Student Encampments Echo Jesus’ Parable of Annoying Powerful

Christian faith commends those who are relentless in their pursuit of justice, especially those who do so with limited access to power and great personal risk. I’m reminded of the parable Jesus tells his disciples about a widow and an unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). The widow, Jesus explains, is petitioning for justice from “a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.” Each time the judge withholds justice, the widow returns, disrupting the court, bothering the judge, and generally raising a ruckus. Eventually, the judge relents — apparently from sheer annoyance; scripture recounts the judge thinking to himself: “I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming” (v.5).