Eyewitness
“You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:48)
Years ago, my dad and I were finishing the basement level of our house on a beautiful summer day in New England. All of a sudden we heard the largest crash we ever experienced. We quickly went up the stairs and out to the front yard. A car accident happened directly in front of our home. An enormous 1970s Cadillac experienced a head-on collision with a tiny 1980s Plymouth Omni hatchback. The elderly man in the Cadillac had crossed the double yellow line and collided head-on into the tiny Omni with a young family. The father and mother were in critical condition and the baby in the rear seat was crying. We immediately called the police and quickly pulled the baby out of the car. She was in her car seat covered in glass and unconsolable. It was a life-changing day for everyone involved.
Witnessing that car accident changed my life.
Big events have led me to ask an important question, “How do I want to live in light of this big thing that just happened to me?”
Questions
- Have you ever experienced a big event that changed your life in some way? If you are comfortable, please share. If you prefer to just listen in, please be attentive to others who share significant life events.
- What is it about big moments that change our reality and the way we view things? Discuss.
Read Luke 24:36-49
Jesus makes the disciples’ reality very clear with his Resurrection. He came to fulfill that which is written. Jesus fulfilled everything in the front half of this book called the Bible. He fulfilled what was written by Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Jesus checks all the boxes in the first half of the Bible. He suffered and rose again. Repentance and the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name everywhere. And then Jesus tells the disciples something life-changing.
Jesus says they are witnesses of these things. Now that’s an interesting choice of words for Easter Sunday. Jesus chose a word that carries important significance. In fact, he uses that word over and over again. In Acts 1:8 he says, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
That word, witness, carries three implications.
- A historical sense
- A legal sense
- An ethical sense
History unfolds before us. When you see some big event happen before your own eyes it becomes a part of history. I remember as a kid sitting in a classroom watching the space shuttle challenger launch from Florida. It was amazing to watch New England’s own teacher and astronaut Christa McAuliffe go up to space with other astronauts and then minutes into the launch the shuttle exploded. Everything changed. It’s history and we were all witnesses of it.
In a similar way, the disciples are all historical witnesses of the Resurrection. Everything changed. Life could not go back to life as usual.
Read Matthew 18:16; Matthew 26:65; Mark 14:63; Acts 6:13; Acts 7:58; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28
Second, the disciples are witnesses in a legal sense.
Long before John Adams became the second U.S. President, in 1770 he was a respected lawyer in New England, where the Boston massacre had just occurred. No lawyers would defend the British soldiers involved for fear of the American public, which had now grown even stronger in its anti-British sentiments. But Adams believed that everyone was entitled to a fair trial. He took the case, the public turned against him, and he lost more than half of his clients.
In a courtroom that was described as crowded and "electric," Adams argued that the soldiers were innocent …. He then added, "Facts are stubborn things and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of the facts and evidence."
There are legal implications as witnesses. As witnesses, you are under oath in a courtroom to share must tell the facts. Tell the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. The disciples are not legal witnesses of what’s happened.
Peter talks about witnessing the Resurrection of Jesus. In 1 Peter 1:3, he describes “the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.” In a sense, Peter is legally bound before God and other witnesses, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Read Acts 10:41; 1 Timothy 6:12; (2 Timothy 2:2); Hebrews 12:1; Luke 24:48; Acts 1:22; Acts 2:32; Acts 3:15; Acts 5:32; Acts 10:39; Acts 26:16; 1 Peter 5:1
Third, the disciples are witnesses of the Resurrection in an ethical sense.
Let’s say you go to a doctor and he/she runs some tests on you and some of the tests show some abnormal cells. The doctor has an ethical responsibility as an eyewitness to your test results to tell you what is happening.
In a similar way, the disciples cannot go back to life as normal. They have an ethical responsibility to be an eye witness to what they saw and experienced. Anything less would be immoral and irresponsible.
The disciples have to come out of their crowd. They have to leave the locked room which is more like a cave. They have to be witnesses of everything they saw and heard. Anything less would not be living in light of this BIG thing that happened to them.
Third, the disciples are witnesses of the Resurrection in an ethical sense.
Let’s say you go to a doctor and he/she runs some tests on you and some of the tests show some abnormal cells. The doctor has an ethical responsibility as an eyewitness to your test results to tell you what is happening.
In a similar way, the disciples cannot go back to life as normal. They have an ethical responsibility to be an eye witness to what they saw and experienced. Anything less would be immoral and irresponsible.
The disciples have to come out of their crowd. They have to leave the locked room which is more like a cave. They have to be witnesses of everything they saw and heard. Anything less would not be living in light of this BIG thing that happened to them.
Questions
- If you eyewitnessed a car accident, which sense would motivate you the most to share the truth of the event (i.e., historical, legal, ethical)? Why?
- How does the Resurrection impact the way you live today? Discuss.
