You are witnesses of these things

Homily for Easter – 3^rd Sunday Year B 2015

Acts 3:13-15,17-19; 1 John 2:1-5; Luke 24:35-48

INTRODUCTION

“You are witnesses of these things.” That is what Jesus tells the disciples, when he appears to them in today’s gospel.  I can imagine the disciples thinking: “We are witnesses?  And what things are we witnesses of?”

Some of us might remember the 1985 movie Witness.  The detective played by Harrison Ford, goes into Amish country, to protect a young boy, who had seen a murder taking place.  And so because the boy knew who the murderer was, information that was not common knowledge, he was a witness.  With what he knew, he could help the justice system convict the murderer.

SCRIPTURE AND THEOLOGY

When Jesus calls the disciples witnesses, he is reminding them that they know something important, which other people don’t.  They have seen him do and teach many things.  But the most important nugget of information that they have is this: they have seen the Risen Lord.  Only they, like the little Amish boy, can tell others what they saw.

But how reliable are the disciples as witnesses?  In another movie, My Cousin Vinny, one of the eye-witnesses wrongly identified the two boys as murderers, because she had poor eyesight.  As for the disciples, the Lord makes sure that there are no mistakes in their testimony.

·        For three years Jesus taught them many things: the beatitudes, the great commandments, many parables about God’s love and mercy, name it!  But the most important lesson, which he repeated when he appeared to them in today’s gospel was this: “. . . that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.”  .  God brought him back to life, to prove that all Jesus said and did was true.  The disciples know these things because Jesus taught them.

·        Even better than hearing Jesus teach, the disciples had seen him do many things: he had performed miracles like making wine out of water, multiplying bread and fish, healing people and even raising the dead to life.

·        But the most important thing they had seen was the risen Lord.  Jesus goes to extra trouble to provide evidence of his resurrection.  We heard in today’s gospel that he invited them to touch his hands and feet which had been nailed to the cross.  He also asked for a piece of baked fish so they could see him eating right before their eyes, something only a person who is alive can do.  This minor detail is recorded, not simply to indicate that Jesus like you, was fond of seafood, but as proof for the disciples that the man they were seeing and talking to was Jesus, who had died and now was risen.  And as far as evidence is concerned, the disciples were holding truly astounding evidence; they were privy to an exclusive.

But a witness is of no use, if he or she does not take the stand.  The witness must share that information, especially if sharing is going to benefit others.  And that is why Jesus, after reminding the disciples about the mystery of his death and resurrection, he also reminds them of his earlier teaching: “that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”  In other words, the disciples must pass on what they have seen and heard, not only to the Jewish people, but indeed to all nations.

To their credit, these first disciples did share the Good News.  They preached, like we heard Peter preach so fearlessly in today’s first reading; they healed people in the name of Jesus, and most importantly, they suffered and died for the gospel.

CHRISTIAN LIFE

What Jesus said to the disciples: “You are witnesses of these things,” he also says to you and me.  After all, we too are in the know about what Jesus did and taught, and especially that Jesus died and rose from the dead.

And how do we know these things?  We don’t have first-hand experience like the first disciples.  But we know these things because the first eye-witnesses passed on this knowledge to their successors, from one generation to another, until today.  You might say that we are hearsay witnesses, who are not admissible in a court of law, but certainly admissible when it comes to spreading the gospel.

Perhaps we heard the Good News from our grandmothers and grandfathers, perhaps our mothers and fathers, perhaps from our teachers and catechists; the fact is that we received this nugget of Good News, that had been handed down all the way from Jesus and the first disciples.  And when we became privy to this information, we joined the club of witnesses.  And so Jesus can rightly call us witnesses of these things.  If we don’t want to make him a liar, we must share what we have learned.

How are we Christians to be witnesses?  I have been fortunate enough not to have had any dealings with the judicial system, especially as a defendant. And so what I know about the criminal justice system is what I picked up from TV and movies.  And I have observed that there are three types of witnesses.

The first kind of witness is willing to testify and does so freely.  For example the young man in South Carolina who recorded the police shooting provided the video freely to the police. Jesus too relies on Christians, who are willing to share the good news they have received with others, freely and without compulsion.

Unfortunately, Christians are sometimes like the second kind of witness, the one who is compelled to give testimony, usually by a sub poena.  This kind of witness is often hostile, uncooperative and might even plead the fifth, refusing to share what he knows.  Christians should not wait for a sub poena to testify to their faith.  Christians cannot plead the fifth.  In fact our testimony is more reliable if we answer questions not only about what we have seen and heard, but also about how the gospel has affected us personally.

The third kind of witness, willing or compelled, is the one who does not tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  This is the witness who withholds some of the information or misrepresents it.  Sometimes this witness does so because he fears the consequences of his testimony for himself and his family; sometimes the witness is simply a big liar.  Again clearly Christians cannot be this kind of witness.  We must preach the full gospel and nothing but the gospel truth.  We cannot cherry-pick what we like and what we don’t like from the gospel; it is a package deal.  For example, our witness to life cannot just be about abortion while at the same time we support the death penalty.  Or our witness cannot just be about caring for the material needs of the poor, while we neglect the need for committed and faithful monogamous marriage between a man and a woman.

CONCLUSION

And so, we must be witnesses who are not only willing to testify, but also do so truthfully.  And we testify both in word and action.  In fact our example is perhaps the best testimony that we can give to the message of the Risen Lord.  Like St. Francis of Assisi, when asked by his disciples, how they were to preach said: “Preach always, sometimes with words.”

Finally I want to make a distinction between being a witness and being a gossip.  Both the witness and the gossip possess a juicy piece of information.  But what the gossip has is poison and when they share it, it kills.  What the witness has is the good news and when they share it, they give life.  May we be witnesses of the things Jesus has taught and done for us, so that others may also have life and have life to the fullest.