The Persistent Widow? The parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1–8) is part of a series of illustrative lessons Jesus Christ used to teach His disciples about prayer. Luke introduces this lesson as a parable meant to show the disciples “that they should always pray and never give up” (verse 1, NLT).
Eventually, the judge says to himself, “I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!” (Luke 18:4–5, NLT). The widow gets the justice she was seeking. Then Jesus explains His point: if an uncaring, unfit, ungodly judge answers with justice in the end, how much more will a loving and holy Father give what is right to His children?
It ends in warfare against God, which is why a person of pride cannot have a good relationship with Him. A proud person cannot have faith in God, at least not very much. A small amount of faith can be there, but pride will definitely be a hindrance. This is why the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in Luke 18:9-14 follows immediately after of the Parable of the Importunate Widow (Luke 18:1-8), which Jesus ends with, “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on earth?”—because humility is essential to faith.
Before I finish up with the story, I just want to let you guys know that we’re really glad that you’re here. Please do stick around to the end of the video. If you’d like to receive a free coloring page of the illustration that you’re seeing drawn in this video. Also, if you guys have been enjoying this video so far, please do consider liking this video as well as subscribing to our channel. It would mean a bunch to us. All right, let’s get back to the story a long time ago, God told me that he wanted me to share about him with everyone that I met. Initially, I was really afraid to do this and I didn’t know how, but I trusted God and I stepped out and I decided that I was going to share with everyone that I saw about Jesus. I started sharing day after day after day, but I didn’t find anyone that was interested in the message, but God told me to keep going and not give up. About six months later, I finally found someone that was interested in Jesus and they chose to accept Jesus into their life and make him their there, you know, that was one of the greatest days of my life. When we continue to be persistent in what God has for us, as well as spending time in prayer, God will do amazing things in our life, but it’s not easy to get there. Persistence. Isn’t an easier fun thing, but it’s something that has a great reward. See more details with the The Persistent Widow video on YouTube.
In the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8), a poor, powerless person (the widow) persists in nagging a corrupt, powerful person (the judge) to do justice for her. The parable assumes John the Baptist’s teaching that holding a position of power and leadership obligates you to work justly, especially on behalf of the poor and weak. But Jesus focuses the parable on a different point, that we are “to pray always and to not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). He identifies the hearers — us — with the woman, and the prayed-to person — God — with the corrupt judge, a strange combination. Assuming that Jesus doesn’t mean that God is corrupt, the point must be that if persistence pays off with a corrupt human of limited power, how much more will it pay off with a just God of infinite power.