Scripture Reading: Luke 18:1-8
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Praying for Justice and Not Losing Heart: A Sermon on Luke's Parable of the Persistent Widow
By James Huenink
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thanks for all your patience bearing with the Gremlins that seem to be haunting our soundboard back there. We've been fighting them for a long time now, eventually, maybe we'll have to call the Ghostbusters to get them out. I'm sure they're around somewhere.
Understanding Jesus's Parable of the Persistent Widow
Today, we're looking at a story from the Gospel of Luke that Jesus tells—it's a parable. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a couple of weird parables. It wasn't too long ago that Jesus gave us the parable of an unrighteous manager and commended him like, "good job." And here he compares God to an unrighteous judge, which I think is a little bit weird, right? Let's take a look at the story.
The Story of the Widow and the Unjust Judge
So Jesus tells a parable about a widow. There was this judge, Jesus says, who neither feared God nor respected man. He just didn't care about his job. And so a widow comes up to him and says, "Give me justice against my adversary." That is, somebody was doing something to her that the judge was supposed to stop. And the man refused. He wouldn't do anything, but the widow keeps coming to him and badgering him over and over and over and over again until he finally just gets tired of it. He is so sick of her bothering him day and night—she's got nothing else better to do. He finally says to himself, "Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so she will not beat me down by her continual coming."
Jesus's Promise of Divine Justice
And then Jesus says, "Hear what that unrighteous judge says. Now, will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily."
This is the heart of what this parable is about. When there is injustice in the life of the church, we pray and trust in God. As Luke tells us, Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
The key is that Jesus promises to bring justice to his people. He promises to bring justice to those who cry out in a world filled with injustice, especially when it is committed against us. We cry out to God: "We are your people. Give us peace. Give us justice." Jesus promises it is coming soon.
Christ's Death and Resurrection: The Ultimate Example of Justice
We can see an example in Jesus himself—both an example and a promise. His story is one of the greatest—no, the greatest—injustice that has ever happened in the history of creation. The eternal Son of God, the only perfect human being who has ever lived, was executed on a cross. No injustice was ever greater than that. No death more undeserved than when the perfect Son of God was nailed there and died for you and for me.
Jesus's Trust in the Father
And yet Jesus knew he would head into it. He knew it was coming. In fact, it was his mission to go and die on a cross for you and for me. And his example of trust in his Father shows the justice that we can expect, because he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, "If this cup can be taken away, let's do it that way, but not my will—your will be done, Heavenly Father."
And when he is on the cross, the Gospel of Luke tells us, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" is what Jesus says—a cry of ultimate trust, of perfect expectation that the Father would take his spirit and return it to his body on the third day.
The Vindication of the Resurrection
And that is exactly what happened. Christ rose from the dead on the third day. The Father vindicated his prophet, his Son, our Savior, by giving him life. And not only that, by raising him up to the right hand of God to rule over all of creation. Finally, Jesus got what he deserves.
And this justice shows us the promise that we have—that Jesus himself led the way through the cross and the grave to everlasting life. That on the day he returns, we too will rise, that all will be made new, and every injustice, every problem, every hurt, will finally be made right.
The Persecution of Christians in China Today
We know there's more than just the one injustice in the world. As Christians cry out for justice, we can look to the church in China. This week, I saw a news story about a new round of persecutions by the government of China. Over the past decade or so, they have been doing a process that they call "sinicization." That's a really fancy word for making more Chinese.
Religious Persecution and Sinicization
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in a September 2024 report says this: "Authorities target Catholic and Protestant churches for sinicization. The government has ordered the removal of crosses from churches, replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi, required the display of CCP slogans at the entrances of churches, censored religious texts, imposed CCP-approved religious materials, and instructed clergy to preach CCP ideology."
Underground Churches and Faithful Witness
While the state-controlled Christian religious organizations have pushed and enforced the state's restrictions on religion, tens of millions of Christians have opted not to join these organizations and instead worship independently. All over China, there are these underground churches growing in popularity, where Christians see that they just cannot participate in changing the religion that God has given them and must be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so this week, a pastor and a whole bunch of others were arrested—20 or more—and put in prison. Nobody knows exactly where they are, charged on all sorts of terrible things. Every once in a while, this is what China does with these churches. They will bulldoze buildings, arrest pastors. And I am sure that the members of these congregations are crying out to God for justice: "Protect our pastors, keep our churches safe, but most importantly, keep us faithful."
How Christians Should Respond to Injustice
And it's in the face of that injustice, we can only do what Jesus calls on us to do: to always pray and not lose heart. Because he gives us this promise. He says, "I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily," because Jesus is coming. He will bring total justice and perfect peace on the last day. And those Christians who suffer arrest and imprisonment and even death—finally, when Christ returns, he will raise them from the dead to rule forever with him on the last day.
The Cry of the Martyrs in Revelation
John in Revelation chapter six reminds us of this when he says: "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' Then they were given white robes and told to rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been."
Christ will come. He will bring justice. He will bring judgment. And we hope and we pray, trusting in him until that day.
The Decline of Christianity and the Prosperity Gospel
That isn't the only injustice the church faces. I am sure that you, like me, feel discouraged by the way Christianity has been going in our country, in our communities. Even the path of our own church in the last 30 years has shown pretty steep decline. It's rough, it's hard. And when you turn on the TV, the people who are there, the ones that are famous for being pastors, are preaching the prosperity gospel, telling everyone that if you follow Jesus, he will give you money and wealth—as long as you send me $1,000 first. That doesn't sound like justice to me.
Persevering Through Discouragement
Let the wicked prosper while traditional churches decline. It is difficult to keep our hearts going and to remain encouraged. And what we do is we do what Jesus says, and Luke tells us, handily, that we ought always to pray and not lose heart, because Christ will give justice. He is coming. He will come and give us eternal life. He says, "I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily"—the justice that he received when he was raised from the dead, the justice the persecuted churches all over the world will receive at the resurrection, and us too.
Will Jesus Find Faith When He Returns?
And that brings us to that final sentence that Jesus says, which seems a little confusing at the end, when he goes, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
That's the question. Will he find people who are looking for him, hoping for him, trusting and praying for the justice he promises? That is what we ask.
Conclusion: Keep Praying, Keep Hoping, Keep Trusting
We stay encouraged and hope and trust, praying to our Heavenly Father that he send his Son to give us the peace we know we need, that he preserve and keep us until the day that his justice is delivered, when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead. Till then, we hope, we pray, and we wait.
In Jesus's name, amen.
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