Witnesses

May 15

I Samuel 4-5

Psalm 60:1-5

Proverbs 13:19-21

John 5

Witnesses

“But the witness I have is greater than the witness of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness about Me, that the Father has sent Me.  And the Father who sent Me, He has borne witness about Me.  You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen his form.  And you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.  You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have live.”  John 5:36-40  LSB

Witnesses are an important part of any system of justice.  In Deuteronomy 19:15, God gave Moses instructions that there must be 2 or 3 witnesses in order to establish something as fact.  This is an important part of our justice system as well.  While it is not always possible to have more than one witness to something, it is certainly preferable and adds credence to the allegations.    When only one witness is present to testify, it is often necessary to rely on other evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, physical evidence left at the scene, etc.  In the absence of this, character testimony may come into play to verify the credibility and truthfulness of the witness.  It is difficult to confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt the truth of something when it is a “he said, she said” situation.  In this passage, Jesus is using this principle to establish who He is.  He is saying that we do not have to just take His word for it.  (Obviously that should be enough because we know that He is the most reliable source and can be trusted to only speak truth.)  But He is giving us three other reasons to verify that He is the Son of God, the Messiah.  Jesus first explains that His works prove that He is the Messiah.  They had seen Him perform many miracles during His ministry including healing the sick, turning water to wine, casting out demons, and raising the dead.  They had also heard His teaching that was directly from God, had seen His interactions with people and had experienced His loving and merciful Spirit.  They had enough information to prove that He was who He said He was. 

Jesus went on to tell them that God the Father who sent Him, had borne witness about Him.  At His baptism they heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”  (Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22)  Many people were present and witnessed this when it happened.  During the Transfiguration, Jesus was transformed on a mountain and a voice from heaven again proclaimed, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well-pleased; listen to Him.”  (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:35)  This was witnessed by Peter, James and John.  Finally, Jesus pointed to Scripture to prove His identity.  There are hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah that were fulfilled completely in Jesus.  There has never been  anyone else in all of history that meets the criteria set forth in prophecy except Jesus.  There is more than enough evidence to prove in any court of law that Jesus is who He says He is.  If He is indeed the Son of God then we would be foolish not to place our faith and trust in Him.