July 13, 2025 • 28 mins
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Tuesday 27 May 2025, Lionel Windsor, Lecturer in the New Testament Department at Moore Theological College, speaks on Luke 18:1-8 and the parable of the persistent widow.
He reminds us that as God has chosen us to be his people, that means he really cares about us, and therefore, when we cry out to him in prayer, he hears us and responds with love and justice.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, that seeks
to glorify God through biblically sound, thought-provoking and challenging talks and interviews.
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Tuesday 27th of May, 2025, Lionel Windsor, Lecturer in the New
(00:30):
Testament Department at Moore Theological College, speaks on Luke 18:1-8 and the parable of the persistent widow.
He reminds us that as God has chosen us to be his people, that means he really cares about us,
and therefore, when we cry out to him in prayer, he hears us and responds with love and justice.
(00:52):
We hope you find the episode helpful.
Brothers and sisters, it is great to see you all here.
Uh, for guests.
I'm, uh, Lionel Windsor.
If you don't know me, uh, I'm here, uh, in, on the faculty in the New Testament department.
(01:13):
Uh, I actually want to start with a very quick plug because I'm also the director
of the PTC, which is our long, uh, standing well loved course to a quick.
Regular church members to know God's word.
So please check out the PTC in.
Okay, my plug's over.
Let's come to God's word.
Uh, we are looking this morning.
We've had our regular lectionary readings.
(01:35):
Uh, we've learned a lot from God's word already, haven't we?
But now we're going to look at a section, which is a little bit later than our regular reading.
We're gonna look at the first part of Luke chapter 18.
Is a parable that Jesus told his disciples at verse one to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
(02:01):
And we all need this encouragement, don't we?
Because prayer is hard, especially that, that persistent, that daily habit of praying day after day.
Month after month, year after year.
I dunno how many years I've been a Christian, I haven't encountered, but it's still hard.
(02:24):
Why is it so hard?
It's hard because of the times we live in, because things are not right in our world or in
our lives, and God doesn't always seem to answer our prayers, or at least not straight away.
(02:47):
Jesus told this parable about prayer when he was teaching his disciples about the coming of God's kingdom.
That's what the previous chapter 17 has been about, and Jesus has just promised that his kingdom is going to come.
It is going to come clearly.
And finally, he is going to make things right.
(03:08):
He is going to bring justice and judgments, but in the meantime.
Things aren't right, and while the rest of the world seems to be going on as normal for those in the world where the rest of
the world seems to be oblivious to God's kingdom for God's people, this is a time of, of often, of rejection, of suffering.
(03:33):
This time we live in is unjust.
So it's a time of longing for justice.
It's a time for begging for justice, a time of prayer to God, prayer for God to fix the things that are wrong, as as we face.
(03:54):
Suffering and sickness as we face anxiety and rejection, as we face pressure to give up our faith in Jesus as we
beg God to heal and restore, to bring our loved ones who don't know Jesus, to trust in him, to take away the evil.
(04:15):
As we pray, day after day, month after month, year after year, it can so easily feel like maybe.
God doesn't care.
Maybe God isn't answering.
And so Jesus tells this parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
(04:36):
And as we get into this account, I want you to see what is the main reason that Jesus gives.
Now, the parable, it's a great little story.
It involves two characters, a judge.
And a widow, verse two and three, he said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected
(04:58):
man, and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary.
Uh, widows are vulnerable people.
Widows were especially vulnerable in these times where the basic setup of society and how it
(05:19):
worked meant that property and livelihood, uh, where normally the responsibility of husbands.
So a woman who had lost her husband needed to rely on the broader society, on the
leaders, on the judges to make sure that she got what she needed, what was right and fair.
That's why so often in the Bible, one of the main responsibilities of a leader, of
(05:43):
a judge of God's people was to care for widows to make sure that they got justice.
And this widow, she clearly needs justice.
She has an adversary.
There's some legal issue, probably a, a property dispute.
She needs a judge to hear it and make a just decision.
(06:05):
So she can live and put food on the table, but this judge doesn't care.
He doesn't fear God.
He doesn't care about God's law.
You know the many Old Testament laws that tell the judge and the leaders to look after widows and hear their cases and do what's right?
The judge doesn't seem to think that God will call him to account and he doesn't care what people think either.
(06:35):
He's probably well off.
He has tenure, maybe, maybe a private income.
Seems like maybe he's beyond politics.
He's established his own career.
This judge is living his best life.
He's got a great career and he doesn't have time to sweat the small stuff.
He doesn't have time for the details.
He doesn't have time for the little people, these widows and their petty little disputes.
(07:01):
So what does the widow do?
Well, of course she's desperate, so she uses the power that she does have, which is the power of persistence.
She keeps coming to the judge and bugging him.
She appeals to him over and over.
Grant me justice.
I need it.
Can you relate a little bit to the widow's situation?
(07:25):
I, I've been there in some way.
I remember our family, we coming back from the UK after studying for my doctorates.
Um, I had a family, no job, 30 pounds to our name and a bit of furniture.
We had to live for six months out of suitcases with extended family.
During that time, we needed special medical funding for one of our kids.
We were entitled to it, but the rules were a complete nightmare.
(07:50):
So it became almost my full-time job to navigate the system and to find out exactly who I had to call and annoy,
and then to spend my life on hold to Medicare, to Centrelink, whatever it was bothering them, being annoying.
So they eventually gave us justice.
Uh, it worked and the widow's persistence worked too.
(08:14):
Verse four.
For a while, he refused, but afterward he said to himself, though, I ne 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.
Uh, the, the judge doesn't have any empathy for the widow and her injustice.
Uh, that's why of course, he starts with the delaying tactics, but she keeps annoying him.
(08:38):
She won't give up.
As my daughter said to me, she's a girl boss.
In fact, she's so persistent.
He says he's afraid she might even beat me down.
Literally, the original word is Jesus says that he's afraid she might come and literally punch me in the face.
Okay, give him a black eye because she's so desperate.
(09:04):
Yeah, true.
That the judge doesn't fear God.
He doesn't fear man.
He fear this widow and her desperation.
She made his life so hard that in the end, the easiest thing for him to do was to give in, hear the case, get her off his back.
Have you heard of the British Post Office scandal?
Uh, between 19 99 20 15, a software error in the British Post Office's centralized Horizon
(09:29):
system created phantom shortfalls in the accounts of almost a thousand self-employed.
Sub postmasters, those who are running the actual offices, but the post office and their tech contractors didn't own up to their fault.
Instead, they blamed these poor small town franchisees.
(09:52):
The post office sued them, fired them, got them sent to prison, even causing some of them to take their own lives.
These little people, they kept pleading, but the big post office didn't listen and neither did the UK government because
it owned the post office and the government couldn't believe that such a trustworthy institution would do such a thing.
(10:14):
There were formal appeals, but I. Nobody properly investigated.
There was a mediation scheme, but that didn't bring true compensation.
It led to the Subpostmasters being forced to sign NDAs to protect the reputation of the institution.
It was a massive breach of trust and truth and justice.
Uh, but there was a former subpostmaster called Alan Bates.
(10:38):
He didn't give up.
Uh, the story's been dramatized in a, uh, uh, in, in a TV series called Mr. Bates versus the post office.
He didn't give up.
He galvanized many into a group.
He pushed and pushed, and he made himself incredibly annoying to the big people.
More recently, truth and justice are finally emerging.
There has been a real public inquiry, proper investigations, people being vindicated, uh, the real perpetrators being investigated.
(11:04):
Alan Bates's persistence brought justice.
So in Jesus' parable, this widow's desperate persistence in the face of the uncaring judge brought her justice.
So what's the point of Jesus' story here?
Is this a heartwarming story about the power of persevering?
(11:30):
You know, the widow finally got what she needed because she pressed on and on and she didn't give up.
And so maybe Jesus is saying we should be like the widow to, we should persevere to keep bothering God until he gives him.
Is that the point?
Jesus gives us the point in the following verses, and I want you to notice here
(11:52):
exactly what Jesus says and then precisely who Jesus draws our attention to.
Notice that Jesus doesn't say, look at that persistent widow.
Do what she did.
He doesn't say that, does he?
Who does he focus on?
Verse six, the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says.
(12:17):
Jesus in the first instance wants us to listen, not to the widow, but to the words of the judge.
The judge who doesn't fear God and doesn't respect people.
He's made that very clear.
This unrighteous judge, uh, literally that the phrase is, he's a judge of unrighteousness.
(12:37):
That means a judge who belongs in this unrighteous and unjust world, a a, a judge who's
perfectly at home in this life and this world which opposes Jesus Kingdom of righteousness.
Listen to the words of this unrighteous judge.
Jesus says, why?
(12:58):
So that you can see clearly and emphatically what God is not like.
The parable.
It's not a simple analogy because if it were, Jesus would effectively be saying that God doesn't really care.
Jesus would be saying, yep, sometime in the future the kingdom will come.
(13:18):
It'll all be good then.
But in the meantime, you're on your own kid.
In this world of unrighteousness and injustice, it's up to you.
If you need God to help you, well, you've got some work to do.
Don't just ask him once.
Don't just ask him twice because God's pretty comfortable in heaven.
He doesn't have the time.
If you're desperate, you've gotta annoy him a lot.
(13:39):
You've gotta make life so hard for God by praying so much that the easiest thing for
him to do is to answer, to get you off his back and stop your punching him in the face.
No.
Now what Jesus is doing here is deliberately exploding that very view of God, just in case we are tempted to have that view.
(14:00):
Are you tempted to think of God like that?
Oh, this is one of those parables of contrast.
This judge of unrighteousness, he's like the steward of unrighteousness in chapter 16.
It's there to show us who the God we pray to is not like God, is not like the British Post Office.
(14:21):
God is not like Medicare and Centrelink.
He's the opposite.
Hear what the unrighteous judge says so that you can see exactly how wonderful is the righteous judge Verses seven and eight.
Will not God give justice to his elect?
(14:42):
Who cry to him day and night?
Will he delay long over them?
I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily that.
Is why we must pray and not become discouraged.
The reason is the God we pray to God is wonderful.
(15:05):
God is powerful, and God listens.
He's in charge.
He is sovereign.
In a personal way, do you see how the doctrine of election works here when it comes to prayer?
You know, you, you, you might ask, oh, well, we've got sovereign overall things.
(15:28):
If he's elected people for salvation, why should I pray at all?
What difference will prayer make to God?
But for Jesus, election is the reason to pray.
Why?
Because if God has chosen us to be his very own beloved people.
It means he cares about us.
He really cares about us.
(15:49):
He knows us, and when we cry out to him, he hears us.
We are not just random God bother us, we're his chosen ones, and those parents or,
or carers, or of young children here, you'll have an inkling of this, won't you?
You know how hypersensitive you are to your own baby or your own child crying even in the middle of the night.
(16:15):
Why?
Because that baby's yours and you want the best for her.
Now of course, when your baby cries, you don't actually always do exactly what the baby wants, do you?
Yeah.
In the middle of the night, the baby might think she wants stimulation.
You know, she needs soothing and, and sleep.
(16:36):
But just because you don't give her what she wants, that doesn't mean you don't love her.
No, you long to give your child what she really needs because you do love her.
Of course, that's, that's the theory.
I know that the reality is that that's actually the, the parents who are crying out to God in the middle of the night.
(16:58):
But the point is, without cries to God, when it seems he's not answering straight away, that's not because he can't be bothered.
It's not because he's got better things to do with his valuable God time.
He's not using delaying tactics to get us off his back.
(17:19):
Maybe there's another reason why it looks like he's not answering maybe reasons that we'll we'll never fathom this side of eternity.
Whatever the reason we can be confident that he will bring justice and his purposes will prevail.
We are his elect, his chosen ones, so we are to call out to him for justice day and night and to take
(17:42):
our part in his loving plans, which he will fulfill, and we wait and keep crying out day and night.
In fact, as we keep following the account of Luke's Gospel, we'll see this play out in the deepest way imaginable.
We see how God brings about justice for his elect, one for his chosen one, his son.
(18:10):
We see Jesus agonized cry by night and by day by night in in Gethsemane.
Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
And we see the utter injustice of the trials before Herod and Pils.
(18:34):
We see the injustice of the crucifixion itself of a man who had done nothing wrong yet who died for our unrighteous deeds.
As the unrighteous rulers scoffed at him saying he saved others.
Let him save himself.
If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.
(18:56):
And then in that day, that day of darkness, we hear the loud cry, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.
And God heard him.
God didn't delay over him.
He did bring about Jesus vindication, speedily.
(19:19):
He raised him on the third day
and now by his spirit in the words of a famous song,
the same God who answers is praying beside us.
Beside so we look to Jesus.
(19:40):
And we cry to the father who has chosen him and us in him who knows us and loves us and hears us even now.
So that's why Jesus asks that challenging question, verse eight.
Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?
(20:02):
We live in this time between Jesus' resurrection and his return, the time of challenge of rejection, the time of suffering we're saved by Jesus.
Yet we are following in the footsteps of suffering of Jesus.
We are waiting for his coming and that's why we must pray and keep praying.
(20:26):
John Kelvin famously spelt out about prayer.
That prayer is the primary way that we express our faith.
It's how we look forward to God's promises.
It's how we take hold of the benefits of being his children through Jesus.
Prayer is expressing our trust in the God who loves us and saves us and will bring justice.
(20:48):
The God for whom a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.
Prayer is begging to him and crying to him, and that's why the great paradigm of faith and prayer and hope in the Bible are of course, widows.
Paul says one Timothy five, five.
She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
(21:16):
And that's why even today, actually, you know, widows are very often the fiercest prayer warriors.
If you wanna be encouraged in prayer, go and find a godly Christian widow.
But this isn't just for widows, this is for all of us.
When Jesus returns to this world of unrighteousness to bring justice and judgment, what will he find?
(21:39):
Will he find you merely living your best life in this world?
Will he find you merely working and striving in this world?
Will he find you merely studying in this world?
Will he find you merely building a following and growing a church in this world?
(22:00):
Will he find you praying?
Will he find faith on earth
through his death and resurrection?
This is how it happens, not, not not through your own grit and determination and persistence, but
through knowing and trusting the love and power of the God to whom we pray, who hears you, who knows you.
(22:24):
And so now we're all going to pray together.
In the words of our psalm, Psalm 94, uh, this just happens in fact to be our rostered psalm for today.
We've had, uh, our, our, our lectionary readings already.
We've got a lectionary reading here from the psalm.
It's just the one we're up to.
Nobody planned this to fit in this with this passage, but in God's kindness, Psalm 94 is the perfect
(22:47):
psalm for us all to pray together now to express our faith in God as we wait for his son's kingdom.
Please stay seated.
Let's just save this psalm together.
I'll lead us in prayer.
The Lord is a God who, avengers a God who avengers, shine forth, rise up judge of the earth, pay back to the proud what they deserve.
(23:14):
How long Lord will the wicked?
How long will the wicked be jubilant?
They pour out arrogant words.
All the evil doers are full of boasting.
They crush your people, Lord.
They oppress your inheritance.
They slay the widow and the foreigner.
They murder the fatherless.
(23:36):
They say the Lord does not see the God of Jacob.
Takes no notice.
Take notice.
Use senseless ones among the people you fools.
When will you become wise?
Does he who fashion the ear not hear?
Does he who form the I not see?
(23:57):
Does he?
Who disciplines the nations not punish?
Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?
The Lord knows all human plans.
He knows that they are futile.
Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord, the one you teach from your law.
You grant them relief from days of trouble.
(24:20):
Till a pit is dug for the wicked, for the Lord will not reject his people.
He will never forsake his inheritance.
Judgment will again be founded on righteousness and all the upright in heart will follow it.
Who will rise up for me against the wicked who will take a stand for me against evil to us unless the Lord had given me help.
(24:47):
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death when I said my foot is slipping.
Your unfailing love Lord supported me.
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.
Can a corrupt throne be allied with you?
A throne that brings on misery by its decree, the wicked band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
(25:17):
The Lord has become my fortress and my God, the rock in whom I take refuge.
He will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness.
The Lord our God will destroy them.
Glory to God, father, son, and Holy Spirit.
(25:37):
As in the beginning, so now and forever.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College.
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(25:58):
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(26:21):
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(26:43):
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(27:16):
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(27:41):
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Until next time.
Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, that seeks
to glorify God through biblically sound, thought-provoking and challenging talks and interviews.
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Tuesday 27th of May, 2025, Lionel Windsor, Lecturer in the New
(00:30):
Testament Department at Moore Theological College, speaks on Luke 18:1-8 and the parable of the persistent widow.
He reminds us that as God has chosen us to be his people, that means he really cares about us,
and therefore, when we cry out to him in prayer, he hears us and responds with love and justice.
(00:52):
We hope you find the episode helpful.
Brothers and sisters, it is great to see you all here.
Uh, for guests.
I'm, uh, Lionel Windsor.
If you don't know me, uh, I'm here, uh, in, on the faculty in the New Testament department.
(01:13):
Uh, I actually want to start with a very quick plug because I'm also the director
of the PTC, which is our long, uh, standing well loved course to a quick.
Regular church members to know God's word.
So please check out the PTC in.
Okay, my plug's over.
Let's come to God's word.
Uh, we are looking this morning.
We've had our regular lectionary readings.
(01:35):
Uh, we've learned a lot from God's word already, haven't we?
But now we're going to look at a section, which is a little bit later than our regular reading.
We're gonna look at the first part of Luke chapter 18.
Is a parable that Jesus told his disciples at verse one to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
(02:01):
And we all need this encouragement, don't we?
Because prayer is hard, especially that, that persistent, that daily habit of praying day after day.
Month after month, year after year.
I dunno how many years I've been a Christian, I haven't encountered, but it's still hard.
(02:24):
Why is it so hard?
It's hard because of the times we live in, because things are not right in our world or in
our lives, and God doesn't always seem to answer our prayers, or at least not straight away.
(02:47):
Jesus told this parable about prayer when he was teaching his disciples about the coming of God's kingdom.
That's what the previous chapter 17 has been about, and Jesus has just promised that his kingdom is going to come.
It is going to come clearly.
And finally, he is going to make things right.
(03:08):
He is going to bring justice and judgments, but in the meantime.
Things aren't right, and while the rest of the world seems to be going on as normal for those in the world where the rest of
the world seems to be oblivious to God's kingdom for God's people, this is a time of, of often, of rejection, of suffering.
(03:33):
This time we live in is unjust.
So it's a time of longing for justice.
It's a time for begging for justice, a time of prayer to God, prayer for God to fix the things that are wrong, as as we face.
(03:54):
Suffering and sickness as we face anxiety and rejection, as we face pressure to give up our faith in Jesus as we
beg God to heal and restore, to bring our loved ones who don't know Jesus, to trust in him, to take away the evil.
(04:15):
As we pray, day after day, month after month, year after year, it can so easily feel like maybe.
God doesn't care.
Maybe God isn't answering.
And so Jesus tells this parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
(04:36):
And as we get into this account, I want you to see what is the main reason that Jesus gives.
Now, the parable, it's a great little story.
It involves two characters, a judge.
And a widow, verse two and three, he said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected
(04:58):
man, and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary.
Uh, widows are vulnerable people.
Widows were especially vulnerable in these times where the basic setup of society and how it
(05:19):
worked meant that property and livelihood, uh, where normally the responsibility of husbands.
So a woman who had lost her husband needed to rely on the broader society, on the
leaders, on the judges to make sure that she got what she needed, what was right and fair.
That's why so often in the Bible, one of the main responsibilities of a leader, of
(05:43):
a judge of God's people was to care for widows to make sure that they got justice.
And this widow, she clearly needs justice.
She has an adversary.
There's some legal issue, probably a, a property dispute.
She needs a judge to hear it and make a just decision.
(06:05):
So she can live and put food on the table, but this judge doesn't care.
He doesn't fear God.
He doesn't care about God's law.
You know the many Old Testament laws that tell the judge and the leaders to look after widows and hear their cases and do what's right?
The judge doesn't seem to think that God will call him to account and he doesn't care what people think either.
(06:35):
He's probably well off.
He has tenure, maybe, maybe a private income.
Seems like maybe he's beyond politics.
He's established his own career.
This judge is living his best life.
He's got a great career and he doesn't have time to sweat the small stuff.
He doesn't have time for the details.
He doesn't have time for the little people, these widows and their petty little disputes.
(07:01):
So what does the widow do?
Well, of course she's desperate, so she uses the power that she does have, which is the power of persistence.
She keeps coming to the judge and bugging him.
She appeals to him over and over.
Grant me justice.
I need it.
Can you relate a little bit to the widow's situation?
(07:25):
I, I've been there in some way.
I remember our family, we coming back from the UK after studying for my doctorates.
Um, I had a family, no job, 30 pounds to our name and a bit of furniture.
We had to live for six months out of suitcases with extended family.
During that time, we needed special medical funding for one of our kids.
We were entitled to it, but the rules were a complete nightmare.
(07:50):
So it became almost my full-time job to navigate the system and to find out exactly who I had to call and annoy,
and then to spend my life on hold to Medicare, to Centrelink, whatever it was bothering them, being annoying.
So they eventually gave us justice.
Uh, it worked and the widow's persistence worked too.
(08:14):
Verse four.
For a while, he refused, but afterward he said to himself, though, I ne 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.
Uh, the, the judge doesn't have any empathy for the widow and her injustice.
Uh, that's why of course, he starts with the delaying tactics, but she keeps annoying him.
(08:38):
She won't give up.
As my daughter said to me, she's a girl boss.
In fact, she's so persistent.
He says he's afraid she might even beat me down.
Literally, the original word is Jesus says that he's afraid she might come and literally punch me in the face.
Okay, give him a black eye because she's so desperate.
(09:04):
Yeah, true.
That the judge doesn't fear God.
He doesn't fear man.
He fear this widow and her desperation.
She made his life so hard that in the end, the easiest thing for him to do was to give in, hear the case, get her off his back.
Have you heard of the British Post Office scandal?
Uh, between 19 99 20 15, a software error in the British Post Office's centralized Horizon
(09:29):
system created phantom shortfalls in the accounts of almost a thousand self-employed.
Sub postmasters, those who are running the actual offices, but the post office and their tech contractors didn't own up to their fault.
Instead, they blamed these poor small town franchisees.
(09:52):
The post office sued them, fired them, got them sent to prison, even causing some of them to take their own lives.
These little people, they kept pleading, but the big post office didn't listen and neither did the UK government because
it owned the post office and the government couldn't believe that such a trustworthy institution would do such a thing.
(10:14):
There were formal appeals, but I. Nobody properly investigated.
There was a mediation scheme, but that didn't bring true compensation.
It led to the Subpostmasters being forced to sign NDAs to protect the reputation of the institution.
It was a massive breach of trust and truth and justice.
Uh, but there was a former subpostmaster called Alan Bates.
(10:38):
He didn't give up.
Uh, the story's been dramatized in a, uh, uh, in, in a TV series called Mr. Bates versus the post office.
He didn't give up.
He galvanized many into a group.
He pushed and pushed, and he made himself incredibly annoying to the big people.
More recently, truth and justice are finally emerging.
There has been a real public inquiry, proper investigations, people being vindicated, uh, the real perpetrators being investigated.
(11:04):
Alan Bates's persistence brought justice.
So in Jesus' parable, this widow's desperate persistence in the face of the uncaring judge brought her justice.
So what's the point of Jesus' story here?
Is this a heartwarming story about the power of persevering?
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You know, the widow finally got what she needed because she pressed on and on and she didn't give up.
And so maybe Jesus is saying we should be like the widow to, we should persevere to keep bothering God until he gives him.
Is that the point?
Jesus gives us the point in the following verses, and I want you to notice here
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exactly what Jesus says and then precisely who Jesus draws our attention to.
Notice that Jesus doesn't say, look at that persistent widow.
Do what she did.
He doesn't say that, does he?
Who does he focus on?
Verse six, the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says.
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Jesus in the first instance wants us to listen, not to the widow, but to the words of the judge.
The judge who doesn't fear God and doesn't respect people.
He's made that very clear.
This unrighteous judge, uh, literally that the phrase is, he's a judge of unrighteousness.
(12:37):
That means a judge who belongs in this unrighteous and unjust world, a a, a judge who's
perfectly at home in this life and this world which opposes Jesus Kingdom of righteousness.
Listen to the words of this unrighteous judge.
Jesus says, why?
(12:58):
So that you can see clearly and emphatically what God is not like.
The parable.
It's not a simple analogy because if it were, Jesus would effectively be saying that God doesn't really care.
Jesus would be saying, yep, sometime in the future the kingdom will come.
(13:18):
It'll all be good then.
But in the meantime, you're on your own kid.
In this world of unrighteousness and injustice, it's up to you.
If you need God to help you, well, you've got some work to do.
Don't just ask him once.
Don't just ask him twice because God's pretty comfortable in heaven.
He doesn't have the time.
If you're desperate, you've gotta annoy him a lot.
(13:39):
You've gotta make life so hard for God by praying so much that the easiest thing for
him to do is to answer, to get you off his back and stop your punching him in the face.
No.
Now what Jesus is doing here is deliberately exploding that very view of God, just in case we are tempted to have that view.
(14:00):
Are you tempted to think of God like that?
Oh, this is one of those parables of contrast.
This judge of unrighteousness, he's like the steward of unrighteousness in chapter 16.
It's there to show us who the God we pray to is not like God, is not like the British Post Office.
(14:21):
God is not like Medicare and Centrelink.
He's the opposite.
Hear what the unrighteous judge says so that you can see exactly how wonderful is the righteous judge Verses seven and eight.
Will not God give justice to his elect?
(14:42):
Who cry to him day and night?
Will he delay long over them?
I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily that.
Is why we must pray and not become discouraged.
The reason is the God we pray to God is wonderful.
(15:05):
God is powerful, and God listens.
He's in charge.
He is sovereign.
In a personal way, do you see how the doctrine of election works here when it comes to prayer?
You know, you, you, you might ask, oh, well, we've got sovereign overall things.
(15:28):
If he's elected people for salvation, why should I pray at all?
What difference will prayer make to God?
But for Jesus, election is the reason to pray.
Why?
Because if God has chosen us to be his very own beloved people.
It means he cares about us.
He really cares about us.
(15:49):
He knows us, and when we cry out to him, he hears us.
We are not just random God bother us, we're his chosen ones, and those parents or,
or carers, or of young children here, you'll have an inkling of this, won't you?
You know how hypersensitive you are to your own baby or your own child crying even in the middle of the night.
(16:15):
Why?
Because that baby's yours and you want the best for her.
Now of course, when your baby cries, you don't actually always do exactly what the baby wants, do you?
Yeah.
In the middle of the night, the baby might think she wants stimulation.
You know, she needs soothing and, and sleep.
(16:36):
But just because you don't give her what she wants, that doesn't mean you don't love her.
No, you long to give your child what she really needs because you do love her.
Of course, that's, that's the theory.
I know that the reality is that that's actually the, the parents who are crying out to God in the middle of the night.
(16:58):
But the point is, without cries to God, when it seems he's not answering straight away, that's not because he can't be bothered.
It's not because he's got better things to do with his valuable God time.
He's not using delaying tactics to get us off his back.
(17:19):
Maybe there's another reason why it looks like he's not answering maybe reasons that we'll we'll never fathom this side of eternity.
Whatever the reason we can be confident that he will bring justice and his purposes will prevail.
We are his elect, his chosen ones, so we are to call out to him for justice day and night and to take
(17:42):
our part in his loving plans, which he will fulfill, and we wait and keep crying out day and night.
In fact, as we keep following the account of Luke's Gospel, we'll see this play out in the deepest way imaginable.
We see how God brings about justice for his elect, one for his chosen one, his son.
(18:10):
We see Jesus agonized cry by night and by day by night in in Gethsemane.
Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
And we see the utter injustice of the trials before Herod and Pils.
(18:34):
We see the injustice of the crucifixion itself of a man who had done nothing wrong yet who died for our unrighteous deeds.
As the unrighteous rulers scoffed at him saying he saved others.
Let him save himself.
If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.
(18:56):
And then in that day, that day of darkness, we hear the loud cry, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.
And God heard him.
God didn't delay over him.
He did bring about Jesus vindication, speedily.
(19:19):
He raised him on the third day
and now by his spirit in the words of a famous song,
the same God who answers is praying beside us.
Beside so we look to Jesus.
(19:40):
And we cry to the father who has chosen him and us in him who knows us and loves us and hears us even now.
So that's why Jesus asks that challenging question, verse eight.
Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?
(20:02):
We live in this time between Jesus' resurrection and his return, the time of challenge of rejection, the time of suffering we're saved by Jesus.
Yet we are following in the footsteps of suffering of Jesus.
We are waiting for his coming and that's why we must pray and keep praying.
(20:26):
John Kelvin famously spelt out about prayer.
That prayer is the primary way that we express our faith.
It's how we look forward to God's promises.
It's how we take hold of the benefits of being his children through Jesus.
Prayer is expressing our trust in the God who loves us and saves us and will bring justice.
(20:48):
The God for whom a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.
Prayer is begging to him and crying to him, and that's why the great paradigm of faith and prayer and hope in the Bible are of course, widows.
Paul says one Timothy five, five.
She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
(21:16):
And that's why even today, actually, you know, widows are very often the fiercest prayer warriors.
If you wanna be encouraged in prayer, go and find a godly Christian widow.
But this isn't just for widows, this is for all of us.
When Jesus returns to this world of unrighteousness to bring justice and judgment, what will he find?
(21:39):
Will he find you merely living your best life in this world?
Will he find you merely working and striving in this world?
Will he find you merely studying in this world?
Will he find you merely building a following and growing a church in this world?
(22:00):
Will he find you praying?
Will he find faith on earth
through his death and resurrection?
This is how it happens, not, not not through your own grit and determination and persistence, but
through knowing and trusting the love and power of the God to whom we pray, who hears you, who knows you.
(22:24):
And so now we're all going to pray together.
In the words of our psalm, Psalm 94, uh, this just happens in fact to be our rostered psalm for today.
We've had, uh, our, our, our lectionary readings already.
We've got a lectionary reading here from the psalm.
It's just the one we're up to.
Nobody planned this to fit in this with this passage, but in God's kindness, Psalm 94 is the perfect
(22:47):
psalm for us all to pray together now to express our faith in God as we wait for his son's kingdom.
Please stay seated.
Let's just save this psalm together.
I'll lead us in prayer.
The Lord is a God who, avengers a God who avengers, shine forth, rise up judge of the earth, pay back to the proud what they deserve.
(23:14):
How long Lord will the wicked?
How long will the wicked be jubilant?
They pour out arrogant words.
All the evil doers are full of boasting.
They crush your people, Lord.
They oppress your inheritance.
They slay the widow and the foreigner.
They murder the fatherless.
(23:36):
They say the Lord does not see the God of Jacob.
Takes no notice.
Take notice.
Use senseless ones among the people you fools.
When will you become wise?
Does he who fashion the ear not hear?
Does he who form the I not see?
(23:57):
Does he?
Who disciplines the nations not punish?
Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?
The Lord knows all human plans.
He knows that they are futile.
Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord, the one you teach from your law.
You grant them relief from days of trouble.
(24:20):
Till a pit is dug for the wicked, for the Lord will not reject his people.
He will never forsake his inheritance.
Judgment will again be founded on righteousness and all the upright in heart will follow it.
Who will rise up for me against the wicked who will take a stand for me against evil to us unless the Lord had given me help.
(24:47):
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death when I said my foot is slipping.
Your unfailing love Lord supported me.
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.
Can a corrupt throne be allied with you?
A throne that brings on misery by its decree, the wicked band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
(25:17):
The Lord has become my fortress and my God, the rock in whom I take refuge.
He will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness.
The Lord our God will destroy them.
Glory to God, father, son, and Holy Spirit.
(25:37):
As in the beginning, so now and forever.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College.
Our vision as a College is to see God glorified by men and women living for
(25:58):
and proclaiming Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches and reaching the lost.
Do you want to deepen your knowledge of God's word or increase in confidence as you teach the Bible to others?
For over 60 years, the PTC, Moore College's Preliminary Theological Certificate has been helping believers
discover the riches of God's word and grow their understanding of the foundations of the Christian faith.
(26:21):
The PTC has been fundamental in the transformation of people, churches and communities across the world.
If you are looking for a biblically sound course that is both flexible and affordable,
find out more about the online or correspondence options, and even try a sample lesson.
Visit moore.edu.au/ptc.
(26:43):
That's moore.edu.au/ptc.
You can find out more and register by going to the Moore College website (26:53):
moore.edu.au.
That's moore.edu.au.
If you have not already done so, we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast
through your favourite podcast platform so that you'll never miss an episode.
For past episodes, further resources, and to make a tax deductible donation to support
(27:16):
the work of the College and its mission, please visit our website at moore.edu.au.
If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend and leave a review on your platform of choice.
We always benefit from feedback from our listeners, so if you'd like to get in touch, you can email us at comms@moore.edu.au.
(27:41):
The Moore in the Word Podcast was edited and produced by me, Karen Beilharz, and the Communications Team at Moore Theological College.
The music for our podcast was provided by MarkJuly from PixaBay.
Until next time.
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