Easter 3, Year B
Donna G. Joy

Psalm 4, Luke 24:36b-48

This week as I was spending time with the readings for today, I found myself focusing on the message with which our Gospel concludes: “You are witnesses of these things.”  Luke 24.48

In order for any credible system of justice to function there are certain essentials.  Among these essentials is the necessity of reliable witnesses. Reliable witnesses have experience that is relevant and appropriate to the issue being decided by the courts.

Years ago I had the experience of serving the court as a witness to a particular event as it unfolded in my presence. I’m not sure how successful I was in this task, but I know that I was expected to witness to that event according to my particular perspective and vantage point and the impact it had on me and my community.

Reliable witnesses are expected to give evidence clearly and consistently. It is always helpful for there to be more than one witness in order to examine the issue from more than one perspective.

In today’s gospel Jesus appears after his resurrection to a group of his disciples.  He reminds them that all he has done is in accordance with the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, which puts his life, death and resurrection into a necessary perspective: that is, he IS the fulfillment of the Law and the message of the Prophets and the Psalms.

This morning’s Psalm is one example of this truth. In this Psalm, the Psalmist is lamenting over his experience as a victim to slander. He is filled with suffering and pain as those around him bear false witness against him. But – literally – at the end of the day – he acknowledges that it is only with God that he is able to lie down in peace.

Now fast forward to our Gospel reading where the risen Jesus stands among his disciples and says, “Peace be with you.” I think part of the point that is being made here is that Jesus IS the fulfillment of this peace to which the Psalmist refers. Through his death and resurrection humanity can now know this peace in a new way. Jesus - then - utters a very simple statement that lies at the center of our vocation as evangelists:  ‘You are witnesses of these things.’  (Luke 24.48 NRSV)  The Revised English Bible translates this verse, ‘You are to be witnesses to it all.’ In that moment, in addressing those first disciples, throughout the centuries, and today as we gather here today, an important mandate is being issued: being a disciple of Jesus means bearing witness to ‘these things’. And what are ‘these things’?

The first generation of believers shared a common experience of the new life of God made known to them in the resurrection of Jesus.  The task that Jesus now assigned them was to give voice to this experience clearly, consistently and in as many voices as possible. They were to look at the life, ministry and teaching of Jesus through the lens of the resurrection.  All that he had said and done in the years leading up to that last week in Jerusalem took on new significance. Because of Jesus’ resurrection they now could put everything he had said and done into a new perspective. They now recognized that through Jesus God had come to them, through Jesus’ death he had joined them in their weakness and frailty and vulnerability, through his death he had actually shouldered their sin, and through his resurrection he had given them the gift of new life and hope. Through Jesus’ resurrection they now discovered new life, new possibilities and new hope in the midst of their grief and their despair.

To aid in the clarity and consistency of their witness, the documents we know as the New Testament came into existence. The whole New Testament was written in an attempt to make some sense of Jesus’ death and resurrection which were completely unexpected. But the early Christians were also willing to preserve the testimony of a multitude of witnesses: four gospels rather than one, letters from a variety of apostolic writers including Paul and the followers of Peter and John. “You are witnesses of these things.” The New Testament includes a number of witnesses. But these documents and the traditions of faith and practice which emerged over the centuries were not meant to replace the ongoing witness to carry the good news of God in Jesus of Nazareth: the living human voices of Jesus’ disciples over the centuries and throughout the world.

Today as we read and reflect upon the Word of God; we gain insight and wisdom from these important witnesses; and in doing so we – hopefully – experience the crucified and risen Christ and we become witnesses ourselves. Every day of our lives you and I give evidence before a jury of our peers, some of whom are mildly sympathetic, some skeptical, some indifferent, some hostile.

In terms of the indifference that is part of the jury of our peers, I find myself referring to a CBC interview that I heard on (I think) Friday morning, in which a woman said, “While I do not consider myself a religious person; I do consider myself a cultural Christian.” I think there is a certain sense of indifference in this remark.

We can, and should, share the stories of faith found in the Scriptures as Jesus did with his first followers; and as his first followers did the same. We can, and should, share the stories of our successes and our failures as Christians over the centuries have attempted to follow the way, the truth and the life made known to us in Jesus. We have much to learn from both our successes and our failures.

To reflect on our failures, we don’t have to look too far as we recognize a church that lacked the humility of Jesus and proceeded with colonialism which led to such things as Residential Schools. And, of course, this is just one example among many.

To reflect on our successes we can search history to discover the lives of our recognized saints, who have experienced the gift of the crucified and risen Christ, and served as witnesses so that countless others have discovered a full and vibrant faith. Saints who have fed the hungry, housed the homeless, embraced those who live on the margins . . . we have much to learn from these successes and we need to share these stories as we witness to our faith.

But perhaps even more convincing than all this is the witness we give in the day-to-day conduct of our lives. How we live our lives – perhaps – offers the greatest witness of all.

I remember hearing the story of a woman, whose car was heavily decorated with bumper stickers, which carried such messages as: ’Jesus loves you.’  ‘Honk if you love Jesus.’  ‘Keep calm and pray for peace.’  ‘With Jesus kindness matters.’ It all sounds O.K., but the problem is that she was driving in a way that was contrary to the messages plastered on the outside of her car. She was driving 80 km. in a 60 km. zone; she was honking her horn at anyone who was getting in her way; she was changing lanes in a most discourteous manner….

So, a police officer spotted her car, put on his siren, and pulled her over. When he got to the window of her car, he asked her to please step out of the car. He made it very clear that she was being charged with dangerous driving and car theft as well. She emphatically told him that this was HER car and she had the registration to prove it, at which point he said, “Oh. Well. I read the bumper stickers on the outside of your car and assumed that the car must be stolen.”

How we live our lives offers the greatest witness of all. G. K. Chesterton, the English writer and theologian, once wrote that   “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

Jesus’ words in today’s gospel remind us that we live daily in the ‘court of public opinion’.  Our failures to live up to the Christian ideal are more often than not the subject of front-page stories; our successes often relegated to less-read sections of whatever form of media we read. So it is up to us to be witnesses to the positive stories of our faith and repent of those less than faithful times.

So, today I invite you to join me in pondering three questions:

  • How have you experienced the new life of Jesus in your own life? (If ever you have experienced or witnessed new life, new hope, new possibilities in the midst of disappointment and despair, you have experienced the new life of Jesus. If ever you have been touched deeply by worship, I suggest you have experienced the new life of the risen Jesus. If ever you have experienced or witnessed injustice confronted and transformed, I suggest you have experienced the new life of the risen Jesus.)
  • What do you need to bear witness to this experience with clarity and consistency? (In what ways can the church further help to equip you in this task?)
  • Who is the ‘jury’ to whom you have been summoned to witness?

I hope that you will share your answers with me, but more importantly, that you share them with each other so that we can become that ‘great cloud of witnesses’ our world so desperately needs.