to witness - january 3 2019

John the Baptist is not called the Baptist in the gospel of John.  In the gospel of John he is called the witness. He is a witness because he points to Jesus.  All of us are called to become witnesses of Jesus and therefore it is important to follow the example of John on how to become a witness to Jesus.

First, we need to be clear like John who we are not.  We are not the Messiah, we are not Jesus, we are not the savior of the world.  A person who calls too much attention to self is not a good witness.  He does not call people to be loyal to him but to be loyal to Jesus.  He does not call people to love or adore him but to be in love with Jesus.

Second in order to become a witness for Jesus we need to be clear like John who we are.  John said, I am a voice.  John did not say he is the great voice, he is not an important voice, but just simply a voice calling attention to the coming Lord.  As a witness we get discouraged at times when we are not effective in our work of bringing people to Jesus.  Despite our best efforts many times we can only do so much.  Again, it is important to remind ourselves, we are just the voice. People may respond or not, it is not our concern.  We are just the voice, a voice that points to Jesus.

Mother Teresa in her retreat to priests ended her conference with the words, “give us Jesus, always Jesus, only Jesus.”  I believe that sums up what John the Witness did and what every witness should do for the Lord and his people.