A Progressive Christian Reconsiders What the Word "Witness" Means

“Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
--Luke 24:45-46 NRSV


In this resurrection story often called "Jesus appears on the road to Emmaus or something like that, after these followers realize the stranger who approached them on the road was Christ, they rush
back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples what happened. Then Christ shows up again. Man that resurrected Christ really gets around! Christ explains things to them and says, “You are
witnesses of these things.” What things?

Growing up as a Southern Baptist, I was repeatedly taught I was to “witness” to my “un-saved” friends and to “be a good witness” to believers and non-believers alike. “Witness” as a verb
meant largely convincing others to “accept Christ as their Lord and Savior” and to pray the “Sinner’s Prayer.” I took it very seriously and learned all kinds of techniques of how to bring up
accepting Christ into each and every kind of conversation—sort of like I was a salesman for Christianity. 

“Witness” as a noun meant being a moral person, not causing others to “stumble” in their faith, and avoiding all the capital “S” sins like anything having to do with sex, drugs, alcohol, rock-n-roll, etc. My father’s generation was taught “Don’t drink. Don’t smoke. Don’t chew. And don’t go with girls who do.” My generation got updated a bit with the “drugs” and “rock-n-roll” part, I guess.
I can remember being terrified of my “un-saved” friends going to Hell and it being my fault, because I was a bad witness or I just wasn’t convincing enough in my witnessing. The problem with that kind of Christianity is it places too much responsibility on what “I” do and not enough on what God does. I didn’t understand that God was at work all kinds of ways out in the world and the eternal destination of all people wasn’t my job.

As my journey has taken me away from the conservative Christianity of my upbringing and I have served in progressive and more open-minded churches, however, I have found myself
wishing for some of that emphasis upon being “witnesses” of Christ. I have found more open-minded Christians to be so afraid of coming across as anything like the fundamentalist televangelists, who sadly present the most public face of American Christianity these days, that they offer no real “witness” at all. Too little time is spent in progressive Christianity upon one’s own experience of God and the presence of Christ in one’s life, and the result is that so many progressive churches are dying. Their churches become clubs or sites for historical preservation rather than a living community where God’s Spirit is alive and changing lives.

Karoline Lewis is a Lutheran biblical scholar (once upon a time she and I were in Ph.D. work together) and I love her writing. She says the following about Jesus’ words at the end of Luke’s gospel:

“Jesus’ address to the disciples is not, ‘you will be witnesses.’ Not, ‘please be witnesses.’ Not, ‘consider being witnesses if you have time.’ No, ‘you are witnesses of these things.’ We are
witnesses. As it turns out, witnessing is not voluntary, but a state of being.

“Of course, exactly to what things we witness requires some interpretive imagination. Perhaps ‘these things’ is the real bodily resurrection of our Lord. Perhaps ’these things’ is the content of Jesus’ own confession – the suffering of the Messiah, rising on the third day, the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness of sins. Or, perhaps ‘these things’ is the entirety of Jesus’ ministry.  After all, Jesus’ whole life was witnessing to the ‘holistic character of God’s salvation.’”

I wish the conservative younger version of myself could have come to see that being a “good witness” and “witnessing” was not about what I did, but rather about what God has done and is doing. I could have saved myself some anxiety. In the same way, I hope for my more progressive self to remember that it’s still not about what I do, but rather about what God has done and is doing. “Witness” is a state of being. My job as a Christian isn’t to “get it right” or
discover the “magic words” to teach others as a secret password into heaven. My energy should be spent slowing down, making time for prayer, ensuring there is time for awe and laughter, and
reflection upon what God is not only saying in scripture but in all creation.

During this strange time when we continue to “shelter at home,” I encourage you to do the same in whatever form that takes for you. When you and I pay attention to the presence of the Resurrected One in our lives, we can’t help but be “good witnesses,” because God will be transforming us and that will be evident to everyone around us, whether we are even aware of it.

God doesn’t need us to win arguments or convert others to our way of thinking, rather God wishes to use us as vessels of Divine Love that can’t help but create more love all around us.

Grace and Peace,
Chase