A sermon preached by Dr. John Clayton at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on June 7, 2026.
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:1–8).[1]
If you wonder what our passage is about today, wonder no more. Luke tells us pointedly: “[Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (18:1). But in addition to knowing what this parable is about, we also ought to ask: Why is this here, in this specific place in Luke’s Gospel? What has happened up to this point that would lead Jesus to provide this parable?
At the end of the last chapter, Jesus was teaching his disciples about the coming of the kingdom of God. Prior to that the Pharisees had asked when the kingdom of God would come, and Jesus answered that the kingdom was already in their midst, as the kingdom of heaven had come to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. But then Jesus turned to his disciples and spoke of another day, a day when the Son of Man would be revealed. He compared that day to the days of Noah and the days of Lot, when life seemed normal and never ending, until judgment came suddenly. It served as a reminder to Jesus’s disciples then and now that though life seems unending, the end will come and with it judgment and the consummation of the kingdom. But that day has not yet come, and so as children of the kingdom, we live in a state of already but not yet.
This means that the Christian life can seem like a life of waiting, and in our waiting, sometimes suffering. We ask God to heal, and we bury our beloved. We pray for prodigals, and we watch families struggle. We live in a culture that often calls evil good and good evil and watch as the wicked seem to win and the righteous are forsaken. At times, it can all seem too much. It’s easy to lose heart in these last days, which is why Jesus provides the parable, not merely as a lesson on prayer but instruction for living life in these last days, between Christ’s ascension and his return.
The Call to Pray
The point of the parable, Luke tells us, is first that we “ought always to pray.” The verb translated “ought” here denotes compulsion, even necessity.[2] Jesus is not simply suggesting prayer. He is compelling us to pray. It’s what Christians do: We pray.
Why? Because, as sinners saved by grace through faith, God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). In Christ, we have been redeemed, forgiven of our sins, and reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. Therefore, when Jesus taught us to pray, he began with “Our Father” (Matt. 6:9), praying as sons and daughters of God! The Christian life is a life of prayer, because a Christian is a child of God.
To the verb translated “ought,” Luke adds an adverb translated “always,” or “at all times.” We ought to pray all the time. Of course, this does not mean that we do nothing but pray. Rather, to pray “always” means that prayer is to be the settled habit and posture of the Christian life. We are to live in conscious dependence upon our heavenly Father. We are to bring our needs, our fears, our sins, our burdens, our longings, our children, our church, our nation, our griefs, and our hopes before him.
And Jesus illustrates this with a parable, which begins, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary’” (18:2-3). Jesus likely uses a widow as his main character because in Scripture the widow is often a picture of vulnerability. In the ancient world, a widow could be especially exposed, if she had no family advocate, no wealth, no standing, no one to plead her cause. In Jesus’ parable she has an unnamed adversary but no one to protect her, no one to plead her case for justice. And so, she herself goes to the judge, not once, not twice, but again and again.
The parable infers that the judge is initially unresponsive. And Jesus tells us why: He is an unrighteous judge, who neither fears God nor respects man (18:2-6). He who sits in the seat of justice initially has no intention of protecting this widow. But the widow keeps coming, pleading her case and crying out, “Give me justice.” And this is the picture Jesus gives us of how we ought always to pray.
But the widow’s persistence teaches us more than perseverance; it exposes the unbelief of our fainting hearts. We bring our petitions not to an unjust judge but to our holy heavenly Father. We come in the name of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. We come by the help of the Holy Spirit, who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. We come on the basis of Christ’s blood and righteousness. We come not as strangers but as children of our Father in heaven. The weakest prayer of the weakest saint, offered in the name of Christ, rises before the throne of the living God. Therefore, we ought always to pray.
The Temptation to Lose Heart
To this, Luke adds, that we ought also “not lose heart.” And this is the danger.The danger is that during these last days we will lose heart and stop praying, as if to say, “What’s the point?”Perhaps this is where you are today. Perhaps you prayed to God for someone or something, and then nothing, no answer, no direction, only silence. Perhaps you prayed fervently but to what seems like no avail.You’re not alone. Jesus would not have given this parable if his disciples then and now were not susceptible to losing heart.
And one of the reasons we are often tempted to lose heart is waiting. When David cries out, in the thirteenth psalm, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?” (Ps. 13:1), we can relate. Waiting for answered prayer can seem like “forever.” Jesus knows this and so asks, “Will [God] delay long over them?” (18:7). My answer, and probably yours, would be: Yes! Unanswered prayer can feel like a long delay. But Jesus says, no, “I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily” (18:8).
The apostle Peter dealt with a similar challenge in his second epistle, when some said to him, “Where is the promise of [Christ’s] coming?” (2 Pet. 3:4). Everything seems to continue as it always has (like the days of Noah and Lot!). But listen to Peter’s priceless response: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness” (2 Pet. 3:9). The problem is not God’s timing but our counting. What seems slow to us is patience in God. And so, we must align the expectations of our prayers with God’s timing, not ours, even thanking him that he does not answer our prayers according to our timeline. Which would you rather: your timing or God’s perfect timing? Remember that question when you pray.
Prayer then is an act of faith, trusting God that he knows and does best. We believe that God hears our prayers. We believe that God answers our prayers. And we believe that God answers our prayers for our good and his glory. To lose heart and stop praying reveals that the battle is a battle of faith.
For this reason, Jesus asks, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (18:8). Persisting in hopeful prayer is an expression of faith in God. Prayer perseveres because faith clings to the promise and character of God, even when sight cannot yet see the answer. The temptation to lose heart is a spiritual battle, so we must fight back with faith in the gospel. We must remember who God is. We must remember what he has promised. We remember what Christ has done. And then, we pray again. Perhaps it is a prayer as short as, “How long, O Lord?” or “Lord, have mercy,” or “I believe; help my unbelief.” But we must keep the faith and so pray.
The Source of Hope
Jesus says, hear what the unrighteous judge says: “‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming’” (18:4-6). But Jesus doesn’t stop there but makes this contrast: “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?” (18:7).The widow was persistent in her pleas, and it paid off. But the source of our hope is not our persistence but the character of God. The judge is unrighteous, but God is righteous.The judge is indifferent, but God is compassionate.The judge must be worn down, but God is inexhaustible. The judge has no covenant love for the widow, but God has set his everlasting love upon his elect.The judge acts to get rid of the widow, but God delights to hear the prayers of his people.
And this informs how we pray. We pray as God’s elect, those whom God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, those whom the Father gave to the Son, those for whom Christ laid down his life, those whom the Spirit effectually calls. In other words, prayer is grounded in grace and is an ordinary means of grace. By God’s grace, we trust in his Word, cling to his promises, and bring our prayers to the throne of grace. The widow kept coming to the judge because she hoped, perhaps against hope, that he might act. We keep coming to our Father because we know he will.
When your heart is weary, pray. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. When your faith is weak, pray. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. When your adversary accuses you, pray. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ intercedes. When the world seems dark, pray. The Son of Man is coming. And when he comes, may his church be found on her knees, not in panic, or despair, or resignation, but persisting in hopeful prayer.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
(Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] Frederick William Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Ed. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), 214.
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