Sunday 19 October 2025

Psalm 121

Background
Today we read the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. The choices we make when interpreting it reveal a lot about our understanding of God, prayer, discipleship and faith.

It is followed by a parable comparing the prayers of someone who thinks they are righteous and someone who is aware of their sins (Luke 18:9-14). This might encourage a focus on our attitude to prayer.

The judge would not have been a Jewish judge, because disputes in the Jewish world were brought to the elders. This judge would have been a paid magistrate, appointed either by King Herod or the Romans. Such judges were notorious.

In verse 1, Luke gives his understanding of the purpose of the parable before he tells it: he says it's about the need to pray and not lose heart. How do we respond to this? Do we take it as a direct instruction on how we should understand the parable, or do we apply the parable more widely?

I want to avoid the trap of prayer being an excuse for inaction, which is the opposite of the behaviour of the widow. Unfortunately, Christians are often perceived as responding to injustice and tragedy only with 'thoughts and prayers' rather than action.

So here is my 'yes and..' response.

Yes, we need the connection to the coming of God's kingdom. Injustice is a sign that God's kingdom is not yet here fully, and yet the kingdom is also something people should see within us. That means we need to be persistent, like the widow, in challenging injustice and declaring it to be not the way of God (remembering that the judge in the story is behaving exactly in the opposite way to God).

Yes, we need to be challenged about how we pray. Are we persistent, are we hypocritical, do we connect prayer and action, do our prayers change us, and are our prayers building our faith?

Yes, we need to recognise power in society, and we need to persistently challenge it. The politician Tony Benn put it well, saying: "If one meets a powerful person – Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates – ask them five questions: What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?"

The Bible is full of examples of God demanding protection for the vulnerable, such as widows:

• God has a special affection for widows, orphans and aliens (Deuteronomy 10:18-19).
• Just as God provided relief for the Israelites from their Egyptian captivity, God requires Israel to provide relief for other vulnerable people (Deuteronomy 24:17-21).
• Those who fail in this responsibility shall be cursed (Deuteronomy 27:19).
• Jesus condemns those “who devour widow’s houses” (Luke 20:47).

Yes, we need to recognise that God is entirely just, that God wants us to have a prayer relationship that changes us and builds both action and faith, and that God acts (albeit with an eternal understanding of time and a perspective that is infinitely wider than our personal interests).

All this makes this parable powerful and relevant for today when we see increasing injustice, rising hate, and more inequality in how much power people have. It challenges us to be aware, prayerful and active.

To Ponder:

• How is your balance between prayer and activism?
• Which injustices in society is God calling you to be active in? How are you responding to God?

Prayer
Thank you Jesus for your teaching and example. We pray that you will strengthen our faith and our responses to injustice. May your kingdom of justice, joy and love come. Amen.

Bible notes author: The Revd Dave Warnock
Dave is now a Methodist minister without an appointment. He and his wife Jane are finishing a very extensive refit of a 1977 sailing boat so they can sail around the world for five years as sustainably as possible. The intention is to model sustainable living and help encourage connections between sustainability and faith. He wants to move from negative to positive impacts of sailing on vulnerable coastal communities. See their blog at and YouTube channel