In University, the first time around, I was part of a Christian group which took evangelism seriously. We were taught to speak of the difference that Jesus has made in our lives and we learned to be intentional in sharing our personal testimonies with others whether they wanted to hear them or not. The assumption was that a Christian will witness to others, will do evangelism because that is what Christians do. Yes, witnessing is frightening, yes, it is awkward and uncomfortable but we learned to do it because that is what we were supposed to do. And in some ways it was successful; people became Christians. At times, though, it felt a little like the wild, Wild West — for each new convert I scratched another mark across the binding of my bible. Chalk up another one up for Jesus.
That approach to evangelism now seems far too aggressive and confrontational. Thanks be to God we are far more sophisticated. After all how are we supposed to win people for Christ if we begin by alienating them? Instead we are more likely to focus on the reasonableness of the gospel; we learn to make connections by accentuating the positive – Jesus will change your life for the better, Jesus wants to be your best friend, or 40 days to the life you have always wanted to have. What’s not to like about that?
Nothing, except John’s gospel won’t let us massage the message in that way.
The particular witness of John’s gospel has enthralled, delighted, confused, and confounded people. From its majestic opening phrases which describe the word of God, the witness of God, coming into the world, becoming flesh, until the end when we are told that these things have been written, have been testified to in order that we might believe: witness after witness, both people and events, not least the Father, the Son and the Spirit all witness to Jesus, drawing us to know and respond to him.
John’s gospel carefully weaves an understanding of witness with the contrast between light and darkness, truth and falsehood. To bear witness is ultimately to point towards that which is. Not the world as it appears to be or even to what the world now is but the world as it was meant to be and will become; the world as revealed in the person of Jesus. To bear witness is to point towards this reality.
This past summer a bbq on Danzig street turned into a gunfight with two innocent, young victims dead. 14 year old Shyanne Charles and 23 year old Joshua Yasay shot dead. It has taken a long time to sort out what happened. It’s strange. It was a large gathering, more than 100 people, but no one saw anything. The problem was not a lack of witnesses but a fear of the consequences. The investigating officer said; “I need [those] people to come forward, have courage, stand up for the community, and testify in court.” There were many witnesses to the event but not many who were willing to testify, to bear witness. It is one thing to see an event happen it is another thing to be willing to stand up and say something about it.
Someone must have said something, born witness in spite of the fear of consequences because the police have finally made three arrests in the case. I suspect that there were some people who were compelled to bear witness; People who cared enough about the truth, not truth in the abstract sense, but the truth in the sense of what matters, what is real.
John’s gospel emphasizes the action or activity of bearing witness to that which is true, to that which we have come to believe in. It is not about a neutral witness recounting the facts of an event they have seen. Rather, bearing witness is more evangelical — describing the one whom we have come to believe in; and doing this both in what we say and in how we live. There is a compulsion to bear witness which John points us towards: not witness as another duty of the Christian life but witness as an inevitable facet of knowing Jesus and learning to live with him and for him. To be a Christian without bearing witness would be an impossible contradiction.
John also acknowledges the fact that there is no massaging this witness into an acceptable form; it will always be an affront to human sensibilities. The “light has come into the world, and [we] loved darkness rather than light, because [our] deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Ultimately, it is not the manner of our witness which causes offense but the focus of our witness. What Jesus represents and who he is, is an affront to who we are and to how we live in this world.
John the Baptist is one of the many people and events who witness to Jesus throughout the gospel of John. The Baptist was such a powerful and compelling figure that everyone was wondering if he was one of the great prophets of the past brought back in the present. He commanded attention by his bearing, demeanour and message. Yet John’s gospel so quickly reframes our focus to Jesus rather than the Baptist; it is as though the Baptist is simply a footnote; a voice, not worthy to untie the sandal.
Some of you may be familiar with Grunewald’s stark, powerful almost grotesque painting of the crucifixion. He has the Baptist in the foreground with an oversized hand and index finger pointing towards the Crucified Christ. Over him are the words “he must increase, but I must decrease.” A phrase which has particular and potent force given that long before the crucifixion John the Baptist had been executed for his persistent witness. The Baptist points to Jesus. His witness is not to himself or how significant he was, it is not even of the impact God has made on his life (what a difference he’s made to me). No, the Baptist points us to Jesus.
In a way he is the archetype of one who bears witness; always pointing to Jesus and continuing to bear witness in spite of the inevitable consequences. In that pointing the Baptist sets the stage for the rest of the gospel where Jesus is not just the one whom others bear witness to, he is the ultimate witness to himself.
In a sense the understanding of Jesus as a witness to himself begins right from the opening scene of the gospel: “In the beginning was the word and the word was God and is God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. 8:18 Jesus says: I testify on my own behalf. In 10:26 the works I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me.” Through what he says, what he does, how he lives, who he is and ultimately how he dies Jesus bears witness to himself as the truth of all things.
The penultimate moment of his witness is found in John 18. The very morning that he is to be crucified Jesus stands before Pilate and bears witness: “For this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. And Everyone who belongs to me listens to my voice.” (18:37). In his life and in his death on the cross, Jesus bears witness to the truth of human rebellion against God and God’s response in Jesus to that rebellion.
The significance of his witness before Pilate is underscored by Paul who in in 1 Timothy 6:13-14 gives his charge to Timothy in the presence of “God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession.”
To be a Christian is to bear witness to Jesus in a world which does not want to hear his truth even though it is also our truth and we must hear it. We bear witness to him by listening to his voice, by allowing his truth to shape and form us changing the way we live and changing the way we speak so that in all things we point to Jesus.
The Rev. Dr. Peter Robinson is Professor of Proclamation, Worship and Ministry at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto.
