by Steven Macpherson

Created on: November 15, 2008

Jesus made great use of parables as a tool for teaching important concepts to his disciples. A parable is an allegorical story which through the use of symbolic illustration conveys a message that otherwise might be difficult to grasp. In The Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1-8 Jesus teaches us about the importance and character of persistent prayer.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (18:1)

One of the most difficult concepts of the spiritual life, many of us struggle with, is the need for persistent prayer. Prayer itself is often a natural reaction that takes over whenever we feel overwhelmed by our circumstances. We pray when we're threatened by serious illness, we pray when we're threatened by adversity, we pray out of concern for our loved ones, we may pray in times of financial crisis and so on. Such spontaneous almost involuntary prayer is a natural and important part of our spiritual growth process. It is, however, only the most elementary beginning of what prayer is meant to become. Spontaneous prayer is a means the Lord uses to draw us into the much deeper and more powerful realm of persistent prayer. The purpose of persistent prayer is to establish the kind of faith that will remain steadfast regardless of what this world may bring our way to discourage us and defeat us. Persistent prayer is the most powerful weapon God has given us against the enemy of our souls.

He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men." (18:2)

Jesus describes a circumstance that is all too familiar in our world even today. There are many places in the world where there are legal systems that have no fear or respect, whatsoever, for what is just or fair in terms of basic human rights. In such circumstances, judges are often power brokers for the elite and powerful and care little for the plight of the poor and needy. Agencies such as Amnesty International work hard, often through persistent lobbying of judges and politicians, to extract justice in behalf of victims of uncaring and brutal justice systems. But there is an even deeper symbolic meaning here. Remember that parables are full of symbolic representations that need to be unpacked in order to get their fuller meanings. Whether we realize it or not, the world we live in cares little about true justice. We are living under a system controlled by forces that care little about God or men. Paul in 2 Cor. 4:4

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