What a great privilege to live in the final chapter, the most exciting – the denouement! More from Helmut Thielicke on the Parable of the Importunate Widow: “One thing this church, this company of believers, does have. It has access to that Other who causes the unfolding of the drama of the world. And therefore it has a power greater than the magnificent and arrogant figures in gleaming armor who enter and leave the stage. In the end only Jesus Christ will be left upon the world’s stage. Then it will be clear that in all the acts of this cosmic drama there is traceable a mysterious trend, an ordering tendency, that points to this great finale of history. And all those who considered themselves great, who made their entrances and exits and for a few moments were able to make us little people down in the pit of history hold our breath and set us trembling, all these could not in the end do anything else but bring on this one royal moment of God.
The church of Christ is bidden to pray, Thy kingdom come; and this means that it has influence upon this last day – and so likewise, all the days preceding the last day: the first, second and third acts of the world drama are committed to the church. For all these days are mysteriously ordered and directed toward the great triumph of God: the kingdoms of this world are passing, but the kingdom of God is coming. And the poor widow stands at the strategic key point of world history. She rests in the heart of God, and God has promised her that his heart will not be deaf to her pleadings. He who has influence upon the heart of God rules the world. The poor widow is truly a world power.”