The Parable of the Persistent Widow #17

The Parable of the Persistent Widow, also called the Unjust Judge or the Importunate Widow, is a story Jesus told about a woman who keeps asking a corrupt judge for justice until he finally grants it. It appears only in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 18:1-8), where Luke states its purpose at the outset: that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. It is one of Jesus’s most direct teachings on persistence in prayer.

The Parable

In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. In the same city was a widow who kept coming to him with the plea to give her justice against her adversary (Luke 18:2-3). For a time he refused, but eventually he said to himself that although he did not fear God or respect man, he would give this widow justice because she kept bothering him and would otherwise wear him out by her continual coming (Luke 18:4-5).

Jesus then draws the lesson. If even an unjust judge responds to persistence, he asks, will God not give justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? He says that God will give justice to them speedily. Then he ends with a question: when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth (Luke 18:6-8)?

Context

The parable follows Jesus’s discourse on the coming of the kingdom and the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:20-37), which speaks of suffering and of waiting. Disciples facing delay and opposition are tempted to give up, and the parable is told to encourage them. The widow was among the most vulnerable people in society, with no husband to speak for her, and the law of Moses repeatedly warned against oppressing widows because God hears their cry (Exodus 22:22-24). Judges in the ancient world were often open to bribery, and a widow with no money or influence had little to offer. Her only resource is persistence.

Meaning

This parable works by contrast, not comparison. God is not like the unjust judge. The argument runs from the lesser to the greater: if a reluctant, corrupt official finally acts, how much more will a good and attentive God act for his people. The parable does not teach that God must be badgered into responding, but that his people should keep praying and not lose heart while they wait.

The closing question about faith turns the story toward the end times. Many readers hear it as a warning that the greatest test of faith comes in the long delay before justice arrives. Interpreters differ on what the speedy justice means, since history seems to be slow. Some take it as a promise of ultimate vindication at the Son of Man’s coming, while others emphasize that when God acts, he acts without delay. Christians of many traditions, from Catholic and Orthodox to Protestant, have taken the parable as a model for steadfast, hopeful prayer, whatever the answer looks like along the way.