Lectionary Reflection for October 17, 2010
The Widow and the Unjust Judge:
“The Sermon We’re Not Going to Preach”
Luke 18:1-8
I tell my preaching students that when they have an illustration that very clearly connects with the point they’re making (in other words, is self explanatory), it insults people’s intelligence to say “The reason I am about to tell you this story is to illustrate the point that….” Or “I told that story so you would see that…” People can figure out why we’re telling them a story if the story is connected to the point.
So I have to hope my students aren’t familiar with this parable from the 18th chapter of Luke, where Luke goes against my homiletical advice. “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” (18:1)
If we don’t look deeper at Luke’s listening cue, here is the short, superficial sermon on this text we would preach.
The Sermon We’re Not Going to Preach
Opening statement: “Pray always and do not lose heart.”
Read widow and judge story. Tell several stories of people who prayed to God and received cures, upticks in finances and better relationships.
Grand finale: “The judge finally answers the widow’s prayer because she tired him out. God is a lot kinder than that!” “Pray always and do not lose heart.” Amen.
Segue to Offering or Altar Call: Then, depending on the church, the preacher will say either, “The ushers will now come forward for the morning offering” or “I invite any of you who feel moved to commit or recommit yourselves to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to come and kneel at the altar at this time.”
I agree with Luke’s listening cue. The parable of the widow and the Unjust Judge is about our need to pray always and not to lose heart. But it’s not just a personal message which nudges us to pray for a cure for a family member, a new job, or financial stability. It’s about a particular type of praying: for vindication for those whose needs are not being met in our society, praying that they will receive what they need and what is rightly theirs.
Some notes on the characters and situation:
The judge does not “fear the Lord.” He, a judge himself, does not take the judgment of God seriously.
He is legally required to give precedence to a widow.
As a widow she is probably not a person with resources. She comes repeatedly asking this judge to procure justice for her, defined, not as revenge, but as securing the rights of a wronged person. The open ended nature of the text (we aren’t told her specific complaint) opens the text up for contemporary applications.
Vindication, a word used 3 times in 18:5-8, doesn’t just refer to an answer to prayer. There is an eschatological dimension to the vindication.
God will vindicate his chosen people (symbolized by the widow) when they experience unjust suffering. If we have resources and influence, we are to use them to work toward the vindication of others whose rights are being trampled. This is how we exercise our faith and prepare for the coming of the Son of Man.
Questions with Obvious Answers?
In verses 6-8 Jesus asks two rhetorical questions.
- Will not God grant justice (or vindication from the verb ekdikeo) to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?
- Will he delay long in helping them?
We know that rhetorical questions are supposed to be questions with obvious answers that are asked to remind people of what everyone already knows. Jesus expected the answer to question #1 would be Yes! And to #2 No!
I know there are people in my congregation and probably in yours for whom the answer to these questions would be reversed. Add to that those beyond our congregations. Will God grant vindication to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? No! (Unless I’m not one of the chosen. That would explain the fact that I’m not getting any answers.
And #2 Will God delay long in helping them? Yes! (Unless I’m not one of the chosen. That would explain the delay in my getting help)
For many reasons, many people have difficulty affirming that God grants justice to the suffering and that God grants that help quickly.
Between verse 7 and verse 8, I wonder what people’s responses were? What was their body language and facial expression? If they had been nodding in agreement with smiling faces, would Jesus have needed to answer both of his own questions in one reassuring statement?
“I tell you he will quickly grant justice to them.” (18:8)
One thing about the Bible- it presents a full picture of God. Not just a God of reward and mercy. Not just a God of justice and accountability. Always a God of mercy and justice, grace and challenge. You can’t have one without the other, when it comes to God. And, in preaching, the good news is not the good news if it isn’t true to the whole character of God.
So Jesus, after assuring us that it is God’s intention to grant vindication or justice for all, puts the burden to make some behavioral change back on us.
“Yet, (despite the fact that we know God’s will is for justice on earth) when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? (18:8)
Now, when Jesus asked this rhetorical question, what was the body language, what were the facial expressions of listeners? I’m guessing quizzical facial expressions and shrugs that said, “Not sure….probably not…
The Kingdom of God is among you
Right before this parable of the widow and the Unjust Judge comes Jesus’ teachings about how to be ready for the coming of the Kingdom. He says the kingdom of God is in our midst, (17:21) as well as a future event we could no more miss than we could not notice lighting flashing across the sky. This will be the advent of the Son of Man.
I believe that the parable of the widow and the Unjust Judge is a parable about how to prepare for the coming of the Son of Man. The kingdom of God is among us in the reality of God’s will for vindication for those who cry out to him (17:21). We activate that will by persistent prayer, backed by action, to bring God’s justice to the attention of unjust events and systems.
The parables are all Jesus’ answer to the question “What is the kingdom of God like?” There is always something strange about a parable, something not like the way things are in real life. This strange detail is the window into Jesus’ insight about the kingdom of God. In this parable, the judge is not like a person in real life. He is not even like an institution or system. He is much more brutally self aware than a real person in real life or a real institution in everyday life. Sure, sometimes a politician caught in bed with someone she or he should not have been in bed with will hold a tearful press conference to get back in the good graces of the public. But in general, individuals and groups don’t admit to themselves that the reason they act or don’t act the way they do is because “I have no fear of God or respect for anyone…” That would be like saying: “I am an irreverent, disrespectful jerk who thinks only of my own convenience and comfort. Don’t expect any justice from me.” Real people and institutions protect themselves (ourselves) with layers of rationalizations, ways we can continue to pursue our lifestyles and sleep well at night while ignoring or downplaying the needs of those beyond our families and friends.
Jesus challenges us by juxtaposing God’s desire for justice (the presence of the kingdom in our midst) with the possibility that, when Jesus returns, he may find that nothing has changed. “God will quickly grant justice…yet when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Now and Then
My husband Murry and I used to belong to an adult Sunday School class called the “Now and Then” class. I assumed it got its name from the fact that they studied the faith now and the roots of the faith in the biblical story then. It turned out it was more a description of the sporadic attendance of class members! It occurs to me that THEN can refer, not only to a past event, but also to a future one.
So Now and then is a good answer to the question: When are we to prepare for the kingdom of God?
We are to prepare now for then. How? By praying for justice, pestering for justice, persistently demanding justice from people and institutions with other priorities.
Now, we have the kingdom of God in our midst as God’s desire for justice.
Then the Son of Man will stand before us and ask “Where will I find faith on this earth?”
Here would be a good answer.
Alyce M. McKenzie is Professor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. Visit her Expert Site at Patheos here.
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