The First Witnesses

"And he said to them, 'Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.' " - Luke 24:46-48

You know when you get to the end of the movie, and a character in the movie explains to another character what happened? Kind of a fill-in-the-blanks scene so us movie-goers can connect all the pieces of the plot? That's what this kind of feels like.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus rarely explains his last days directly like this. He drops hints as to what's going to happen, why it's going to happen, and when - but often in pieces. But now, he's getting close to finishing his mission on Earth, and is making sure everyone is on the same page.

And thankfully, Luke makes it clear to his readers as well - and is, in essence, noting how Jesus is passing the torch to his disciples. He's pointing out that they went through it with him, and because of that, they must now tell others - that they are now witnesses. And through tradition, teaching and experiencing, this torch has been passed on down to each generation of Christian, burning brightly for all of us, and reminding us we're the next set of witnesses to carry on. Just as these first witnesses did so many years ago.

We should all step back, and make sure we're keeping the torch lit - so that we're the next generation of witnesses, and not the last.