Luke 18:4 Commentary and Bible Study

The widow faces an initial refusal: the judge is true to his reputation, and refuses to consider her case. Why should he take any notice of this widow? What can she do to make life difficult for him if he does not answer her? ‘He would not for a while.’ But she does not give up, and this is the main lesson of the parable. He is in the place of power and she can do little to force him to change his mind if he is disinclined to help her, so she uses the only weapon she has at her disposal: her persistence. She has no other leverage that she can bring to bear on him. The only thing that she can do is to try to wear him down with her repeated petitions. After all, her grievance has not gone away; her need is just as great as it was to start with. Christ makes this judge a godless man by his own admission. He is talking to himself and assessing himself when he says, ‘Though I fear not God, nor regard man.’ This is his honest evaluation of himself from within his own heart, hiding nothing. A man will admit things to himself which he will not admit to other people, but in this case the unjust judge does not seem to care about his reputation either. What other people say about him is true. Christ makes him a selfish man, concerned only about his ease and lack of any inconvenience – far from the public servant that he ought to be. Yet even here there is a motive for him listening to this widow. ‘Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ It is another entirely selfish consideration, but it will move him to help her. She will be a nuisance to me if I don’t give her an answer.