Why might this be considered a difficult passage?
On a quick read, we are taken back by Jesus’ choice of human character in this parable. The logic seems to go like this. Just as the unjust judge answered the repeated request of the widow, so your heavenly Father will answer your repeated requests! Perhaps we are accustomed to parables like that of the shepherd with the one lost sheep out of one hundred (Luke 15:3-7) or the Good Samaritan (Luke 15:11-31). In both of those, the main character is a favorable reflection of the heavenly Father. So we have an immediate question about this seeming comparison of God with a not-so-good human judge!
While this first difficulty is interpretive, the second difficulty we have here is more theological. We remember that Jesus taught us not to be like pagan worshippers who babbled on repetitively in prayer thinking that mere repetition was effective (Matt. 6:7). Why now is Jesus in this passage clearly encouraging repeated praying?
How do we deal with these difficulties?
The key to understanding why we are having difficulty with the seeming comparison that Jesus is using is to understand the type of logic Jesus is using. He is not using a straight comparison as we at first thought. Rather he is using a specific type of reasoning called “lesser to greater.” In such an argument, the inferior element becomes a foil against which the superior example is magnified. The parable describes the human judge as morally inferior. He is unjust (18:6) and he neither fears God nor cares about people (18:2,4).
In stark contrast, God is “compassionate and gracious abounding in love and faithfulness (Ps. 86:15). He is “known by his acts of justice” (Ps. 9:16) and He “hears the needy when they cry” (Ps. 69:33). So the argument of Jesus is this. If this unrighteous human judge who has no compassion–if even he eventually responds to repeated cries for justice, doesn’t it make total sense that your loving and attentive heavenly Father will more certainly hear and respond to your prayers and speedily (an implied contrast to the slow reluctance of the judge)? In addition, you are not just any petitioner either, you are his chosen ones!
I think the key to surmounting the theological question concerning repeated prayers is to understand the differing purposes of the two texts involved. In Matthew six, Jesus is teaching the disciples to avoid what I call performance prayers. The Jewish leaders whom Jesus spoke of in Matt. 6:5 prayed in showy ways in public so that people would approve of their piety. Jesus condemned prayer for show and urged his disciples to pray in secret instead because God would hear and answer (Matt. 6:6). Then Jesus tackled the type of prayers used in the Gentile world which he described as “babbling” and “many words” (Matt. 6:7). According to Cultural Background Study Bible, one common way to multiply words in the Gentile culture was to rattle off multiple names for the deity being invoked. The intent of Jesus is not necessarily to forbid repeated praying but rather to keep us from using liturgy without heart behind it. The whole Sermon on the Mount emphasizes religion that comes from the heart.
What is the inspirational message of the passage?
Now we can see that in Luke 18, Jesus is simply urging us to keep on praying when the answer is delayed. And so that we would not miss the point, we are tipped off to look for exactly this maxim by Luke himself in Luke 18:1, “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” This is also the key to understanding the otherwise cryptic and surprising statement of Jesus at the end of the text, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). What is the temptation that we have against which Jesus gives us this parable? It is to get discouraged when the answer to prayer does not come and give up on praying. It is to fail to have faith that God will answer or to fail to have faith that our prayer is effective. Jesus knew that the disciples were people of “little faith” (Matt. 8:26) In this closing line, he worries aloud that we also who follow in their footsteps will also be people of “little faith.” Jesus wants to encourage us to grow in faith by continuing to pray! He wants to assure us that God hears our prayers and will answer them. Keep the faith! Keep praying!