West Papua - Evangelische Kirche von Westfalen

Materialien für den Gottesdienst
widow are only mentioned in passing like in the
similar parable of the “asking friend” where mainly
two characters are mentioned: the housefather
and his friend, while the unexpected guests are
only mentioned briefly.
The history shows us that widows of that time
had to experience hardship and diverse difficulties
in Israel. There were laws for the protection
of widows at that time. The necessity of these
laws shows that suppression and suffering were
part of a widow’s life in those days. Especially
the Old Testament explains in a very fascinating
way how God Godself takes the matters of
the widows in God’s own hand and how God
supports them. God curses those who deprive
the widows of justice (Deut. 27:19). A widow is
allowed to represent her late husband in court,
in court she has the same rights as a man: “Any
vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced
woman will be binding on her” (Numbers 30:10).
Anyone who deprives a widow of her rights will
have to deal with God, the defender of the widows
(Psalm 68:5).
But unlike it was required by law, widows were
always treated unjustly. At one point the prophet
Isaiah complains that the most powerful in the
country are the real robbers and thieves. ”Your
rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they
all love bribes…They do not defend the cause of
the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come
before them. (Isaiah 1:23). The prophet Maleachi
gives witness to the fact that God will testify
against those who oppress the widows and the
fatherless (Malachi 3:5).In this way the injustice
to widows is specially highlighted in the Old Testament.
It seems that nothing had changed in this concern
in the time of the New Testament. Jesus
tells his disciples the story of a widow, who lived
in a town and had to deal with an adversary. In
her town there was nobody to help her except
and unjust judge [1]. This adversary of the widow
even failed to appear before the court. One might
conclude that the lawsuit was about a larger sum
of money. As the widow did not have the means
to employ a lawyer she directly addressed the
judge, hoping he would be lawyer and judge to
her at the same time [2].
It sounds strange and is hard to understand
that a widow addresses a judge who has a real
bad reputation [3]. One would presume that she
could go to a court which is closely related to the
people. This judge obviously did not know any re-
38
gottesdienst 2011
ligious principles and he did not care about public
opinion. He was not interested in that what God
said or people thought. And nevertheless the widow
went to him, to a judge with a bad reputation.
It is a pity that the story doesn’t offer any further
details at this point. We would like to know the
age of the widow and whether she was rich or
poor and why she decided to go to a judge of
whom it is written “who neither feared God nor
cared about men”. Unfortunately we don’t get to
know it [4].
As a widow she was a person with the lowest
possible social position, a person to whom could
be done wrong with impunity. Her only chance
of defending herself was to present the case to
a judge and to ask this judge: “Grant me justice
against my adversary!” The words “grant me
justice” are legal terms, language of the courts.
It also means “Accept my case” or: “Help me to
obtain justice” [5]. The widow asked the judge
for help although he had a bad reputation and
perhaps even did not want to help her. And it is
needless to say that the judge rejected the request.
He probably rejected it with the words
commonly used at court: “The next case please!”
The only power this woman has is her endurance,
her tenacity. Day after day she goes to
the judge with the same request: “Grant me justice
against my adversary!” Her endurance and
her tenacity are her weapons which finally make
the judge feeling nervous. Therefore he finally
speaks to himself and says: “Even though I don’t
fear God or care about men, yet because this widow
keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets
justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out
with her coming!” Of course he doesn’t fear a
physical attack from her side and he still regards
her as being not important [6]. But he is really
impressed by the tenacity of the woman. Perhaps
he thought she wouldn’t come back when
he sent her away for the first time but she returned
again and again with the same request. He
couldn’t stand that tenacity. He gives in, he takes
the case over, examines it or not, but he surely
helps her to get her rights.
The Application
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the parable of the unjust judge Jesus is even
more precise than in the parable of the “friend
who asks for bread at midnight” (Luke 11:5-8).
In the parable of the asking friend we have to
gerechte gemeinschaft von männern und frauen