The Fourfold Witness - Bible Study - Count Your Blessings

By Tony Joe:

Bible Study for St. John 5:33-36:

Chapter 5 of the Gospel According to St. John opens with Jesus healing a sick man near the Bethesda pool on a Sabbath day, thereby violating His community's law.

Later on in the Chapter, we find St. John describing many of Christ's core claims getting revealed to the community's elders, and in the final part of Chapter 5 we see Jesus describing his unique fourfold witnesses who testifies for Him. 

Like many of you probably, I too have many non-Christian friends as well as atheist friends.

I often discuss spiritual matters too with some of them, and have found a sharp difference between these two groups.

But before that, a quick look at what these groups generally tend to believe about Christ and Christianity.

Most non-Christians (who believe in God) that I interact with, believe that Jesus Christ was another great human teacher, whose followers, however, made him into a God.

Most atheists I talk to, on the other hand, do not budge from their basic premise that Jesus too is not God, as there is no God.

Now, to the difference I was about to mention about these two groups of friends.

When the non-Christians have some personal problems, challenges, or setbacks in their lives, and when I feel that they could be better with some help from Jesus, I share my faith about praying to Jesus, and more often than not, they take to it naturally.

When some of them test praying to Jesus, and come back stunned at the results, I know I have done my little part in sharing the faith.

But no such hope for a breakthrough - for faith to work - has ever occured in my interactions with any of my atheist friends.

Their response whenever I bring up the issue of faith or prayer, has invariably been this - "Tony, how can you Christians keep trusting all these ancient stories and characters?"

Ironically, that incredible trust is the only thing these truth-seeking atheist friends of mine, lack! 

Only if they could have tested faith in Jesus once, and tasted its incredibly sweet fruit.

Yes, that sweet fruit of our prayers to Jesus getting answered, is what has sustained Christianity for more than 2000 years now, against violent religions, frothing materialism, and against convenient atheism.

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus cites this factor - requests and prayers to Him getting answered - as one of the fourfold witnesses to His ministry on earth,  

This testimony through His miraculous works, are far above the testimony given by John the Baptist, says Jesus.

Because, somebody who was not sent by Father, could ever do the kind of miracles that Jesus did, that too in huge numbers.

The power of Jesus was indeed the power of the Father.

One more reason exists for why it was a greater testimony than John's.

Having this innate power of the Father with Him, Jesus used it solely for compassionate purposes, to teach how compassion for the needy is the true hallmark of the Kingdom of God.

The God in this new Kingdom would respond with compassion to the prayers and requests of those who trusted in Him.

What a huge and positive change that was compared with John's message focused only on repentance and penance.

That is why Jesus implies in today's Bible reading that the community started ignoring John's teachings soon. 

In contrast, for those who were willing to consider Jesus with an open heart, He had made numerous signs that could be verified as true.

And anyone who trusted in Him had the privilege to be personally healed or helped by Him.

Even today, this promise from Jesus holds true. He just needs to be trusted, and He will shower any such person with enough miracles to reveal His awesome power.

Often, we believers too fall into the trap of forgetting His miraculous interventions in our lives, too fast.

To grow in faith, therefore, we should cultivate a habit of counting our blessings from Him.

My favourite is a huge board in our living room where all in my family are encouraged to write down all their answered prayers. 

And needless to say, I often have to wipe off the older blessings, as new prayers keep getting answered on a daily basis.

But without such a simple mechanism, all of us would have forgotten His interventions within weeks, if not days.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 5:33-36:

"You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 

Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. 

He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. 

But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish — the very works that I do — bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.