Luke 18:1-8 Scripture Study
By Pastor Chris Simmons – Trinity Lutheran Church, Paso Robles CA
A reinforcement/supplement study to our Sunday service meant for “Building up the body of Christ… the manifold Wisdom of God made known” (Ephesians 4+3)
For Sunday, November 9, 2025
I’ll never forget when my dad first taught me how to change a flat tire. It was late at night and I just got done working at Cold Stone Creamery in Lagrange Illinois, a Southwest suburb of Chicago. After the closing shift was done, everyone went home and I walked down the street to my car only to see a flat tire. At this point it was 11:30pm on a Friday night. I had just turned 18 years old, so I called my dad for help. Groggy (because I had woken him up), he drove the 15-20 minute drive over to where my car was parked. He stepped out, cracked open a can of Diet Coke and said “alright, pop your trunk, underneath your trunk will be your spare tire and a jack, get both out.” I looked at him confused, “what are we doing?” he said “Oh, I’m teaching you how to change your flat tire to your spare.” Still confused, I managed to mutter “It’s almost midnight.” He said “Yep, better get moving.” My fingers felt like they were icicles, I was tired, I smelled like spoiled milk (working at an ice cream shop is not as glorious as you might imagine…) and as I continued changing the tire I kept looking at my dad, ready to stop and give up and go home. He never budged…he managed to nurse that diet coke for the almost hour it took me to change my first ever flat tire to a spare…Here’s the thing, I can do it much faster now, because I have a lot more experience. Since then, I’ve been the one called by friends and even friends of friends when they have been broken down with a flat tire. I haven’t had the experience of cracking open a Diet Coke and walking people through it… but I realize now how much self-control my dad must have had that late at night. All of the patience, holding himself back, letting go of frustration, all so I wouldn’t stop or give up hope when it would happen and he wasn’t around to do it for me. Because of that, I’ve got to be that hope for others.
The world is often unfair and unjust… it has fallen into sin after all. We’ve all had nights where we’ve closed up the ice cream store and come out to a flat tire (metaphorically speaking). Those hard days where nothing seems to be going right, and we’d really rather give up and go home. The disciples were sure to have days like that coming. Days of intense persecution, days where Jesus would not always be around (in the flesh) to do everything for them. In today's text, Jesus teaches his disciples how to change a tire. “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Let us change the metaphorical tire of life, always looking to Christ, who is our ultimate hope.
Blessings as you study today,
-Pastor Chris Simmons
Discuss: What is a skill someone taught you that got you out of a tough situation? Have you been able to bless others with that skill as well?
Luke 18:1-8
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
So, as this parable begins Jesus gives us the answer and the problem. The answer to this parable is “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Now, it doesn’t say that Jesus said that to the disciples, the Gospel writer Luke certainly informs his audience about the purpose of the parable Jesus is about to share. As we believe, teach, and confess, these gospels are written by the authors divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit… meaning the Holy Spirit guided human authors to write these accounts, therefore authored by God Himself (Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
Back to the Answer and Problem at hand… again, to us the reader, the answer to the parable is clearly stated “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Working backward from the answer we can state the problem… that there will be times where the disciples, and us for that matter, will feel like giving up and stop praying. Saint Augustine has this great quote about the relationship between prayer and faith “Faith pours out prayer and the pouring out of prayer obtains the strengthening of faith…”.
Discuss: When something is going wrong, is prayer often your first step or last resort? Why?
2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
A bit of context here and a warning here. The warning first… I feel people belabor the explanation of parables. Even the Greek term παραβολή - parabole - quite literally means “a teaching aid cast alongside the truth being taught.” Hence, a common simple definition we often use is “a short, simple story used to teach a moral or spiritual lesson.” These become belabored when we treat them like real time true events. Could they have been? Maybe… Jesus tells them as stories, unlike other instances throughout Scripture where the moments are progressively unfolding. Overall, Jesus is using the story to make a point, not so we are called to over-examine every element of the parable… we are just called to look to the point.
Now, the context. Context is knowing what the hearers, in this case the disciples, would have already known as Jesus told them this parable.
1. Town Judge… When court cases were heard, it was not as updated of a system as we have today. In some instances of civil court cases, there would be many people trying to be heard by a judge on the same day at the same time. So, they would all gather around and try to be noticed by the judge. Usually, you would be noticed by the more you had to offer…especially with bribery. A widow without even any rights would hardly even have a penny to her name there. Hence, the only way she could get justice would be by coming to the judge again and again if her case was not chosen to be heard.
2. Why a widow in this story? Well reflecting on the times, 1st century BC, women did not necessarily have rights. They were cared for by the men in their families, and their rights rested upon whom they were cared by, be it a husband or a father. Hence, being a widow without a son of age, was a very hard place to be. An older woman, with no rights, no husband or man to tie themselves to. (Side note: this is why in Scripture time and time again, God commands His people to care and look after the widows. This command and care was unheard of in any other culture at this time or in the early world.)
So, there is a judge, who could care less about what God has to say about “caring for widows” and a widow, who by society's standards at the time, has no rights, and is even considered less than a beggar on the streets… sounds like a pretty hopeless situation doesn't it? It’s probably why, whatever circumstance she is in with this adversary, they thought they could get away with this crime… Sounds like the kind circumstance in which someone would give up and stop praying doesn’t it?
Discuss: When you were a kid, how did you deal with things being unfair?
Continued Discussion: What did you use to do to get your way with your parents? Sulk? Cry? Pester? Trickery? What worked best?
Continued Discussion: Today, what does it look like to “hang tough” though hard circumstances? What do we do and where do we turn to?
4 “For some time he refused. But finally, he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
I really enjoy the ESV translation here…“I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” That this unjust judge gave her justice, not simply because she was “annoying” but that her continued persistence just beat this judge down. Jesus continues…
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.
You see Jesus compare God with this unjust judge. If even an unjust people hating unbelieving judge would eventually grant justice to a widow who couldn’t bribe or offer him anything…then how much more can you imagine a Just God who loves you deeply would hear your request?
Discuss: How is God like and unlike this judge?
It’s good to go back and remember why Jesus is sharing this parable again in the first place. 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Which again means, we too often come up against the temptation to stop praying and give up. Why? Well, like the circumstances this widow has encountered, the world often feels broken, unjust and unfair with insurmountable obstacles. Why continue to pray if it feels like it doesn’t work or nothing can be done because of it? Well, compared to this judge, God is always Just and Good. Psalm 89:14 - "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you". He is so just, that even the punishment for our sins was not pardoned…it was completely fulfilled on our behalf by His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:32 - “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all— how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”. God indeed is that Just, that Loving, and that Merciful.
Discuss: What does it mean to “pray and not give up”? Why would we “give up”?
Jesus uses a similar comparison method as Luke 18 and Romans 8 when He teaches about prayer in the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 7
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
The conclusion is similar. If you, who are evil, still manage to do at least this much good for your children, how much more will your Father in heaven, who is always good, give even more good to those who ask him.
Both of these tell you one key about prayer…God wants us to petition (ask) Him!
7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.
It doesn’t say What that justice looks like, How it will happen, it does mention When but quickly in the eyes of God? Mind you, 2nd Peter 3:8 says “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” It may not be justice in the way we ask it, but in the eyes of our God and King who is loving, merciful and Just, it will be the perfect Justice.
Discuss: When did God handle a circumstance in your life in an unexpected way? Did you feel like it was “just”? Why or why not? How similar was it to what you asked Him for?
However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”5
This can be a confusing question…if you forget to look again at verse 1. 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. In sin, we rebel against the Will of God. In Prayer, the Will of God for us is to go to Him continually in prayer asking, petitioning Him for Justice. God will hear your prayers, even if they are not answered when and how you want them to be. Faith grabs hold of the promises of God, trusting in them to always pray and not to give up. Jesus warns us to not lose faith, to not give up. To look to the promises and justice already fulfilled in Christ. Do you think your constant badgering about the same prayer would bother God? Certainly not…if anything, giving up and not constantly "badgering" shows a lack of faith. Jesus asks, when He returns at the second coming, will He find faith that badgers God left on the Earth? Or people who have given up?
Discuss: When did you last pray to God and believed that He heard you? In what ways have you had your prayers answered before?
Prayer
What is your most “urgent” plea to God right now? Have you asked Him?
What do you need to badger God about?
What have you “given up” on badgering God about? Why? What’s changed?
When did you last pray “Lord not my will, but your will be done… let my will be in line with your will”?
Why is that prayer important?
Lord God, we ask for the strength to turn to you first in our times of need, our times of want, our times of celebration, and our times of sadness. Jesus has broken down all barriers between us, so we can speak straight to you in prayer. We ask for our wants, desires, and prayers to be in line with your will for your people. Please, grant us the skill and ability to always turn to prayer first, as your Spirit encompasses the Earth. Let us trust in your Justice. We pray this all in your name Jesus. Amen.