Week 24—Wednesday Acts 4:13-14
Week 24—WEDNESDAY
“TELL JOHN WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN AND HEARD”
Here is another important word regarding the nature of the gospel. John sent messengers with this inquiry:
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect some other?” There and then he cured many sufferers from diseases, plagues, and evil spirits; and on many blind people he bestowed sight. Then he gave them his answer: “Go,” he said, “and tell John what you have seen and heard: how the blind recover their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor are hearing the good news—and happy is the man who does not find me a stumbling-block.” (Luke 7:21-23, NEB)
Here we come to a vital issue: What is this nature of the evidences for the truth of the Christian faith? We have in Christian theology a branch called “apologetics.” The dictionary says: “Apologetics—systematic argumentative discourse in defense, esp. of the divine origin and authority of Christianity.” That definition is taken out of a conception of Christianity as the Word become word. But it does not fit the conception Jesus had—his was that evidence was the Word become flesh. “Tell John what you have seen and heard.” Note, it was “seen” first. The sight was redeemed people—redeemed from disease and demonic domination and from inner conflicts and guilts. The evidence was redeemed people. The evidence for Christianity is the Christian. “The poor are hearing the good news”—that “poor” meant the materially poor, but it embraced the poor rich—rich in goods and poor in inner resources—the empty.
Elijah on Mount Carmel said, “the God who answers by fire, he is God”—the God that answers by a sign and wonder, a portent. We would now say, “The God that answers by healed, changed people, let him be God.” The evidence is a person, not a proposition, not a verbal argument, but a vital alteration—something you have “seen.” The evidence for Christianity is not found on Mars Hill where they debated new ideas, but in the marketplace where new persons are “seen.”
O Savior, you save, the evidence for your salvation is not a true proposition but a true Christian. Make me that kind of evidence today. When they have “seen,” may they say, “Now we have seen and heard”—it works and is at work. In your name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: May my evidence for the Christian faith be me—a changed me.