John the Baptist is well known as a prophet and chief witness sent by God to testify to the light, to prepare the way of the Lord. John is an unlikely witness to Christ, however. John is an unlikely witness primarily because he is not a religious leader. He is not even part of the religious establishment. He lives on the margin of society, alone in the desert. He has no visible means of support. He eats a Spartan diet of locusts and honey. He goes around dressed only in camel hair. John looks and acts homeless. For these reasons, no one at the time would have guessed that John is God’s chief witness. And yet, that is exactly what he is—an unlikely chief witness proclaiming to others what he has seen and heard about the coming of the Lord Jesus.
John is not the only unlikely witness to Jesus. Nor is he the first. The first is Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus. She too is an unlikely witness. She is a young, unmarried woman with no official role in the temple or synagogue worship. As a woman, she also cannot be a witness and thus cannot give testimony in a court of law. Yet, she is chosen by God as the first witness to proclaim the coming of the Lord to her cousin Elizabeth, and the first to bring Christ to others—both at his birth and the wedding feast at Cana where she inaugurates his mission.
There are other unlikely witnesses who testify to Jesus—the lowly shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem. As servants, they too would not have been allowed to testify in court, and yet, they are the first to witness the birth of Jesus. The Samaritan woman at the well is an enemy of the Jews, and yet her testimony inspires many to follow Jesus. The women at the tomb are the first to witness the resurrection of Jesus. Their testimony provides a first and crucial piece of evidence about the resurrection. Perhaps the most famous unlikely witness to Jesus is Paul himself. His persecution of Christians prior to his own conversion is legendary, while afterward, the power and influence of his witness to the risen Jesus is unparalleled.
As unlikely as these witnesses are, however, they share three characteristics that serve as a model and inspiration for us, who are likewise called to be witnesses to Christ. The first characteristic that witnesses to Jesus share is that they speak from personal experience. A witness can testify only to what he or she has seen and heard. The act of witnessing always depends on personal experience and involves a personal commitment. This is why John writes in his first letter that, “we have seen for ourselves, and we attest that the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world” (1 Jn 4:14).
Jesus’ coming into the world is not a passive event. Christ comes to encounter. There are many ways the Risen Jesus encounters us today. One way is through Scripture. Another way is through the Eucharist. Some of us struggle with belief in the real presence. Perhaps this struggle is not that we don’t believe God could inhabit bread; perhaps the real struggle is that we don’t believe God could inhabit us. No wonder we often miss out on yet another way of encountering Jesus—through our encounters with each other. Perhaps we cannot see Christ in others because we do not see Christ in ourselves.
The second characteristic shared by witnesses to Jesus is that they speak the truth with confidence. Witnesses to Jesus are confident in their faith because they know Christ came to bear witness to the truth. Therefore, to be a witness to Christ is to be a witness to the truth. The truth that Jesus proclaims is that God loves us and longs for our love in return. He wants to share his eternal life and happiness with us. This is why Jesus came into the world—the great event that we anticipate throughout Advent and celebrate in a special way on Christmas day. God loves us so much that he sent his only Son so that we might have life to the full, both here and in the hereafter. This is what motivates God’s witnesses and the basis of their confident faith—God longs for our love.
The third characteristic shared by witnesses to Jesus is that they speak to awaken faith in Jesus. John tells us that he writes his Gospel so that we may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief we may have life in his name (Jn 20:31). This is the sole purpose of John’s testimony, and the purpose to any testimony to Christ—to awaken faith. For this reason, Christian witness is not simply repeating someone else's words or reporting events as a detached observer. Nor is it enough simply to tell what we know.
Authentic Christian witness is born of love that becomes a mediation of the saving presence of Christ to others. In witnessing to Christ, we bring Christ to others. This mediation on our part is none other than a sharing of faith in words and deeds. As the instruments of Christ's presence, we become a sacrament to others. Through our words and deeds, the Holy Spirit in turn can awaken the faith born of an encounter with Christ. In this sense, the conditions of Christian witness are the same as those for living a Christian life. We give witness to Christ when we love others in his name.
We may not view ourselves as likely witnesses to Christ. If so, we are in good company with John and the many other unlikely witnesses. Like those witnesses, however, we too can draw on our personal experience and speak the truth with confidence to awaken faith in Jesus. In turn, we can be sure of receiving the promise Jesus made to his witnesses when he said: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father” (Mt 10:32). This is our calling. Our prayer this Advent season is for the Holy Spirit to help us make good on our role as unlikely witnesses to Christ.
