The Widow

It may come as no surprise to you that I wholeheartedly reject the bog-standard interpretation of this parable dished up by unimaginative and lazy interpretations of scripture. Does this parable mean that if we want something from God we should just pray? If it doesn’t arrive, pray harder. Still nothing? Keep trying…pray harder still. If you pray hard enough God will eventually give you what you want, even if it’s to stop you nagging. Such an interpretation relies on God being a disinterested authority figure who has little interest in humanity but is willing to be manipulated by enough nagging.

The radical thing about Jesus’ story of the persistent widow beseeching a judge for fairness can only be grasped from the perspective of first century Judaism.  In Hebrew the word for widow is often almanah which translates as a person with little influence, one who is silent. In addition to her vulnerability as an unprotected, unmarried woman living at the margins of society with little access to resources, she is expected to ‘be seen and not heard’, to quote an antiquated approach to parenting. Here we have a radical, empowered woman with agency to name her needs and claim the power of naming. Naming is central to identity. A person is identified through names, to be a person is to have a name. Sometimes names can be ascribed and forced on others against their will.

Who are the vulnerable and the silent that we need to be listening to?

 The Gospel according to Luke 18:1–8

1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ”6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”