THE WIDOW WHO WAS DRIVING THE JUDGE CRAZY

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 11, 2025 under 2024 |

Bethany Bible Church Mother’s Day Sermon Message
May 11, 2025
Luke 18:1-8

Theme: As Jesus’ followers, we “always ought to pray and not lose heart.”

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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It’s been our tradition, every Mother’s Day, to look at the story of a woman of faith from the Bible. And so, I ask you to turn to the story of the woman we find in the first few verses of Luke 18.

This particular woman may have been a mother; although we can’t really be sure of that. In fact, we can’t be absolutely certain that she was even a real person. She was the widow who played a key role in one of our Lord’s parables. But whether she had actually been a mother or not—or even whether or not she was a literal person—the story told about her is very important for us to know. She was called out to our attention—by no less than the Son of God Himself—as an example of the kind of faithfulness in prayer that truly pleases His Father.

Therefore, she’s a very important woman for us to consider on Mother’s Day.

Now; just prior to this parable, the Lord Jesus had been speaking to His disciples in Luke 17 about the expectation of His second coming. He told them that, after He returned to the Father, they would desire very much to see ‘one of the days of the Son of Man’ on earth. They would long after the righteousness and justice that those days will bring. But as much as they desired it and looked longingly for it, they would not yet see it. When it finally comes, it will fall upon the world suddenly—and everyone in the world will know about it. But His followers must wait patiently for it until it comes in the Father’s good time.

And in Luke 18:1-8—in the context of our Lord’s foretelling of that period of waiting—we read these words:

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. 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 long 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?” (Luke 18:1-8).

If you have studied the parables of our Lord, then you may have had to put some careful thought into determining the meaning of some of them. But not this one. Its meaning was made very clear to us right at the very beginning. In verse 1, we’re told that this parable was meant to teach us that “men”—or as it is in the original language, “they”; that is, our Lord’s followers—“always ought to pray and not lose heart.”

And in order to teach this important lesson to us, our Lord chose to illustrate it to us through the example of a poor, needy widow… a widow who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; before we get into the parable itself, it’s important to know that the lesson that it’s meant to teach us is one that’s hinted at in another place in Scripture. Think of what the Lord Jesus taught in Matthew 7:7-11 in The Sermon on The Mount. He said,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11).

We’re all probably familiar with those words. But have you ever stopped to consider why He had to say them?—and especially in the unique way that He expressed them? He put these things in the present tense of the verb, which grammatically suggests an ongoing habit of action—not something we do just once, but that we keep on doing habitually. We’re to ongoingly ask, ongoingly seek, and ongoingly knock. If we immediately received everything we asked for as soon as we asked for it, we’d never need to be told to be in the habit of asking. If we immediately found everything we searched for as soon as we began looking for it, we’d never need to be told to be in the habit of seeking. If every door was immediately opened to us as soon as we knocked on it, we’d never need to be told to be in the habit of knocking. Inherent in these words of our Lord is the idea that we’d need to be persistent in our asking and seeking and knocking—and not give up.

And what’s more, have you ever stopped to consider why—in those words—He had to reinforce it all with the idea that the Father knows how to give good gifts to those who faithfully ask and seek and knock? If we received immediately everything from the Father that we asked—in exactly the way we asked for it—we wouldn’t be assured that the Father knows how to give good things to those who ask; and that would be because we don’t always ask for the right things. But instead, Jesus told us that, just as any good father would do, our Father in heaven gives to us much better than we know to ask. A good father will sometimes say to his child, “You are asking for something you want; but I know that what you really need is something better … and that’s what I’m going to give you.” And a good father will sometimes say, “I know you want what you’re asking for right now … but I know a better time for you to receive it, and that’s when I’ll give it to you.” And so, inherent in these words from our Lord is the idea that we need to wait patiently for our Father’s good and wise answers to our requests.

So then; even in that wonderful promise of our Lord in The Sermon on The Mount, there’s the idea of waiting patiently and asking persistently in our prayers.

And then, sometimes, the waiting is necessary because we’re not yet asking for the right thing. In 1 John 5:14-15, we’re again promised that our heavenly Father hears our prayers. We’re told,

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14-15).

Once again, we’re given the promise that if He hears us, we have the thing we’ve asked. In fact, that’s put in the present tense—meaning when He hears us when we ask, it’s as good as already ours. But there’s an important condition to it all. We must ask “according to His will”. He will never give us anything contrary to His good plans and intentions for us. And that means that we need to study the Bible and learn what His expressed will for us actually is. So; if there sometimes seems to be a delay in God answering our prayers, it may be because we’re not quite yet asking in accordance with His good will for us. He is always ready and able to give to us whatever we need; but He wants us to first submit our will to His and ask in accord with His good desires for us. Even our Lord did this when He prayed in the garden, “not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).

And sometimes, the waiting is necessary because, in the wisdom of our heavenly Father, He sees that we’re not yet asking with the kind of earnest desire for His good will that He wants us to have. Have you ever considered the story that’s told about our Lord’s interaction with another woman? She was a Gentile from the land of Canaan—from the regions of Tyre and Sidon. She traveled from that distance to come to Jesus and to cry out to Him, saying,

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (Matthew 15:22-26).

Does that, at first, sound uncharacteristically cruel and hard-hearted of our Lord? Do we wonder how He could be so insensitive as to deny a woman who was pleading for the healing of her precious daughter? But she—like the widow in the parable—wouldn’t take no for an answer:

And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour (vv. 27-28).

Do you see it? He was clearly ready to answer her request. But He held on before He did so until He heard the kind of earnestness of faith from her that He wanted to hear. It was as if the Lord was telling her, “You’re almost there … but not quite. You’re getting closer … but keep asking.” And then, when her faith was right where He wanted it to be, He gladly answered. But she needed to keep at it … and not give up.

So; the lesson that the Lord is teaching us in this morning’s passage—through the story of this remarkable widow woman—is a lesson we find in several places in the Bible. It’s a lesson that we need to be reminded of over and over. This is because, so often, if we don’t see answers to our prayers as soon as we wish, we get discouraged. We ‘lose heart’ and quit. We doubt His goodness. We feel like there’s no use in keeping on with our prayers. We find ourselves secretly saying, “I keep on praying; but nothing seems to happen. The problems seem to keep going on and on. What’s the use of praying any further? It doesn’t seem to do any good. It doesn’t seem as if God is listening to me or as if He even cares.” Soon, we find ourselves hardly coming to our Father in prayer at all.

Well; that’s why the story of this widow is so important to us. The Lord Jesus wouldn’t have taught it to us as His followers if He didn’t know that we’d be tempted at times to lose heart and quit praying. It tells us something that we very much need to hear—and to hear repeatedly. It teaches us that as Jesus’ followers, we “always ought to pray and not lose heart”. Our good heavenly Father hears us, and the answer will come in due time. But we must keep faithful, and trust Him enough to keep after Him—like the widow in the parable kept after the judge.

* * * * * * * * * *

So then; let’s look at the details of this parable, and let’s start with what it tells us about …

1. THE UNJUST JUDGE.

In verse 2, our Lord said, “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.” And you need to know that, in the original language, what our Lord actually said was that he was “a certain judge” in “a certain city”. That’s a rather unusual way to put things; and some scholars have wondered if this was indicating to us that this was an actual judge who had lived in a literal city. It may have been a true report of something that actually occurred … and it may be that those who heard Jesus speak of it knew just exactly which judge it was that was being described.

And if that’s the case, then this judge would have been a hard man to forget. Consider his character. He would not have been the kind of man who ever should have been a judge in the first place. We’re told that he didn’t ‘fear’ or ‘reverence’ God. He would have been a judge who stood in stark contrast to God Himself; who, in Deuteronomy 10:17-18 told the people of Israel,

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:17-18).

It was the moral duty of such a man, in such an important position of service, to behave like God to the people over whom God had placed him. He was to adjudicate in accordance with the command of God in which God Himself gave in Deuteronomy 24:17;

“You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge” (Deuteronomy 24:17).

But the judge in our Lord’s parable didn’t submit to any principle of right and wrong that came from above. He wasn’t a God-fearing man and didn’t reverence God’s holy law. And what’s more, it doesn’t seem that he was motivated by humanistic principles either. We’re told that he didn’t ‘regard’ or ‘respect’ man. As a judge, he was much of a ‘law unto himself’ as a man could be. To stand before a judge such as this would have been to stand before a powerful man who had little in the way of compassion for the plight of the poor and needy.

And that leads us next to consider …

2. THE PERSISTENT WIDOW.

In verse 3, the Lord said, “Now there was a widow in that city …” The fact that this was “a certain judge” in “a certain city”, and that she was a widow “in that city”, may suggest even more strongly that this was indeed an actual, historic event. If so, it may have been that those who heard this story would have also known who this widow was.

A widow in those days was someone who was among the most vulnerable and needy in society. She would have been truly alone—without so much as a social security program, or a pension, or a life insurance policy to provide for her needs after her husband had died. She would have had to live on whatever her late husband may have left to her, or on whatever other family members may be able to give to her … and only for as long it would have lasted. And it would have been very unlikely, in those days, that a woman such as her could have gotten employment to support herself sufficiently. What’s more—as this story seems to suggest—she would have been the easy victim of any of the evil people who might have tried to take advantage of her situation—stealing away whatever she might have had and leaving her destitute and helpless.

It appears that some great injustice had indeed been done to this woman. So; since she lived in this judge’s jurisdiction, he would have had a moral and civil duty to defend her. As it says in Psalm 82:

God stands in the congregation of the mighty;
He judges among the gods.
How long will you judge unjustly,
And show partiality to the wicked? Selah

Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked (Psalm 82:1-4).

This poor, needy widow would have had the right to expect this judge to do his God-appointed duty. But apparently, he wouldn’t help her—and she had to put the pressure on him to do so. She stood out by the fact that—as the Lord went on to say—“she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’” In the original language, her action toward him was put to us in the imperfect tense of the verb; meaning that she was coming to this judge repeatedly, and was demanding justice from him over and over.

But he tried to ignore her for as long as he could. He didn’t have any sense of duty to help her. She certainly couldn’t do anything for him. And she wasn’t anybody important as far as he was concerned. But she wouldn’t be ignored. Perhaps he would come home for dinner; and while he was eating, there she’d be just across the street yelling, “Get justice for me from my adversary!” Perhaps he’d close the curtains at night; but there she’d be on the edge of his estate, yelling, “Get justice for me from my adversary!” Perhaps he’d try to sleep at night; but he’d be woken by her shouts from outside, “Get justice for me from my adversary!” Perhaps he’d wake up and step out the door; only to find her standing before him demanding, “Get justice for me from my adversary!” And, of course, he’d perhaps arrive at his seat in the place of judgment; only to drop his head and groan as he saw her approaching him—crying out yet again, “Get justice for me from my adversary!”

There’s a word that we don’t use very often nowadays: importunity. To be ‘importune’ means to press someone to do something with an almost embarrassing level of pressure and persistence—and to even be really obnoxious and annoying about it. And if they had a dictionary in those days, her picture would be right next to the word ‘importunity’.

This desperate woman wouldn’t let up. She kept demanding—and demanding—and demanding—that this judge do his duty and give her justice! So, with that in mind, notice next …

3. THE JUDGE’S WORDS.

In verses 4-5, Jesus said, “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.’” He didn’t seem to have any hesitancy in admitting that he was a hard-hearted man. But he wasn’t motivated to administer justice to her because of any change of heart. He did it simply because he couldn’t take her annoying demands anymore. In fact, in the original language, he said that he was afraid that she would ‘darken his eye’—not, of course, in the sense that he was afraid she would hit him; but rather in the sense that he’d never get any sleep and would have perpetual rings around his eyes.

Her persistence paid off.

Now; notice what our Lord says in verse 6. It’s really quite interesting. “Then the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge said.’” It comes to us in the form of a command. And do you notice that He didn’t say what we might have expected Him to say?—“Hear what the persistent widow said”? Instead, He brought our attention to the words of the judge. That judge had no natural inclination to do his duty toward this needy widow whatsoever; but he was pressured into it—we might even say ‘nagging’ into it—by the constant importunity with which this unyielding widow demanded it.

Jesus drew our attention to the judge’s words for a reason. Notice what He then goes on to say—by way of contrast—about …

4. THE FATHER’S FAITHFULNESS.

In verses 7-8, our Lord went on to say, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?”  And the key to understanding this parable is to remember that our heavenly Father is not at all like that judge. Think of the contrasts between them:

– The judge was an unjust judge. But, as Deuteronomy 10 tells us, God is a just God who “shows no partiality nor takes a bribe”; and who “administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.” We can come to Him with any need, knowing we come to Someone who is perfectly just and perfectly pure.

– The judge had no relationship whatsoever to the widow that would have inclined him to help her. But our heavenly Father looks upon us as “His own elect”—that is, those who He has chosen for Himself from before the creation of the world, and who He has redeemed by the precious blood of His own Son—those He has adopted as His own children, and who He has destined to be glorified by Him, and who will dwell with Him in His house forever. We come to Someone who has an eternal relationship of love with us.

– The judge was put off and irritated by the woman’s constant requests. But our heavenly Father is never put off by us. He is never angry with us for asking. He hears with patient longsuffering the cries of His people whenever they are spoken—day and night—willingly. When we come to Him, we come to Someone who truly delights to hear from us and who truly wants to hear from us—just as a good father loves to listen to his own children.

– The judge would not help the widow “for a while”. But Jesus says that our heavenly Father will answer “speedily”. Do you notice that Jesus added the phrase, “though He bears long with them”? This isn’t to say that He grows impatient with the prayers of His people. Rather, it means that He truly longs to answer—but loves us enough to hold on and ‘bear long’ with our earnest cries to Him until just the right time comes to answer. Then, His answer comes quickly.

So; you might say that this parable was an argument from the lessor to the greater. Our heavenly Father is nothing at all like that unjust judge. And if such an unjust judge could be … well … nagged into doing his duty by the widow’s persistent demands, just think of how much more our heavenly Father is ready and willing to answer our persistent prayers to Him.

And this leads us finally to notice …

5. THE LORD’S QUESTION.

Do you remember the context of this parable? The Lord had been teaching His followers that, after He died and arose and ascended to the Father, they would be longing to see ‘one of the days of the Son of Man’ on earth. But He told them that they will have to wait patiently for it until it comes in its time. But His closing question to His followers in verse 8 was, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

How will that faith show itself? It’ll show itself by the consistency with which we always keep on praying … and never lose heart. It’ll show itself in the fact that we behave like this widow, and that we keep asking until we get an answer from our good heavenly Father in the name of His Son.

* * * * * * * * * *

Dear brothers and sisters, is there anyone among us here today who has fallen into despair over something they’ve been praying for? Perhaps you’ve begun to feel as if there’s just no use in praying anymore. Perhaps you’ve felt that it doesn’t do any good to pray—or that God doesn’t listen or seem to care.

If so, then let’s please learn the lesson that we’re meant to learn from the story of this wonderful widow woman—and let’s be encouraged by it. God does indeed hear our earnest prayers; and the answer to those prayers may be just around the corner. But we must not give up. We need to do as the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, and “pray without ceasing”.

For as Jesus Himself has taught us, we “always ought to pray and not lose heart”.

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