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"In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected other people.
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There was also in that town a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Give me a judgment against the man who is trying to ruin me.'
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For a long time he refused; but after awhile, he said to himself, `I don't fear God, and I don't respect other people;
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but because this widow is such a nudnik, I will see to it that she gets justice -- otherwise, she'll keep coming and pestering me till she wears me out!'"
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Then the Lord commented, "Notice what this corrupt judge says.
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Now won't God grant justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Is he delaying long over them?
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I tell you that he will judge in their favor, and quickly! But when the Son of Man comes, will he find this trust on the earth at all?"
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Also, to some who were relying on their own righteousness and looking down on everyone else, he told this parable:
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"Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Parush and the other a tax-collector.
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The Parush stood and prayed to himself, `O God! I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity -- greedy, dishonest, immoral, or like this tax-collector!
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I fast twice a week, I pay tithes on my entire income, . . . '