Christmas Presence: Witness to the Light


The first five verses of John 1 take us to the eternal cosmic plane, as they talk about the Word that was with God and was God.  Then in verses 6-9, we move to the human world of time and history, as John says that God sent a man named John into the world.  He wasn't the light, but was a witness to the light God was sending to the world in the Word who became flesh: Jesus Christ.

This John was John the Baptist.  His more accurate title was "the Baptizer."  He wasn't the first Baptist, though we would love to claim him!

Some in the early church era believed the Baptizer was equal to Jesus.  Maybe even superior!  But the gospel of John wants people to know clearly that John wasn't the light.  He wasn't the Word who became flesh.  Nonetheless, he was important.  He was a witness to the light.  He pointed to Jesus and identified him as the Messiah, the Savior.

These words about John remind us that God calls us Christ followers to a similar mission: to point to Jesus.  In Acts 1:8, Jesus told his followers that they would be his witnesses to the world.  The word Jesus used for "witness" is the same word John used to describe the Baptizer.  Like John, God wants us to be witnesses who point to Jesus.

When I was growing up in church, we talked a lot about being good witnesses.  As witnesses, we pointed to Jesus, sharing with others how he had transformed our lives.  Sometimes we emphasized it to a fault.  The preacher made us feel guilty for not "witnessing" to everyone all the time!  But today, we've gone the other direction.  We don't share our personal testimonies of Christ in an intelligible or persuasive fashion.

We also talked about the witness of our lives.  The preacher told us youth that beyond being bad in themselves, drinking alcohol, having sex before marriage, using foul language, and going to dances (yes), gave a bad witness to Jesus.

While it was good to think about the witness of our lifestyles, in looking back, I think we should have thought more about our witness in the way we treated people.  Jesus lived a morally perfect life, and that's great, but what "sinners" found most compelling and transformative about him was the way he treated them.  He treated them with love and respect.

In this Advent season, we can remember that if we call ourselves Christ followers, we give a witness.  The question is what kind of witness it is!  Make your witness one of pointing to Jesus, to his moral perfection and his unconditional love!

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