Testimony

I’ve long since lost count of the number of times I’ve been around the old camp fire, listening to “testimonies.” That can be an interesting experience! Sometimes, to be honest, I’ve felt like my “testimony” – most often understood to mean how you became a Christian – wasn’t nearly as exciting as some of the stories I’ve heard. To be even more honest, sometimes it seemed like as you went around the circle, people started “adding to” the story of the conversion.

A few weeks ago, in the Friday morning Listening Post Group I am a part of, the other two guys and I were talking about Mark, chapters one and two. One of the things that caught my attention as I read in preparation for our meeting was the story of the healing of a leper at the end of chapter one.

Most readers of Mark are aware of what is sometimes referred to as “the Messianic secret” in his telling of the Jesus story. Jesus seems to be rather emphatic about not letting the story get ahead of Him – not unlike John’s occasional “the hour has not yet come” that ultimately gives way to “the hour has come.”

In this particular story Jesus “sternly warns” the man not to say anything. By reading to the end of the paragraph the man apparently didn’t hear Jesus very well and “began to proclaim it freely.” It seems a bit offensive to suggest that Jesus is merely using a kind of pop-psychology that says “don’t” knowing that by saying “don’t” the man “will.”

What Jesus actually says to the man is “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” In other words, perhaps Jesus prefers the testimony of what has happened in the man’s life more than mere words that say what has happened.

It makes me wonder a bit if perhaps we can’t learn a vital kingdom lesson here. Certainly there is a place in life for using words to say what we believe about Jesus and what Jesus has done in our lives. But perhaps the more important issue is that our very lives – lives that demonstrate that we’ve been cleansed from something far more dangerous than leprosy – should be our “testimony.”

In the spirit of “a picture is better than a thousand words” – maybe we would make more headway in bringing the world to repentance if the testimony of our lives reflected that of a person who has repented – walked away from sin.

In Jesus’ description of the younger son in the story we most often call “The Prodigal Son,” the imagery of a young man coming home, hat in hand as it were, with no expectations is powerful visual testimony that he had truly “come to his senses.”

Probably more important around the camp fire testimony moments than answering the “how did I become a Christian?” question is “Why do I remain a Christian?” The best answer to that question is the testimony of a life changed dramatically by Jesus!