Embodying Prayers for Justice

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 24C)

Luke 18.1-8

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

 

In our society, we love stories about an underdog. One who, on the surface, has little to no possibility of winning in whatever situation they find themselves. And the more the odds are stacked against them, usually because of unjust or corrupt systems, the more we root for the underdog. Perhaps because we see something of ourselves in that particular person or the situation they are confronting. The underdog fighting the good fight and ultimately prevailing against all odds is a common theme in many books, movies, plays, television shows, and video games. A motif that continues to draw us in, because we can all relate in some way or another. And since, in most portrayals produced for mass consumption, the underdog does eventually prevail, we derive not only entertainment from the story, but also a sense of hope that, if the protagonist can prevail, so can we.

 

This motif is not new to our time or our society. Just because they did not have movies and video games in first century Palestine did not mean this theme of the underdog was not popular then, as well. We see an example of this in the parable Jesus tells in today’s Gospel reading. The parable of the widow and the unjust judge. Perhaps the first century version of such stories as Norma Rae and Erin Brokovich.

 

To more fully appreciate just why Jesus tells this parable, we need to look at the previous section in Luke’s Gospel—the latter part of chapter 17. Jesus has just been confronted by the Pharisees who ask about the coming of God’s kingdom—when it will come and what it will be like. Jesus responds, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed . . . For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you” (Lk 17.20-21). Although some versions translate Jesus’ statement as “the kingdom of God is within you.” Jesus then goes on to describe to his disciples something of the unfolding of the kingdom and the end times. A time characterized by and filled with uncertainty, chaos, confusion, and deception. Not on God’s part, but on the part of worldly powers. Presumably to obscure or detract from what God is truly doing. Also, providing an indication of the uncertainty that will undoubtedly follow Jesus’ own impending death, toward which, at this point in the Gospel, he is barreling headlong.

 

With this as a backdrop, we hear in today’s Gospel reading that “Then Jesus told [the disciples] a parable about their need to pray always and not lose heart.” The need to pray always and not lose heart. That is the key. To illustrate this need, Jesus crafts a parable that focuses on one who would be the epitome of underdogs, one most likely to NOT prevail against the systems of the day. A widow. Women having virtually no rights at all, relying on male relatives to support and advocate for them; usually a father or a husband. A widow would not likely have benefit of such support or advocacy.

 

We are told that the widow was in need of justice against an opponent. Unfortunately, the local judge she needed to deal with “neither feared God nor had respect for people.” In other words, he was likely corrupt and certainly did not have respect for the rule of law. Not having respect for God’s commandments or for God’s people—having no regard for God’s justice, particularly toward the alien, the orphan, and the widow—the judge did not dispense the required justice. Now, under the societal norms of the day—the widow was at a disadvantage because of being a woman and not having an advocate in the form of a husband—the widow should have simply accepted her fate and moved on. But not this widow! She was apparently a force to be reckoned with. She continued to go back to the judge time and again, seeking the justice she deserved. Eventually, thanks to her persistence, her tenacity, the judge said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”

 

Now, this woman was apparently more of a force than appears on the surface. While I had never seen it before, I ran across two references that indicate that the judge’s statement “so that she may not wear me out by continually coming,” is a weak translation. Apparently the original Greek contains a word translated as “to give a black eye,” referring to a boxing term. Resulting in a more appropriate translation of “because the widow causes trouble for me, I will give her justice, so that she may not, in the end, give me a black eye by her coming.”[1] Another commentary puts it in a little more generic way, stating the translation should be “I will grant her justice, lest she continue coming and end up doing violence to me!”[2] Now, of course, we don’t know what that was all about; why a judge, a man, would think that she, a woman, would punch him in the eye, or worse. She may have been desperate, but would she resort to an act of violence against a court official, which would undoubtedly have resulted in serious legal implications? Or was this merely hyperbole to indicate the determination of the widow?

 

We may never know, as this a parable, not real life. That we know of. The real point that Jesus is making is that the woman received the justice she deserved because of her persistence. Because she had faith in the justness of her cause. Because of her willingness to persevere.

 

That is the parable. So now back to Jesus’ real purpose for telling the parable in the first place. At the end of the previous chapter of Luke’s Gospel, the disciples had been questioning Jesus about the coming of God’s kingdom. In light of what Jesus had said about uncertainty, chaos, confusion, and deception, the implication is that they were seeking further clarification. Along the lines of “we understand from what you have said that the Kingdom of God will be coming, and that it is a kingdom of justice, love, peace, and joy. But what about now? In the time before God’s Kingdom is fully realized? What about the injustice, hate, conflict, and sorrow that we see around us here and now? How do we navigate that, how do we deal with all that while we wait for the liberation that God promises?”

 

Good question. A question that so many have asked throughout history. Particularly those who have lived through times of uncertainty, of chaos and confusion, even of oppression. As people of faith, it is a question we ourselves could ask—a question we should ask—in the face of injustices we witness all around us, globally, as well as nationally and locally. Injustices that seem to increase by the day. “What about the injustice, hate, conflict, and sorrow that we see around us here and now? How do we live with that, how do we respond to all that while we wait for the promised liberation?”

 

Jesus addresses the disciples’ question—and our reiteration of it—in the context of prayer. He told them “a parable about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.” As we see in the parable, Jesus fully intends the parable of the widow and the unjust judge to be about more than just prayer. In the telling of this parable, Jesus expands the concept of prayer to be about so much more than just communicating with God. Sure, communicating with God can provide us with hope, with a sense of being grounded in our faith. But what does it do about the current injustice? In the telling of this parable, Jesus expands prayer to include the whole life of his followers in their struggle against injustice. The struggle against injustice itself being a form of prayer. Of living a life of prayer in practical and tangible ways. That the struggle against injustice is itself a form of living prayer, of embodied prayer.

 

The widow, in her persistence, in her tenacity—perceived threats of a black eye notwithstanding—is a model of faithfulness. She is an example of what it means, in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of oppression, in the midst of injustice, to hold fast. She is an example of the need to remain faithful to the principles that we live by: justice, love, peace, and joy. In the mouth of Jesus, this parable is an acknowledgement that until the Kingdom of God is fully realized, God’s justice will not be fully realized. Until then, he urges his followers to remain faithful, active, and courageous. In that faithfulness to continue to pray for God’s justice. To pray for the strength and the courage to actually embody that prayer, to tenaciously work for God’s justice. This is our clarion call as God’s people, as the Body of Christ.

 

Today we are doing something a little different, celebrating a Gospel mass. It occurred to me as this sermon unfolded that the Gospel mass is, in many ways, a liturgical form that embodies the ideals of today’s parable; that embodies prayers for God’s justice. Gospel music, a key component of the Gospel mass, has its roots in spirituals. The music of enslaved people in the early centuries of our nation’s history. A shameful period of injustice when some were treated as less than human, as property. Those enslaved peoples, as a way of praying for God’s justice, as a way of embodying their prayers for justice, would meet in secret to worship God. The primary form of prayer being spirituals that told of God’s love and mercy, that told of their hopes and dreams for God’s promised liberation. The spirituals being the embodiment of prayer, that allowed them to carry those prayers with them back into their work in the fields and the plantation houses. That allowed them to tenaciously hold on to what their owners sought to deny them: faith and hope. And, in some cases, to find the strength and courage to actually engage in acts of defiance against the injustices they suffered. So, in our worship today, we join with the victims of past injustices, crying out for God’s justice. We take them as our example, along with the widow in today’s parable, of how we, too, can embody our prayers for God’s justice in our own day. That we, too, may have the courage to make God’s justice a reality.

 

Jesus ends his post-parable explanation by saying, “Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Only if we remain faithful. Only if we stand up to injustice and tyranny in our midst. Not just in lifting our prayers for justice, love, peace, and joy, but also by boldly and tenaciously embodying those prayers through our actions. That is what faith on earth truly looks like.

 

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[1] “Faith on Earth: SALT’s Lectionary Commentary for Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost,” SALT, October 13, 2025. https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2019/10/15/faith-on-earth-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-nineteenth-week-after-pentecost.

 

[2] The New Interpreter’s Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2003), 1888.