows was and is a top priority for God’s people. Yet this judge wouldn’t have anything of it. The judge heard her complaints for justice from her adversary numerous times to no avail. But then the story takes a turn and we see that for fear of being worn out, or as the Greek suggests, for fear of acquiring a black eye due to this widow’s persistence, the judge granted her justice in this life. What a strange story.
And then if that wasn’t strange enough, it gets even stranger! The last 2 verses provide the “punch line,” if you will, to the parable (read vv.7-8). The contrast is drawn between this judge without a care in the world and the God who cares very much about the world. We want a clear-cut answer for what this parable is about. If, as what is stated above is true, that parables provide valuable moments for teaching, and in return, learning, well just what is being taught and what am I to learn here? It seems at first that the parable is about a way to receive vindication or justice in this life from judges, or even how to wear God out into giving in to us. But then we see that Jesus suggests this parable is about way more than that. In drawing the comparison Jesus pulls the rug from out underneath us and points us to another direction in this parable.
So now we’re left wondering, is this about prayer, persistent prayer even, or is this about Jesus returning? Our way of thinking may push us in one direction or the other so we can get a better grasp on the entire situation, but I’m not so sure the narrative allows for that. In fact, I am convinced that this is about both aspects. And in our running around looking for a clean resolution to the story we lose track of one of its main characters, the widow. This nameless, faceless widow. Who is she? Where does she come from? How has she been wronged? The way she is identified in our story tells us how she has been wronged in at least one way. Her husband has been taken from her, she is known to us only as widow. And her crying out to the judge who is fearless toward God and who has no regard for men seems to ring hollow.
How often do we feel that in our lives? How often do we hear our cries for justice, our cries for vindication, ring hollow? Too often, I would say. Perhaps we’re not all widows or widowers, but some of us are. And there’s something not quite right about that. We have all kinds of hardships and failings, and struggles that we deal with in this life. The economy seems like it will just forever be an issue and a struggle. And we feel that struggle daily, don’t we? And of course a bad economy leads into things that affect us even deeper than just a paying salary of some sort when our possessions are beginning to be taken from us. And if all that wasn’t enough, there are always health issues. So I think we all just may identify with this widow more than we would like to. We all want justice to be brought forth in some way. We become invested in news stories that seem to have a lack of justice, we feel that lack of justice in our neighbor’s lives, in our friends lives, in our family’s lives, and in our own lives as well. And if we’re not yearning or crying out for justice, it may be because we’re just too beaten down. Perhaps we’re cynical toward the judicial system, perhaps we know too many judges like this one in today’s story. So we get stuck in that part of the story where the woman cries out that she be vindicated from her adversary, whoever that is, and the judge, for a time, won’t be moved. And we get stuck there because that’s the place where we are too, crying out to anyone who will hear us to vindicate us from our adversaries (Pause).
Who does hear us? When we cry out, are they empty, hollow words? I know this isn’t necessarily part of the week in/week out tradition at Zion to speak or chant the appointed psalm for any given Sunday, but I think today’s psalm appointed for this 21st Sunday after Pentecost is especially helpful for our discussion here this morning. Psalm 121, a song of ascent, in the section of the psalms from 120-134 that are called “songs of ascent” (Read Psalm 121). From where does our help come? Our help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth. Yahweh our personal God, our creator, our redeemer, is also our deliverer, and our restorer. Cry out to Yahweh God for justice against your adversary, because as he has claimed you as his own, he will deliver you from your adversary the devil, and his friends, sin and death!
The point of the parable is not to focus on how the woman persisted and the judge gave in to avoid a black eye. No, the point of the parable is that the woman persisted in faith knowing GOD would give her vindication. Whether she received it that day or on the last day, she knew her vindication was coming. And it’s true that she did receive justice in this life but she also knew of the justice to come. And this is where we might focus our attention, because we don’t always get justice in this life. In fact sometimes it seems as though life is downright cruel. Yet, in faith, when we lift our eyes up to the hills and wonder “where does my help come from?” We can respond confidently, because of God’s faithfulness, “My help comes from Yahweh, my God, who made heaven and earth.”
You see, Yahweh has not forgotten his creation. Our God has not neglected justice for his creatures. He delivers it in due time. And how does he do that? In the person of Jesus Christ, who tells this parable. Most translations render the rhetorical question, “Will God not give justice to the elect who cry out to him day and night?” But the text allows us to look at the question as saying, “Will God not do justice to his elect…?” Perhaps it is a subtle, seemingly inconsequential difference, but I think it makes a difference in how we see God’s actions. Is God granting us justice on the basis of our persistence and/or goodness? Or is God’s character such that that he does justice to us because He has said he will? In a world full of widows, and widowers, and injustices at every corner there is Jesus not to disavow the hurt and the pain that we go through but to take it all to the cross and crucify it with himself. Jesus’ work on the cross upsets the balance of history. God rolls back the tide and justice flows as a rushing river. This is a world here where the unrighteous, fearless toward God, and no regard for man judge gets his way and stays at the top. But in Jesus God overthrows such judges and establishes his rule over all creation.
The entire life, death, and resurrection of Christ reverses the order of the world that we experience and know which places the haughty and proud at the top and the lowly and meek at the bottom. In Jesus’ reality, the widow gets her vindication. In Jesus’ reality the poor are made to be rich, in his reality the unrighteous judges in the world get their due, and in his reality the dead are raised to life. At first it seems backwards, until you realize that when we look at the world that has injustices everywhere, a world where widows are neglected, the poor cast aside, where unrighteous judges rule, and people die and declare that to be forward, that we can see God’s great reversal is not backwards, but this life is backwards, and God’s redemptive work through Jesus Christ sets it straight again. That is the hope that we have even in this backward life.
So, when the Son of Man returns will he find faith on earth? Wherever the church is, full of people crying out by day and night to their Creator for justice against their adversaries, yes, he will find it. And he will vindicate it. Amen.
