Out of the Depths I Cry Out to You Lord

Throughout our readings of Luke we encounter several widows that Jesus selects as the focus of his parables. These women are always depicted as especially vulnerable since without a family, or means of support or any prospect of marriage, they were marginalized by society and with little hope for survival. Yet, despite their vulnerability, Jesus portrays these women as people of remarkable determination, strength and faith. I realize widows provided unique opportunities for Jesus to illustrate his point with his audience; however, I wonder as I reflect, that if over the centuries, in our male dominated world and our social and religious institutions, we didn’t overlook a point that Jesus was making as to the equality of women and by extension their inclusivity? In every case these Biblical characters demonstrate more than enough resolve and strength to make the case for our re-examining these stories from the perspective of gender equality that can challenge our institutional hierarchies and the role of women as leaders. Perhaps, I am out of my element here and ill-equipped to adequately deal with the social issues regarding gender inequality and return to the real point of our lesson, but I introduce it here as food for thought and the subject of another conversation. Yet, I still can’t help but wonder, what is the real point?

Ok, back to our “lesson.” The widow in our current parable (Luke 18:1-8) is persistent, active, and forceful enough to get the justice she demands even from an utterly unjust judge, who finally is, by implication, included among the “chosen ones of God.” While the parable is framed by references to prayer and faith, the emphasis is on justice and how it figures into the confrontation between the vulnerable justice-seeker and the unjust power-broker. The powerful and just God takes the place of the unjust judge in the end, granting justice to his vulnerable, chosen ones who cry out to him day and night.

We are told that there is only one other use of this term chosen one in Luke. And this reference is reserved for Jesus who while on the cross, is mocked by the religious leaders as “God’s chosen one.” These so-called leaders, like the unjust judge in the parable, inadvertently get it right in spite of themselves. Jesus, the chosen one cries out from the cross as he petitions the Father and commends his spirit to him and breathes his last. (Meda Stampler Working Preacher.org, 10/13)

Finally the parable leaves us with a question that resonates beyond the cross and tomb and the resurrection: “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” We find part of the answer in past Gospels in which a number of people are commended for their faith: the centurion who believes Jesus will heal his slave, even from a distance; the sinful woman who anoints Jesus’ feet and loves much; friends of the paralytic who are willing to dig through a roof; the bleeding, unclean woman who dares to touch Jesus’ cloak in the crowd and is healed; the Samaritan leper, whose gratitude takes him back to Jesus where he falls at his feet in thanksgiving, and the blind beggar later in this chapter who sees Jesus for who he is and cries out to him.

So the answer to the rhetorical question appears to be that the we will find faith, but it may be in uncharacteristically unexpected places with unlikely vulnerable people, as it has been in our readings and among the outsiders; the despised; the unclean; the ones certain of their sinfulness and not among the religious professionals or those certain of their own righteousness. Perhaps the lesson suggests that the willingness to persist in prayer despite all odds, as the widow did, is the faith we seek.