The Worst Witnesses

On Easter, I read the account of the resurrection in Luke’s gospel. Maybe you’ve heard the argument that the resurrection of Christ really happened because of whom the first witnesses were. Women.

Historically speaking, in the world of the New Testament, a woman’s testimony was legally insignificant. According to Jewish laws, a woman’s testimony counted as much as a robber’s would in court. The Talmud states, “Any evidence which a woman [gives] is not valid (to offer), also they are not valid to offer. This is equivalent to saying that one who is Rabbinically accounted a robber is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman” (Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 1.8). In other words, if you lived in those days and you wanted to prove something had happened, a woman’s testimony would only hurt your case.

You get a glimpse into this world in Luke’s retelling when the women returned from the empty tomb: “Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:10–11).

The women weren’t believed. We could say much about this in our modern world. But we are going to set that aside and look simply at the time and place of the New Testament. Women weren’t believed, and yet all four Gospels include women in the story of the resurrection.

It stands to reason that if all four Gospels included women as the first witnesses to the resurrection of Christ, it is included in the story because each writer cared deeply about telling the truth. They were not writing a narrative to convince you that something happened. If this were their motivation, women would not have been included in the retelling. Instead, the Gospel writers were writing to tell you what did happen.

Furthermore, the nature of Christ is revealed to us in this text. He moves outside cultural constraints and stigmas. He chose sinners, tax collectors, roughneck fishermen, and women to be his witnesses. Christ is in the business of redemption, and his work of redemption is not dependent on popular opinion or gender biases. As Eve was the first to eat of the fruit in the garden, daughters of Eve would be the first to witness the risen Savior who had crushed the enemy’s head (Gen. 3:15). 

Jesus Redeemer.

As I sat in the indignation of women being disbelieved in this passage, I found something deeper at work. “. . . [the disciples] did not believe [the women]. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened” (Luke 24:12). The women may not have been believed, but their story still moved Peter to go see for himself.

God used the witness of women—unlikely and unbelieved—to compel Peter to search for the risen Christ. Their witness has compelled countless generations to know that the story of Christ's resurrection is true. 

We see this theme of women witnesses in a different story in John’s gospel. When Jesus asks a woman of Samaria to get him a drink of water, he begins a conversation with her. He tells her that he has “living water.” He begins to tell her of her own history—of five marriages and one current live-in partner. The woman goes into town and tells everyone to come and see Jesus—that he is the Messiah. “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony” (John 4:39).

After Jesus spends a couple days in that place, the townsfolk then say to the Samaritan woman: “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). Witnessing is less about the quality of witness and more about introducing someone to the Savior of the world.

I think of how I have clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders. I have spent time in a psychiatric hospital. I still experience the symptoms of PTSD. When I signed away my rights before entering the psychiatric hospital six years ago, I thought I was also signing away my ability to be used by God. My story had taken too messy and too dark a turn. I thought the depth of my struggles counted my witness out. As it turns out, God now uses this woman with anxiety disorders to teach on the peace of God.

The depth of my struggles didn’t count out my witness, rather they made me a witness to his peace in the mess of PTSD symptoms. I have beheld the light of his peace in the darkness of a psychiatric hospital. I know his peace. I know there is nowhere I can go where God has not already gone before me—nowhere I can go where he is not. I have seen it.

My struggles have not disqualified me. They’ve made me a witness. 

Whether I am a good witness or a believable one matters little. My witness is not about me; it’s about whom I have beheld. What matters is that the power of the Holy Spirit can compel someone to search for the living Christ.

Jesus Redeemer.

Dear one, your story—however hard, dark, messy, or simple—is not what counts you in or out of being Christ’s witness. It is that you have seen Christ at work in you.

Remember Jesus’s final words before he ascended to heaven: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Our witness is a work of the Spirit in us, and it is the charge of those who follow Christ to share what they have seen, heard, and received.

God chose to use uncredible witnesses to the single most important event in all history, Jesus’s resurrection. It makes me suspect that God sees things differently than we do.

Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth sheds some light on why this is: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:6–7).

Jars of clay do not allow light to shine through them. What Paul is describing here is a miracle. 

We are his witnesses, not because of what we’ve done or who we are. We are fickle people, prone to fear and pride, prone to making God in our own image. We come from varying backgrounds, and sin’s curse has touched each one of our lives. We are earthen vessels, and this does not disqualify us.

Remember Christ’s words: “My power is perfected in your weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). If you think you are incapable of shining the light of Christ, you are on the right track. But don’t stop there. Hear me: if you have witnessed Jesus at work in you, you are his witness.

And as it turns out, he can shine through any of his witnesses.

Jesus Redeemer.