The Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8) teaches patient, persevering prayer, and it is especially linked with the final crisis, when the faithful remnant will suffer painfully and rely on prayer for refreshment and patience while awaiting God's vengeance on their oppressors. Jesus introduces it with the duty to pray always and not lose heart. "Always" means faithfulness in regular times of prayer, prayer in good times and bad, and a continual readiness to pray, not unbroken praying every minute. People lose heart through defilement, doubt, danger, distractions, and delay, and the parable teaches that answers may seem slow yet we must persevere. Jesus compares God with a godless, self-serving judge, not a good man, to stress the vast contrast between them. If an unjust judge who disdained a widow avenged her merely to end his irritation, how much more will the righteous, selfless, lovingkind God vindicate His elect. His avenging is the working out of justice, not retaliation. The widow, who speaks only five words, prevails by persistence, not persuasive speech. Long prayers and vain repetitions do not make God hear better, since He already knows our needs. God hears and answers prayer, so prayer is a matter of faith: confidence that He can provide, enjoys hearing requests made according to His will, and desires to give abundantly.

The Parable of the Unjust Judge (Luke 18:2-8) sets the phrase "the Son of Man coming" in a context of judgment and vengeance, both defining aspects of the Day of the Lord. In this brief parable the Greek verb for avenge appears twice and the noun for vengeance twice. The widow cries for vindication from her adversary, and Christ says God will execute vengeance quickly for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night. The chosen ones are the members of the church, as John 15:16, Ephesians 1:4, and I Peter 2:9 show. They are not the Jews of Jerusalem in AD 70, who have been broken off for a time (Romans 11:16-24). The parable therefore does not point to the fall of Jerusalem. It finds its prophetic fulfillment in Revelation 19:2, where God judges the great harlot and avenges the blood of His servants, using the same Greek verb for avenge (see also Revelation 6:10). Because the formula "the Son of Man coming" appears here in the setting of wrath, it refers to the Day of the Lord, the year of vengeance. It is absent from passages about the later work of compassion, such as regathering Israel or the Good Shepherd's gathering of other sheep in John 10. The order is first anger, then compassion.