The Three Witnesses to Reality

A successful spiritual journey all depends on having clarity about where you are headed!

In his book “Mere Christianity” C.S. Lewis issued his famous “trilemma.” Lewis was concerned that some in his day, gripped by the fad of “demythologizing” the Bible, wanted to call Jesus a “good teacher,” but certainly not God in the Flesh. (Parenthetically, I’d love to read a historical account of the influence of Islamic theology on Protestantism) So, Lewis declared that Jesus doesn’t give us this option. Lewis insisted that Jesus was either a “lunatic” or a “liar” or, as Lewis believed He is, “Lord.”

This debate continues to rage today as we see even in our Orthodox world, some are desperate that the Church not be “on the wrong side of history.” This shallow and falsely wise, barely hidden ivory tower elitism is just one more attempt to “tame” the message of Jesus so some academics can be invited to the right cocktail parties and not thought of as “those backward” Orthodox who cling to their “outdated” ideas.

Look at our lesson today in 1 John 4:20- 21 and 5:1- 21. Read the whole passage, but today, we will focus on 1 John 5:6-13

This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth. There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has borne witness to his Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.

St. John insists that Jesus, properly known, is exactly what He claims to be: God in the Flesh reconciling the world to God, the Father. And John insists this based on the “testimony of three “witnesses.” By the way, you aren’t going to understand this passage without remembering the scene of the Lord’s baptism at the beginning of His public ministry.

First, the Spirit. St. John insists that the “Spirit is the truth.” Of course, John remembers the promise of the risen Lord that the Spirit, which He would send to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, would lead the Lord’s Church into “all truth” (see John 16:13). The Spirit descends on the Lord’s head in the form of a dove at His baptism, witnessing to St. John the Baptist (not the same John as we have writing here) that this was the Messiah, the Savior of the World. The Holy Spirit would confirm the Lord’s identity to John and those who witnessed the Lord’s baptism. And the Holy Spirit confirms the Lord’s identity still today in the living, breathing Body of Christ, the Church.

Next, St. John tells us the water is a witness as well. How can water be a witness of the divinity of Christ? For one,” water” here can refer to the fact that Christ was a real person, a human Person (but not “just” a human Person). Water is of this world. Water is the source of life for us humans. Even our physical bodies are mostly made of water! And Christ is baptized in water, and, as He comes up out of the water, He is revealed to all as the “Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!” (see John 1:29). So, to this day the Church uses water to bless and baptize. The water is witnessing to this day!

Finally, the blood is a witness. Again, John is using highly metaphorical language here. The old saying is, “Life is in the blood.” Lose too much blood, and your physical body will die. So, Jesus’ sacrifice of His life for us to destroy the power death held over us is a strong witness of His true identity! His blood was, and is, the same blood that still flows through His Body, the Church, making those who are the Church “by grace what Christ is by nature.” That’s why the Church has always seen the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist as the true Body and Blood of Jesus given to us, as He promised in John 6, as true food and true drink.

John also reminds us that, at the Lord’s baptism, the Father speaks from heaven and witnesses that Jesus is His “beloved Son.” And those who dare to accept the “testimony” of these “witnesses” for Christ have the life of Christ, the eternal life of Christ as their own. And those who reject this “testimony” do not have this life. Because you were made for Life Himself, and our approaching Lenten journey of the spiritual disciplines is meant to REORIENT you towards your real self, and that can only happen as we become “like Christ.”

About 300 AD, the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent two bishops to an area called Cherson on the Black Sea (now Kherson on the coast of modern Ukraine). The first two bishops, Ephraim and Basileus, saw the Lord use them to raise a son of one of the prominent men in the area from the dead. This was the occasion of many embracing the Faith. But the unbelievers were furious at this event, and they killed these heroes of the Faith. Then, the Patriarch sent Euguene, Agathodorus, Capito, Elpitius, and finally Aetherius to bring the Gospel to the area. But all were killed for their faith. But this area would be converted to Orthodox Christianity by 988 AD.

Today, St. John continues to prepare us for our Lenten journey through our spiritual maturity by reminding us that our faith in Christ isn’t based on some fantasy or some “tall tale.” Our faith in Christ rests on the testimony of three powerful witnesses to the true identity of our Lord. Now, the only matter to be settled is who do you believe? Do you have the courage to live a Normal Orthodox life?

P.S. Since You have given us the miracles of Your holy Martyrs as an invincible battlement, by their entreaties scatter the counsels of the heathen, O Christ our God, and strengthen the faith of Orthodox Christians, since You alone are good and the Friend of man.