Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. “Pastor, how do I know that God is listening?” “Why doesn’t he answer my prayers?” “Do my prayers even make a difference?” These are the kinds of questions I hear from you with great regularity. And these are not academic questions for theological debate. These are the heart-wrenching, heartbreaking pleas of people in need. Sometimes in my own darkest hours I too wonder if God is listening.
Throughout history, God’s people have often questioned if their prayers are heard and answered by the Lord, especially during times of persecution or great distress. That is why, in our Gospel lesson today, Jesus “told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1, ESV). Keep praying! Don’t give up! Don’t lose heart!
Jesus tells the Parable of the Persistent Widow to encourage us always to pray and never to lose hope. It is a simple story and all too familiar in a fallen world: an oppressed person cries out in vain for justice. In Jesus’ story, a poor, oppressed widow demands justice from a local judge. Remember that, in the ancient world, a poor widow was a woman with few legal rights and protections. Who would take up her cause and speak for her?
Certainly not the unrighteous judge! The widow begs him to give her justice against her adversary. But the judge in Jesus’ story is a wicked man—an unjust justice of the peace. He “neither feared God nor respected man” (Luke 18:2). (Aside: Of course, we don’t have judges and politicians like that today, do we?!) For quite a while, the unrighteous judge refuses to hear the widow’s complaint or grant her justice. The widow has no money with which to bribe or bargain. But she keeps at him, sending petitions, rapping on the door of his chambers, and crying out in court. Finally, just to make her shut up and go away, he gives in and grants her motion. He gives her justice so she stops bugging him!
So what is the point of the parable? That we should keep on bugging God until he gives in just to make us shut-up and go away! No, of course not! Jesus tells us:
“Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect [his chosen children], who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:6-8).

We are wrong if we compare God to the unjust judge. The point of the parable is not comparison but contrast. The point of the parable is not that God is an unjust judge or aloof lord. The point of the parable is that God is entirely and infinitely opposite of the unrighteous judge! “Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?” (Luke 18:7a). Yes, he will! “Will he delay long over them?” (18:7b). No, he won’t! “I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily” (18:8a).
We do not have a heavenly Father who is loathe to love his children. No, he lovingly lavishes us with gifts (Jas. 1:17). In other place Jesus asks, “W`hat father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13). Even our earthly fathers, fallen sinners though they be, know how to give good gifts to us. How much more does our heavenly Father desire to give us good things (cf. Matt. 7:11)?
God is not at all like the unrighteous judge or earthly fathers who disappoint and deprive us. He welcomes our prayers and always listens, always answers. Listen to what Martin Luther writes about the Lord’s Prayer in his Small Catechism:
“With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we would ask Him as dear children ask their dear father” (SC, Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer).

Luther claims that when we call God “Father,” we are to ask him with all boldness and confidence—just as dear children ask their dear father. How do dear children ask their dear father? With persistence and determination! They tug at his sleeve or pant leg and don’t let go until he either gives in or says, “Go, ask your mother!” That is how we are to pray. That is how God wants us to pray. We cannot pester him like the widow did the unrighteous judge because God invites, encourages, and urges us to be persistent in prayer. And he will not leave you hanging! He will answer speedily—perhaps not as fast as you desire, but at the right time and in the right way.
“Trust in him at all times…,” the psalmist sings. “Pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us” (Ps. 62:8).
“I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Ps. 142:2).
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you…” (2 Pet. 3:9).
Pray! Speak! The Lord is listening!
“Nevertheless,” Jesus asks, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8b). We wait for justice. Jesus seeks faith. When Christ returns on the Last Day, he will give us justice. He will sort things out and set things right and make all things new. But God does not want to give us total justice, for that would be the end of us—our complete undoing! Again, listen to what Luther says in the Small Catechism:
“We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment” (SC, 5th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer).

We ask for justice; what we deserve is punishment.
But God loves us too much for that! That is why he sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross and to take the punishment for our sins. God’s justice was poured out on the cross of Christ so that if we believe in him, we will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). The faith that Christ seeks is the faith that clings to the cross for hope in the face of hell or high water, come whatever may. Just as Jacob grappled with the angel of the Lord and would not let go until he blessed him, so we too must not relent until the Lord blesses us (Gen. 32:26). This doesn’t mean that God will give us whatever we ask; but we will always receive what we need from his gracious hand.
Our only hope is in the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ—apart from works of the law (Rom. 3:21-22)! This is a righteousness that can only be received and believed by grace. “It is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8)—a gift that comes from a God who loves to give his children gifts. So keep on praying, and don’t lose heart (Luke 18:1). God will not delay! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of  the Holy Spirit. Amen.