There are two parables today. I have to admit that I have never really understood the Parable of the Persistent Widow, so if anyone can enlighten me I’d be glad of the help! I think it is instructive that Luke feels the need to explain the parable in verse 1, as being to ensure that the disciples pray continually and don’t give up. It is quite rare for the parables to be explained, either by Jesus or the gospel writers. This must have been a particularly hard message! God’s justice will be brought to bear through persistent trust and prayer, trust and obedience, perhaps. It is for us to learn as we live what God’s justice looks like in each situation in which we find ourselves.
The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector which closes out today’s reading would be easy to gloss over as being far more simplistic and straightforward. The Pharisee is caught being proud of himself and his righteousness under the law, whereas the Tax Collector understands what it is to desperately require the grace of God. That is an important message in itself. We need to remain aware that we are who we are because God has called us and loved us. That might well be enough but I think something else has jumped out at me on this reading: that is that it is easy for us to think that we are living with God as the Tax Collector does: full of actual humility, contrition and thankfulness, but actually living more like the Pharisee, comparing and contrasting ourselves with others, scoring our righteousness higher than that of others. Sure, we might be doing all the right things, but what does our heart look like? As Bill Hybels asked once, who are when no-one’s looking? I can be both arrogant and conceited on the one hand and downtrodden and “woe is me” on the other, however I might come across in public. I think we are called to be the same person behind closed doors and from atop whatever platform we are given. Again, this is a hard thing to do, but God’s challenge to us today is to flee from arrogant righteousness and fling ourselves afresh upon His mercy.