Lectio Divina: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (2025)

LK 18: 1-18 29th Sunday 2025

There is a maxim which maintains that “A text without a context is a pretext for making the Bible say what you want it to say!” This gospel reading is a good example, which is only recounted in Luke’s gospel. The context in which it occurs is eschatological, a discussion about the parousia, i.e., the time when Jesus Christ will return to judge humanity at the end of the world. Luke, a Gentile, was writing when the Church was undergoing a lot of trials and persecution. Many of the members were disillusioned by the fact that Jesus had not returned as they had expected. As a result, it would seem that many were discouraged and losing heart. The parable of the importunate widow (18:1-8) teaches that the disciples should pray fervently for the second coming of Jesus and not to lose heart. The story is not primarily intended to apply to prayer in general, as though one needed to pester God for every need until he reluctantly responds. The theme is that of the vindication of God's misunderstood and suffering people, as v. 7 states. It echoes a sentiment in Ps 25:2-3 which says, “Do not … let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame."

We should probably understand the judge (v. 2) to be a "man of the world," who, though crooked, prided himself on shrewd, pragmatic judicial decisions. As a local secular administrative officer, he could be approached by those who could not bring their cases to the high religious court. Being easily accessible and having the authority to make quick decisions, he would naturally be besieged by people such as the widow in the story.

The widow wasn’t necessarily old. Women often married as teenagers and could be bereaved soon afterwards. Since she brings her case to a single judge rather than a tribunal indicates that money may have been at issue, a debt, pledge or part of an inheritance that was being withheld from her. She was too poor to bribe the judge. Her opponent in this case says, Joachim Jeremias, can be thought of as a rich and influential man; hence nagging persistence is the widow’s only weapon. At first the judge refuses her request, perhaps because of pressure exerted by her rich opponent. But eventually the judge relents, not out of a sense of justice, but because the woman got on his nerves., as he said, “because this widow keeps bothering me.” Therefore, it is not virtue, fear or an outburst of rage on the woman’s part that made him give way, but her persistence, he was tired of her perpetual nagging and wanted to get rid of her and so be left in peace. The point here seems to be that those who pray to a just and loving God would never get rid of her and so be left in peace. In his treatise, The Spiritual Life, Father Adolphe Tanquerey made the following observation: “…final perseverance is a singular and priceless gift. We cannot merit it strictly speaking. To die in the state of grace in spite of all the temptations that assail us at the last hour, to escape these by a sudden and tranquil death – falling asleep in the Lord – this is truly in the language of the Councils the grace of graces. We cannot ask for it persistently enough. Prayer and faithful co-operation with grace can obtain it for us.”

Although Luke was talking about prayer in an eschatological (end of the world) context, it would probably be true to say that its message infers that we need to be persistent where any form of petitionary or intercessory prayer is concerned. That point comes across in another Lukan parable, about the friend that comes at midnight looking for bread (cf. Lk 11:5-7). When Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive” in Lk 11:9, the word ask is in the continuous present, i.e., keep on asking and you will receive.