Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, June 15, 2024
See that white pickup in the photo? I’ve carefully whited out its license plate for privacy purposes, though it might not have been possible to read anyway.
Thursday morning of this week as I was just starting out on my usual post-breakfast walk, I noticed this truck rolling slowly through our neighborhood. It approached me, and paused in the middle of the street. I thought, Here we go. Someone’s going to ask me for directions to an address, and because of the twisty-wind-ey pattern of our development, I’m going to have to tell him I don’t know the exact answer.
But he didn’t ask for directions. Instead, he smiled at me in a kind and humble way, and said a few words. Since his first language didn’t seem to be English, I had to ask him to repeat them.
“I do concrete driveway,” he said.
We were nowhere near my own driveway, and he didn’t know where I lived. He was just throwing out the information in case I needed it. It was a refreshing change from all the people who call my landline every week pretending that I have asked them to come by to give an estimate on some project, which I have not.
I don’t know this man. I’ve never seen him before, and probably won’t see him again, unless he charms a string of my neighbors into doing driveway work for them.
But I liked his approach. He simply offered me a service and asked if I needed it.
And inevitably I started thinking about Christian witnessing. Most times I go to our local library I see two or three Jehovah’s Witnesses standing silently outside the door beside a rack of JW literature. They’re always nicely dressed, and they never accost me with invitations to pick up a tract, probably because they’re not supposed to solicit. Their method seems to be just to stand there, ready and available for people who have questions.
Ever wondered how Jesus wants us to witness? It’s fascinating to watch His own method, in three Bible chapters. In John 3, the Pharisee Nicodemus comes to Him at night, hungry for spiritual conversation with Someone who’s obviously representing God. Jesus flatly tells him, “You must be born again.”
In John 4, Jesus is sitting beside a well when a woman approaches. He doesn’t tell her she must be born again, but He does ask her for a drink of water. A few minutes later her interest has become so deep that she hurries back into town and does some of the New Testament’s most powerful personal witnessing—and the whole town comes out to see and listen to Him.
In John 5, Jesus wanders down beside a pool where a lot of sick people lie sprawled on the pavement. He sees an invalid, but He doesn’t tell the sufferer he needs to be born again, and doesn’t ask him for a drink of water. Instead, Jesus says, “What would you like Me to do for you?”
So how did Jesus witness? And how would He want us to witness? He cared for people, met their needs, and opened the way for them to follow Him.