The gospel reading from this Sunday’s lectionary is known as the “Parable of the Persistent Widow,” and it is one of Jesus’s lesser-known parables.
Most people, even those who are not religious, know Jesus’s “Parable of the Good Samaritan” or Jesus’s “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but the “Parable of the Persistent Widow” is not as well-known, probably because it is confusing and misunderstood.
In it, a widow keeps badgering an uncaring judge to hear her case, and he finally gives in because he’s so tired of hearing her nagging.
Now, this story is only told in Luke’s Gospel, and to be quite honest, I used to have a major issue with this Gospel story.
I mean is Jesus really comparing God to an unjust judge who doesn’t really care about people? And, is Jesus really suggesting that whining and nagging are the best ways to get God’s attention and to get our needs met?
That just doesn’t compute with everything else Jesus had to say about God and about prayer.
But, this Parable is among Jesus’s teachings about prayer, so it requires our attention.
I think it’s interesting that before the writer of Luke’s Gospel gets to telling the Parable of the widow and judge, he begins the passage by saying “Jesus told the disciples a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit.”
It’s almost like he’s telling us the meaning of the story before he actually gets to telling the story. That doesn’t happen with any other of Jesus’s parables.
Maybe he wanted to make sure that the story wasn’t going to be misunderstood, because it is confusing.
Jesus’s disciples were often confused by Jesus’s teachings.
Now that wasn’t because Jesus was a bad teacher. Jesus, as we know, was a Master Teacher, and he knew of the power of telling stories, of using parables.
Jesus knew that the spiritual lessons he was trying to teach were difficult concepts for people to grasp, so he used stories to help them comprehend these spiritual principles.
This parable of the Persistent Widow is meant to encourage the disciples to pray consistently especially when God’s seems distant.
And, he uses a widow in the story symbolically. Now, yes, taken literally the word “widow” means a woman who has lost her husband, her support system. And, in Jesus’s day, a woman without a husband, had no security.
But, metaphysically or spiritually, the word “widow” symbolizes: “One who has lost God, their spiritual support system.”
We are encouraged in the Bible to pray for widows and orphans, and, yes, it is good for us to pray for women who have lost their spouse or children who have lost their parents, but taken spiritually, this command means to pray for those who have lost God as their support and to pray for those who are spiritual orphans, those who have spiritually lost their connection to God.
And, that, to me, is what this Parable is all about. It’s about the times in our lives when we feel spiritually widowed and orphaned. The times in our lives when we no longer feel God’s support or connection.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all experienced times in our lives when we’ve felt abandoned by God….where we’ve felt that what’s happened to us in life is unjust, much like the widow in the story feels.
God, why this is happening to me? God, why have you abandoning me? God, why are you ignoring my pleas?
During these times in our lives, Jesus is encouraging us with this Parable to keep praying and to remember our connection with God.
The best-selling Christian author, Father Richard Rohr, describes prayer as “conscious union with God.”
And, he says, “We must keep in mind that the purpose of prayer is not get anywhere or to get anything. We don’t have to attain the presence of God, because we’re already totally in the presence of God.”
Prayer reminds us that we are not widowed or orphaned. We always in the Presence and Power of God. Prayer connects us consciously with that Presence and Power.
Now, prayer isn’t magic, but there is a “science” to prayer.
Scientific studies today are showing the health benefits of prayer and meditation. How prayer lowers our blood pressure and strengthens our immune system.
Yes, prayer heals our bodies, scientifically! Jesus knew that.
Science has also shown that prayer and meditation rewire our brains. You can go online and see brain scans of people who meditate and pray verses brain scans of people who do not. This is real. This is science.
2,000 years ago, Jesus also gave us the instructions to pray, but most of us are not following those instructions.
Most of us think that prayer is talking to a cosmic “Santa Claus” up in the clouds. That we asking someone outside of us to grant us special favors, like a Genie in a Bottle.
And, we even pray with our hands pressed together, down on our knees, like we are pleading and begging.
God, please let my daughter get a job. God, please let Mother get better. God, please make spouse stop drinking.
That’s not how prayer works, but unfortunately, that is how most of us have been taught to pray…like little beggars.
Most of us have been taught to beg and plead, to ask favors and to bring our needs to some old man in the sky.
But that isn’t how prayer works.
Recently on the news, they were covering the aftermath of a storm, and I heard a man say to the reporter, “We were praying all day and night that our house would be spared from the storm, and God answered our prayer.”
But, you know, I’m sure there were people in that man’s neighborhood who were praying just as hard, but they lost their homes in the hurricane.
So, is that how it works? God answers some people’s prayers and not others? Some people pray harder or are more deserving, is that it?
If you believe that God is a judge – if that’s how you view God – then prayer, for you, will be about trying to present your case to the judge.
“God, may I approach the bench? God, I am such a good person. I go to church every Sunday. What’s happening to me is so unfair. Please hear my case.”
Are you praying to influence the judge? Are you praying to try to change God’s mind?
God isn’t a judge, and the purpose the prayer is not to change God’s mind.
The purpose of prayer is to change YOUR mind!
I’ve shared you before Mother Teresa’s thoughts about prayer which wrote in her journal in her final years. She said, “I used think prayer changed things. Now, I know differently. Prayer doesn’t change things. Prayer changes us, and we change things.”
Prayer changes US. In prayer, we become mindful of the Power and Presence of God that is always with us and within us.
Praying is aligning yourself with that Presence and that Power.
That is why if you pray out of lack or want or sickness or fear, you’re not aligning with the power, because the power is abundance and prosperity and health and love.
So, instead of praying in fear and lack, “God, please let me get a job, because I need money” instead you focus your thoughts on love. You pray, “God, thank you for all of the many gifts that you have given me, and I am ready to use them in ways that will serve the world.” Do you see the difference?
And, your hands are not pleading. They are open and receptive to the flow of Love.
And, as we heard in our Words of Integration and Guidance this morning, prayer is “beyond words.”
It’s why Jesus says in Matthew 6:7, “When you pray, don’t babble on, like many do. They believe they will be heard because of their speaking much. Do not be like them, for God knows what you need before you ask.”
So, prayer is not about speaking words. It’s about remembering our connection to the One Power and the One Presence in the Universe which dwells with us and within us.
Now, to keep our minds, our thoughts, our beliefs, focused on God 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is not easy, but we get better at it the more we put it into practice.
I’ve told you before, the word “disciple” comes from the same root word as the word “discipline.”
We can pray without ceasing – we can stay consciously connected to God throughout the day – but it will require great persistence on our part. That’s why Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, “Don’t give up.”
Jesus’s message for us today is to “keep the faith” and to understand “that all things are possible when we believe.”
May it be so. Amen.
Questions for reflection and journalling:
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When have you experienced a time of feeling spiritually “widowed” or disconnected from God, and what practices helped you persist in prayer during that season?
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How does your understanding of prayer shift when you see it not as persuading a distant judge, but as aligning your mind and heart with the Presence and Power of God already within you?
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What specific step can you take this week to cultivate more consistent, mindful prayer—not out of fear or lack, but out of gratitude and trust?