Luke 18:1-8 NRSVue

¹Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. ²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. ³In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ ⁴For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” ⁶And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? ⁸I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

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Some thoughts on this scripture

Reflection
How does Jesus' parable about how ready God is to answer our prayers move me? Does it confirm my own experience, or not? Do I sometimes feel like the widow during the long period where she's not getting an answer?

Reflection
Can I hold my own experience and listen again to Jesus's sure statement of God's eagerness to be good to me? I might need to ask for more light on this.

Reflection
Is there maybe a twinkle in Jesus' eye as he compares God to an unjust and lazy judge?

Reflection
Lord, you puzzle me. I hear you telling me to persist in prayer, to entreat God until he is weary of me. You say he will quickly grant justice. But then I think of good people suffering famine, Aids, loss of children, sickness and death though they pray to God. I think of the Jews in Auschwitz, still singing the psalms as they walked into the gas chambers. Surely there are times when you delay in helping us?

Reflection
At times like this I turn to the memory of your Passion, and your agonised prayer in the Garden. You have faced a dark and apparently empty heaven, yet stayed faithful. Keep me with you.

Reflection
The judge was meant to look after the widow and the orphan - this was part of his role in the society of Jesus' time. It might be said that the woman had a right to pester and bother him. Jesus almost says that we should bother and pester God in prayer. It is never too often to ask God for something. Prayer can be answered through persistence. In all our times of praying for something we can learn something about ourselves and also grow in closeness with and trust in God.