Unjust Judges

Passage: Luke 18:1-14

At first glance Jesus’ parables of “The Persistent Widow” and “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector” seem very different.  In fact, they’re different angles on the same story.

In the first parable, a widow appeals to her local magistrate.  The law is on her side.  Some adversary has co-opted her land – land that has been in her family since God parceled out the Promised Land by family after the Exodus.  God’s Law has always maintained provisions for poor or marginalized members of his people to recover the land God himself gave as an inheritance.  However, in first century Palestine, judges have absolute power.  They determine how the law will be applied and whose case has the most merit.  As such, they are highly susceptible to bribery.  How easy for any judge to rule in favor of the highest bidder.  No one outside his chambers will be the wiser as no one but the plaintiff, defendant, and judge know the details of the case. 

In Jesus’ story, the judge – a human representative of God’s justice – respects neither people nor God.  The widow – a person without economic or social capital – appeals to this judge on the basis of justice, a principle for which he has no regard.  She doesn’t have the money or influence to appeal to his self-interest.  She is at the mercy of a human representative of a God-given mandate.  And the human representative is corrupt.  Jesus concludes the parable by saying that, although the human intermediary is corrupt, God’s principle, justice (that is, “making life right”) will prevail.  God always has his way.

The setting of the second parable is a temple rather than a courtroom.  However, there are two parties acting as prosecutor and defendant: a Pharisee and a tax collector.  The Pharisee stands self-righteous and self-justified before God.  Even though he addresses God, he has no real regard for God.  Luke goes so far as to say he prays to himself.  The Pharisee concludes by saying, “Thank you, God, that I’m not like that tax collector.”  He has set himself up as judge – co-opting God’s rightful role, and attempting to stand between his fellow human being and God’s justice.  The Pharisee has adopted the role of accuser (the official designation given to Satan, God’s adversary). 

The tax collector offers no argument in his own defense.  He appeals directly to God and says, simply, “Have mercy on me.”  Jesus concludes that of the two, this man – the sinner – leaves justified before God.  Again, there’s a human intermediary who has abused his role and acted as an unjust judge.  And again, it is God himself who bypasses the unjust judge in order to rule in favor of the helpless and vulnerable.

The lessons for us are twofold.  First, Jesus is the perfect representative who allows us to appeal directly to God.  In Jesus God accomplishes the cause of justice – that is, the righting of everything that’s gone wrong in our lives and in our world.  And God hears our case when we appeal not on the basis of our merit, but his mercy.  Second, Jesus warns all of his people against setting ourselves up as judges.  We all too eagerly co-opt the role of accuser – taking it upon ourselves to decide who can and cannot appeal to God’s grace.  Jesus appoints his disciples as gatekeepers (Matthew 16:19).  But he makes it clear that their/our role is to hold the gates open, in contrast to the Pharisees who kept them locked tight.  This is reinforced by Luke, who follows these two parables with the account of Jesus welcoming little children and rebuking his disciples for keeping them away.  Here Jesus says, both, “Come to me like little children (free of pretense and self-justification)” and, “Let the little children (and, presumably, those who approach with child-like faith) come to me.” 

Fight the urge to be an unjust judge.  And approach God without fear and without a defense.   Trust that he has put in place the perfect judge, Jesus Christ, who upholds the cause of justice and has already paid your penalty in full.