¹ And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
² He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man;
³ and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Vindicate me against my adversary.'
⁴ For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor regard man,
⁵ yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.'"
⁶ And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
⁷ And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
⁸ I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

• The word "widow" in Hebrew means "Silent One" or "One unable to speak." This word is not so much for a mute person but a woman in the patriarchal Mediterranean world does not speak for herself. In the context of this parable, the widow is an image of powerlessness.
• (v.5) Literally translated, "she will end up giving me a black eye". The figurative Greek word "blacken one's face" means to publicly shame a person. And to have the shameless judge yield to the widow's pressure (of shaming him) has proven that her persistence has finally paid off.
• At the time, younger widows were considered to be very socially unacceptable and were urged to remarry. One of the major concerns in the early Church was determining who truly was a widow. See the discussion in 1 Timothy 5:3-15.
• Other interesting reading related to the widow could be found in Isaiah (1:23, 10:2) who criticized the harsh treatment, and special protection of God in (Jer 49:11; Ps 68:5; Jas 1:27)

Jesus teaches us to be consistent when we pray and not to be discouraged and give up for He is our loving God will answer to our prayer.

1. Has my routine prayer become more of a habit and somehow has lost its sense of my personal sincerity?
2. Has the "answer" to my prayer always been in what I have asked for? Or have I ever recognized "God's will" in the silence after I have asked God to do it my way?

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A synthesis by the Vietnamese Christian Life (Dong Hanh) Community