It comes along towards the end.  The swing has been made from plain talking to the less direct, parable-form of teaching.  The issue with the national leaders has reached its acutest stage.  The culmination of their hatred, short of the cross, found vent in charging Him with being inspired by the spirit of Satan.  He felt their charge keenly and answered it directly and fully.  His parable of the strong man being bound before his house can be rifled comes in here. They had no question as to what that meant.  That is the setting of this prayer parable.  The setting is a partial interpretation.  Let us look at this parable rather closely, for it is full of help for those who would become skilled in helping God win His world back home again.

Jesus seems so eager that they shall not miss the meaning here that He departs from His usual habit and says plainly what this parable is meant to teach:—­“that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”  The great essential, He says, is prayer.  The great essential in prayer is persistence.  The temptation in prayer is that one may lose heart, and give up, or give in.  “Not-to-faint” tells how keen the contest is.

There are three persons in the parable; a judge, a widow, and an adversary.  The judge is utterly selfish, unjust, godless, and reckless of anybody’s opinion.  The worst sort of man, indeed, the last sort of man to be a judge.  Inferentially he knows that the right of the case before him is with the widow.  The widow—­well, she is a widow.  Can more be said to make the thing vivid and pathetic!  A very picture of friendlessness and helplessness is a widow.  A woman needs a friend.  This woman has lost her nearest, dearest friend; her protector.  She is alone.  There is an adversary, an opponent at law, who has unrighteously or illegally gotten an advantage over the widow and is ruthlessly pushing her to the wall.  She is seeking to get the judge to join with her against her adversary.  Her urgent, oft repeated request is, “avenge me of mine adversary.”  That is Jesus’ pictorial illustration of persistent prayer.

Let us look into it a little further.  “Adversary” is a common word in scripture for Satan.  He is the accuser, the hater, the enemy, the adversary.  Its meaning technically is “an opponent in a suit at law.”  It is the same word as used later by Peter, “Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour."[28] The word “avenge” used four times really means, “do me justice.”  It suggests that the widow has the facts on her side to win a clear case, and that the adversary has been bully-ragging his case through by sheer force.