The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 16 October 2022; Proper 24C (RCL); Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5; Luke 18:1-8.
I’ve always thought this parable presented an odd comparison (or contrast) between the unjust judge and God. It is a form of the argument from lesser to greater. If it’s true in this case, imagine how much more true in that case. But the judge’s motivation seems pretty suspect. And our English translation misses the point: the judge says “otherwise, she will wear me out by her continual coming.” In the Greek it says something closer to “lest she give me a black eye by her continual coming.” The issue is honor and shame.
The judge is worried about how he will look in the eyes of others. His concern is still not for the widow, but for himself. Not a motive I would to ascribe to the deity. But, it certainly comes up aplenty in the Old Testament. Abraham argues with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: How will it look of the God of righteousness (the just God, as opposed to the unjust judge) destroys the righteous along with the unrighteous? Again and again, Moses talks God off the ledge by saying, “What will the Egyptians think if you destroy this people?”
Perhaps Luke is suggesting that we have misunderstood God’s motivations all along. It was never about how God would look in the eyes of the world, but always about the widow anyway: will not God grant justice to his chosen ones, and quickly?
This, of course, leaves unanswered the question of why there is injustice in the world anyway. Or, maybe not. There are certainly judges like the one in the parable, who neither fear God nor have regard for people. We all make judgments like that, caring more for how we appear in the eyes of others than for what is just.
Jeremiah is perhaps saying something similar. Again, I’ve been puzzled by the line that no longer shall they teach one another, “Know the Lord.” Why not? Shouldn’t we all be teaching one another. Maybe what Jeremiah is implying is that it will no longer take social pressure to get us to do what is right. The covenant will be written on our hearts, and we shall all know the Lord (the God of justice and righteousness) from the least of us to the greatest (notice the order Jeremiah puts that in — the least will know God first).
Those days are not here yet, according to Jeremiah: the days are coming when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and animals. The days when the law is written on our hearts are the days when the human community and those communities over which it has been given care will flourish.
I suppose in the meantime, we have to be like the widow and give the unjust judges black eyes, shame them in the face of the city. Our need always to pray has more to do with teaching each other to know the Lord than it does with changing God’s mind. And until the days are here, we need always to pray and not lose heart.