Parable of the Unjust Judge

Today on Renewing Your Mind… Dr. R.C. selected to expound, which is the parable called either the parable of the unjust judge or also the parable of the importunate widow. Before I do that, I want to make one other further observation about the nature of parables and their interpretation. In the early centuries of Christianity, the church fathers delighted in adopting what they called the allegorical method of interpreting the parables as well as the whole Bible. And in that method of interpretation, they tried to find some hidden meaning in every element of the parable.

Just as we think of the allegory of Pilgrim's Progress, each person that he meets along the way has a significant representative of a type of person that we encounter and so on. So the church fathers tried to interpret the parables in that manner. However, since that time, it's become almost universally accepted that for the most part, not in each and every case, but for the most part, the meaning or the significance of a parable is one central decisive point. Now there are a few parables that might have two major points and even three in terms of their complexity, but they are not to be handled as allegories where we try to find some hidden significance for every item in that.

When we do that, we stumble into all kinds of silliness really. And so the question that we have and the problem we try to unravel is to discover the single important central point of the parable. Having said that, let's look now at the parable of the unjust judge. We find it in Luke chapter 18, and before I comment on it, I'm going to read it in its entirety to you. Luke 18, beginning at verse 1, then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. And now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him, saying, Get justice for me from my adversary.

And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears along with them?

I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? Of all of the great speeches that were given by Sir Winston Churchill to the people of England during the crisis of World War II, the shortest speech that he ever gave was one of his most provocative. It came when he was invited to speak at his alma mater at Eton. And after he was introduced, Sir Winston got up and in his inimitable fashion said to the students who were assembled on that occasion, Never, ever give up.

And he sat down. It had to be maybe the second shortest message in all of history, only the Jesus one at the synagogue when he said, Today this text is fulfilled in your midst. But in any case, what Churchill was trying to instill in these students was this indomitable spirit persevering, even in times of difficulty, in times of persecution, in times of apparent defeat as he rallied his people after France fell to the Germans in saying, We will fight them on the beaches. We'll fight them on the seas. We'll fight them in the villages.

We'll fight them wherever we meet them, and so on. Again, he was calling people to persistent fidelity that in times of trouble they would not faint. They would not surrender to despair. Well, here we're blessed at the very beginning of this parable. Jesus tells us its central point. We read here that He spoke a parable to them that men, that is, in order that men ought always to pray and not faint. And so the parable is about persistent prayer, persistent prayer in the midst of trouble, persistent prayer in the midst of difficulty, persisting in prayer even when it seems as if our prayers go no higher than the ceiling. And so to communicate that truth of constant prayer, Jesus tells the story of two people, one who is a widow who has no one to represent her, no one to defend her in the courts, no one to find vindication for her against her adversary. And I think you're aware that throughout the Scriptures there's a special place in the heart of God for widows, that they seem to be the most vulnerable of all people in the world. James tells us that the essence of true religion is the care of widows and orphans, because particularly in the ancient world the widow was helpless. And so for His purpose and for His story, Jesus elects to tell the story of such a person, a person who is a widow who has been unjustly treated, she's been wronged, and now she's suffering, and her only hope is to find justice at the hands of the courts.

And so she wants to present her case to the judge. But Jesus tells us about this judge, that there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. There were two things this judge didn't care about.

He didn't care about God, He didn't care about God, and He didn't care about people. So if you put those two together, how much do you think He cared about justice? You know, one of the things we see in our own culture again and again and again, and it's featured in movies and in television programs, in novels, how so often when a person is on trial the outcome of that trial will depend on the sophistication of the lawyers who are trying the trial. And the debate will go on and on and on with respect to points of law. And again, using casuistic law, that is case law, appealing to precedents that had been established in similar court decisions.

And sometimes in the midst of that complex system of trying cases, that which is lost is the fundamental question of justice. I once had to be involved in a theological case that involved charges that were brought against a minister by some elders in his church. And a commission was formed by the presbytery, and the chairman of the commission came, and we interviewed the minister. We interviewed the assistant minister. We interviewed the elders. We interviewed members from the congregation at large.

And everybody had a different story. And so when we met after the hearing, the chairman of the committee said, well, we have to be very careful here. We need the wisdom of Solomon because we have to find a way to vindicate this minister. We have to find a way to maintain the dignity of the elders, and we've got to keep the congregation unified and together over this point. And after he elaborated on all these things that we needed to accomplish as a commission, he said, is there anything else we need to be concerned about? I raised my hand.

He said, what's that? I said, how about justice? What we're here to do is to discern who's at fault and not just make the assumption that everybody's at fault equally. And we have to deal with that, but nobody wants to deal with that. And I'm afraid we've come to that place so often in our culture where we have judges who really don't care about justice. And they don't care about God, and they don't care about people.

What they care about is their own office, their own prestige, their own job security. That's the kind of man that Jesus describes here, who is sitting on the bench that's supposed to be bringing justice to this poor widow who had nobody to plead her case. And so she comes and asks the judge to hear her case. Please get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not, Jesus said, for a while.

The first time she asked Him, He brushed her off. Who are you? What are you doing here? Get out of here. Don't waste my time. I could care less about your predicament and your plight.

Go away. Lady, you bother me. But she wouldn't faint. She wouldn't give up.

She came back a second time. And she said, And she said, Your Honor, I don't have anybody to plead my case before my adversary. Will you please hear my case?

Don't you get it, lady? I don't care about you. I'm not interested in God. I don't care about justice.

Get out of here for a while. But this woman would not take no for an answer. And afterwards the judge said within himself, Though I don't fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. This woman was the importunate widow.

Not important or unimportant, but importunate means persistence on steroids. This woman would not give up. And so she kept beating and beating and beating on the door of the unjust judge until finally out of pure expediency, not out of conversion to the legitimacy of justice, but he just got sick and tired of this. He said, She's wearying me. I'm getting tired of it. I'll hear her case.

I'll vindicate her so she'll just stop banging on the door. Now remember, Jesus says that He's telling this story that we ought always to pray and not faint. Now one of the most important elements that we find in parable after parable, not in every parable, is a contrast between how fallen creatures behave and how God behaves. And so often that contrast is spelled out in terms of the phrase, How much more?

How much more? And Jesus uses that principle here. Listen to what He says. Then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall not God… Well, the other translation that I prefer, shall not God vindicate His own elect who cry out to Him day and night? The God we serve is a God who vindicates His people, a God who avenges His people. Now keep in mind that the Bible tells us that we're wrong when we're exploited if we're persecuted and treated maliciously, unjustly, that what we're not allowed to do absolutely is to seek vengeance. Vengeance is not on the agenda for the Christian. And so what does God say about that? Vengeance is a bad thing.

No, He didn't say that. He says vengeance is mine. It's not yours.

It's mine. I will repay. Repay. Our God is an avenging God. Our God will right every wrong that His people have ever experienced. We see this in the grand example of the Exodus where the people of God cried day after day after day, mixing their cries and their pleas with their groaning, until God said, I have heard the groans coming up to me from my people. Therefore, Pharaoh, who was an unjust judge of Egypt, who regarded not God or man, you're going to let my people go so that they may come and worship me on my mountain.

And the Exodus is a foretaste of the greater exodus that comes to pass in the New Testament when God delivers His people from the world and the flesh and the devil. And from all of those who despitefully use us, that's why Jesus will say, in the Beatitudes, blessed are those when men shall revile you and persecute you, say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. When I was a seminary student in a seminary that was hostile to orthodox Christianity, I was selected to preach the senior sermon before the whole student body, the whole faculty, the whole faculty, and also the presbytery who met there that day. And I preached that day on sin, and I made reference to some of the definitions of sin that we had learned at seminary that sin, you know, was existential, inauthentic existence, or sin was some kind of neurosis and all these silly definitions of sin. And I said, you know, we may be neurotic, and we may be doing everything that we know how to destroy what authenticity of existence we may have, but, fellows, men and brethren, the meaning of sin, Scripture, as our own confession says, is that it's any one of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.

We sin because we break His law, and we come under His indictment. Well, the student body that was largely liberal when I finished rose up out of their seats. They came up to me, and they congratulated me, and they were very positive. I go make my way to the back of the church, and the dean of the institution comes up to me, and he's irate. He's so mad at me that he throws me against the wall literally. He says, you distorted the Scriptures, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And I said, wow, did I do that? So I went straight upstairs to Dr. Gerstner's office, who was my mentor, and I said, Dr. Gerstner, did I distort the truth of God? And he looked at me, and he said, blessed are you.

Roberto is what he called me. He says, every Christian in heaven from Paul to B.B. Warfield is rejoicing at the sermon that you preach in this house today. And I felt vindicated.

I was so relieved to hear his evaluation. Will not God vindicate His elect who cry unto Him day and night? This is a fantastic promise from our Lord that should give us tremendous consolation and comfort to know that even though sometimes we think He doesn't hear our prayers or doesn't care how we are persecuted and suffer, His eyes on the sparrow, He counts every hair on our head, and He has promised to vindicate His people who, like this helpless, important widow, cry unto Him day and night.

And so we ought not to faint. We ought not to lose faith. We ought not to lose faith as if we served a God who didn't hear us and who didn't care. And so Jesus ends the parable this way, I tell you that He will avenge them or vindicate them speedily.

Nevertheless, a strange ending to the parable. Nevertheless, Jesus said, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Will He find faith in His church? Or will it all disintegrate into unbelief because people have stopped praying and in the midst of adversity have fainted? Well, that's a question that our Lord asks.

He obviously knew the answer to that question. He knows that when He returns, He will find faith on the earth, not because we are so faithful, but because He is faithful to keep those whom the Father has given Him. It turns out there is much we can learn from a story about an unrighteous, corrupt, unjust judge and a persistent widow. Today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. R.C. Sproul has shown us the importance of persistent prayer and not growing faint in times of trouble.

In his public ministry, one of the primary ways Jesus communicated was through parables, and this week Dr. Sproul is giving us an in-depth look at several of them. This is from a 12-part series that he taught, and we'd like to send it to you on two DVDs when you contact us today with your donation of any amount. You can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343. You can also make your request online at renewingyourmind.org. If you've downloaded the free Ligonier app, you can take advantage of a helpful resource. Once you've completed your request for R.C. 's series, the videos will be available to watch immediately in the app. You can do that at My Learning Library.

To download the app, look for Ligonier in your app store. Tomorrow Dr. Sproul takes a look at one of Jesus' best-known parables, the Good Samaritan. I didn't go to the hospital, to the emergency room, and just leave him at the emergency room and then go on about his business because he had an appointment in Jericho. His whole day, his whole journey, his whole business has to be put aside because the top priority for this Samaritan is I've got to see to it that this man is taken care of. But we will learn that this is not just a story about a man doing a good deed. We hope you'll join us Tuesday for Renewing Your Mind.