TEXT: Luke 18:1-8

SUBJECT: Luke #66: Pray for Justice

The world is not just, not fair, and not right. Wherever you look, you see the strong abusing the weak. Some of the stories are on the nightly news. A powerful nation declares war on a helpless neighbor. A rich executive saves his company by firing a thousand secretaries. A movie star rapes a hotel maid and goes free because he can afford a good lawyer and she can’t. Every day, the media reminds us that the world is not just, not fair, and not right.

You don’t have to read the papers or watch TV to know the stories, for you’ve been in some of them yourself. You were the kid who got bullied on the playground and singled out in class. You parents spanked you too hard and too often. Your husband scares you and maybe cuffs you around a bit. You get blamed at work for the faults of people higher up. Your pastor used your conscience against you. You’re the guy who was born with a Kick Me sign on his back. You know the world is not just, not fair, and not right.

What you’re feeling now has been felt by others—going way back to the days of the Bible. There was a man called Asaph who wrote a Psalm about it. He wonders why he and other good men have to suffer so much while the wicked have it so good.

Perhaps the goodness of God is leading them to repentance? No, it isn’t. In fact, every blessing make them worse—and yet, the blessings keep raining down on them—in buckets!

Asaph is a man who has had it with the world! He is mad and he isn’t going to take it any longer! He is sick and tired of the unfairness all around him! And he wants to do something about it!

But what can he do? What can you and I do about the injustice of the world?

Some think we have to tear it all down and start over—a new society, a new economy, a new church, a new family, a new man, a new world.

This has been tried in the past and the efforts have normally made things worse. And you know why, don’t you? Because in making a new world, we’re using the same material the old world was made out of. It’s like tearing down a house full of termites and rebuilding it with the same wood.

The world is in such a mess that we need something bigger than reform and mightier than revolution. We need God to break into the world and set things right.

This is what today’s story is about. It’s about the desire for justice and how it will be satisfied.

The teaching comes in the form of a parable. It’s about an old woman who has been cheated and a judge who has the power to get her money back.

The story begins with the judge’s character. He’s a man who "does not fear God or regard other people". In other words, he cares nothing for justice and feels no compassion for anybody, but himself.

One day a widow comes to him asking for relief. She has been swindled out of her money and—if she doesn’t get it back—she will starve. Her facts are clear and her case is strong. The money is rightly hers and the Law ought to get it back for her.

But the Judge doesn’t care. He may be too lazy to look into the matter. Or, maybe the con man is a friend of his. Or, he just doesn’t like the looks of the widow—we don’t know. But we know he’s not going to rule in her favor.

He says.

For the next day, the widow shows up again with the same request. The judge frowns and sends her away—and this time for good.

He thinks.

The next morning, she’s first in line for judgment. And this time, the judge is mad and tells her to get out and stay out!

That should do the trick!

But it doesn’t. She’s back the next day and as eager as ever to make her case.

The judge is so aggravated by her stubbornness that he gives in and decides in her favor. The woman gets back her money and the judge gets back his peace and quiet. And both live happily ever after.

That’s the story.

What does it mean? At first glance, it seems to teach that we ought to "pray without ceasing". And that’s true. We tend to give up on our prayers far too soon. There’s no telling what the Lord might have given us if we had asked for it one more time. The Bible plainly teaches this—Luke’s own Gospel teaches it. Back in chapter 11, we read the parable of the noisy neighbor who gets what he wants by asking for it over and over. The punch line of that story is:

The lesson is included in today’s parable—see v.1—but it’s not exactly the point our Lord is trying to make.

The story is explained in vv.6-8:

So…

God is like the unjust judge. Christians are like the stubborn widow. When we ask Him for justice, we don’t get it—right away. But if we keep on asking Him for justice, we will get it some day.

When? When the "Son of Man comes". Jesus Christ is coming again—and on that day—the world will be set right—perfectly and forever. Peter teaches this near the end of his Second Epistle:

The present world is full of unfairness and injustice; things are not right—everything is groaning under the weight of sin. But the present world is only the present world. When the Lord comes again, it will fade away and be replaced by a world that is only fair, only just—in which all things are as they should be.

The promise of our Lord should be taken literally—"The meek shall inherit the earth". The earth ought to belong to people humble, thankful, and loving. But, at the moment, it does not: No! It is the proud, the selfish, and the cruel who have the money and the power and the glory.

But their days are numbered. They will be swept off the earth and consigned to the place they belong. And the righteous will come into their full inheritance.

In the end, justice will be done. The Lord leaves no doubt of this, but what He’s not so sure of is, do we have the faith to keep on praying for justice?

Do we? We ought to, for God has promised to set things right in the end. And we can believe His promise—even if our daily experiences tell us not to. We can believe the promise because God has made it and God cannot lie and His Word cannot fall to the ground.

This means—in the first place--that we must not take revenge on people who have done us wrong. After what he’s done to me, he ought to be punished! That’s right: he ought to be! And he will be. "Vengeance belongs to me—says the Lord—I will repay". This means I don’t have to avenge myself and I don’t have to worry about it. Justice will be done; nobody gets away with nothing!

It means—in the second place—that God cares about the injustice done you. In one way, the Lord is like the unjust judge—in that He will see justice done if His people keep asking for it. But, in other ways, the two could not be more different. The unjust judge didn’t care about justice—he only did the right thing because the widow wore him out. The Lord does care about justice—He sees the wrongs people have done you! And takes notice of them and of you. Psalm 56 says the Lord

In Revelation, the martyrs cry out for justice, wondering how long God will wait to punish the men who burned them at the stake: the Lord hears their plea and says—It won’t be long!

In the third place, it means we can be patient with the wrongs done us. We can do more than not strike back; we can bear the wrongs with grace.

This means a lifetime of praying. But—think about it—what better way to spend a lifetime than in praying? And then receiving? Some prayers are not answered; some shouldn’t be answered. But a prayer for justice ought to be answered—and will be—in God’s good time. For…