Holy Persistence

Often, I go out to greenfield and look up at that vast blue sky. When I watch the sky move, clouds drift, sun travels its arc, I feel so small yet somehow still at the centre of everything, as if I’m the fixed point and everything else is in motion.

Centuries ago, a Polish astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus made a discovery that changed how peoples see everything. He said something shocking: “The earth is not the centre. The sun is.” For centuries, people had believed the opposite. Like me standing in that field, the sun seemed to circle around us. But Copernicus showed us that our eyes can deceive us. What appears to be moving around us is not the reality. We are not the centre. We are simply part of a larger orbit.

This is what Jesus is teaching us in today’s parable. It’s not about making God revolve around our needs, but about discovering we’re the ones in orbit around Him.

In this story, we meet two people in very different orbits. A judge who lives as if he were the sun itself, everything revolving around his agenda and authority. And then, a woman, whom no one notices, yet she begins to shake his ‘Me-Centric’ world. Through these two contrasting figures, Jesus invites us to see what holy persistence looks like. Let’s look at how the unjust judge is introduced in our text…

The Unjust Judge

Jesus introduces this judge with two telling details in verse 2: “There was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.”  In ancient Israel, judges sat at the city gates, the heart of the community to protect the vulnerable: the widows, orphans, and foreigners. They were supposed to reflect heaven’s justice on earth.

But this judge? He’s everything a judge should not be. He has no fear of God and no compassion or conscience toward others. He has severed both lines that hold life together: the vertical line to God and the horizontal line to his neighbours. He’s floating in his own solar system, everything revolves around his inertia his refusal to move or change.

The Widow’s Persistence: Holy Resistance

Now enter the widow. In that society, she’s the definition of powerless: no legal advocate, ignored by the system. Yet watch what she does.

Verse 3 says, “She kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.” She didn’t come just once—she KEPT coming, day after day, relentless. Refusing to go away. And notice her request: “Grant me JUSTICE.” Not revenge. Not a favour. Not special treatment. Justice—what is rightfully hers.

We don’t know what was taken from her, who wronged her, or how long she’s been fighting. We know this: she won’t stop until justice is done. This is holy resistance: She refuses to let injustice have the last word. Think about it, everything in her world says she should give up. She has no power, no influence, no leverage. The judge has already ignored her repeatedly. Yet she persists. Her very persistence becomes her voice. Her refusal to accept ‘no’ begins to disrupt the judge’s quiet world.

The Turning Point

Then comes the turning point in verses 4-5, finally the judge responds. He says to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she’ll finally leave me alone!”

The judge grants justice for selfish reasons. He’s not moved by compassion. He’s not convicted about right and wrong. He just wants to preserve his undisturbed life. Yet even this unjust judge, operating out of self-interest, cannot ultimately resist persistent pursuit of justice.

Now Jesus says, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” If even THIS judge, closed off, heartless, selfish, eventually responds to persistence, how much more will God, who is your Father?

Looking back at verse 1, Jesus tells them about “their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” That’s the whole point. The widow shows us what “not losing heart” looks like- she kept coming, kept asking, kept believing justice would come. And if an unjust judge eventually responds to persistence, how much more will God respond when we don’t give up? This persistence isn’t about changing God’s mind—He’s already on our side. It’s about us learning not to quit, whether in prayer, in pursuit of what’s right, or in trusting God through the silence.

And what was the justice this widow sought? She wanted what was rightfully hers restored. That’s exactly God’s heart for us: to restore what’s been taken, to heal what’s been broken, to lift up those who’ve been pushed down. This is the justice we’re waiting for—God setting things right, making all things whole.

Persistent prayer goes deeper than justice alone. It’s about relationship. Every time we come to God with our needs, our pain, our hopes, we’re saying, “I still believe you’re there. I still believe you care. I still trust you’re working, even when I can’t see it.”

Our persistent prayers become acts of faith. They shape us more than they shape our circumstances. They keep us tethered to hope when despair would be easier.

The Power of Holy Persistence

The widow didn’t win through power. She won through persistence. And God is saying to us today: “Try once more. Keep coming to me. I’m not like that unjust judge. I am your Father.”

St. Margaret’s, what would happen if we became a community of holy persistence? In our prayers for healing. In our love for the lonely. In walking alongside those who struggle. In our hope for the broken. What if we simply refused to lose heart?

So here’s the challenge: What have you stopped bringing to God? Maybe it’s a relationship that seems beyond repair. A dream that’s died. A hurt that won’t heal. A situation that won’t change. Pick it up again. Keep knocking. Not because God needs convincing, but because in the very act of persisting, you become someone who can receive what God wants to give. Amen.