Stop imagining that the judge in the story is God. He is not. He is a judge that did not fear God nor respect people. Jesus describes him as an unjust judge. He is like so many in the world's justice systems that serve the powerful, the propertied, and the privileged. (There are exceptions, of course, like the ICC and the ICJ.)
And then there's the widow. Widows are among the three most dispossessed people in the Bible (along with orphans and refugees), fighting for justice like so many in our country today: the thousands of widows caused by Duterte's anti-poor War on Drugs.
Tens of thousands of widows brought about by militarization, by large-scale mining, by human trafficking, by the US-led War on Terror, by powers and principalities fueled by insatiable greed and lust for profit. All crying out, all relentless, all persistent in their quest for justice.
And the unjust judge relents. Not because he had a change of heart. Nakulitan lang siya. The situation changed because the widow never gave up. Morning, noon, and night. Rain or shine. She was in his face. Standing her ground. She never lost hope. She fought for justice and justice prevails at the end. Then and now, widows who fight for justice never give up.
Dear Friends, justice always prevails. This is why we should always choose justice. And always stand with widows and orphans and those whose only hope is God.
*Art, "Persistent Widow" from FreeBibleImagesdotorg.
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