There are only two characters in this short parable which Jesus told to his disciples. One is a man; the other, a woman. But what an odd pair they are. It is difficult to imagine a more striking contrast between two people than that between the judge and the widow. Neither is named, but their very titles suggest the contrast. "Judge" calls to mind authority, power, representative of the law, dispenser of justice. "Widow" in the culture of Jesus' time suggests helplessness, humility, poverty, vulnerability, loneliness, isolation.

One would expect, then, that in any conflict between the two the widow would not stand a chance. We would expect her to make her plea timidly in a trembling voice, and then at the first roar of the judge's resounding "No" to slip unobtrusively away into the shado…