Witnesses Are the Mission

26 November 2025  Luke 21:12-19

“By your endurance you will gain your lives.” Luke 21:19

“Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer” (Luke 21:14). So what exactly is wrong with thinking it through beforehand? In I Peter 3:15 we are called always to be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.” How are we supposed to be prepared to make a defense if we don’t think it through ahead of time?

It takes your whole life.

In the ancient world the overwhelming majority of people did not read texts, but rather heard them. At the best of times literacy rates were only in the single digits, so if people encountered texts, it was because people read them to them.

The people who have, and know they have, the life of Jesus living in them are the most effective witnesses, and they get that by a lifetime commitment to Jesus. Not through practiced oratory.

For a small fee people could hear readers read texts of various kinds to them. It is one of the reasons why Caesar’s Gallic War was written in such accessible Latin – Caesar knew that the people who heard these reports would not be able to understand really sophisticated prose, and wouldn’t pay to listen. Caesar wanted to keep his name in front of as many people as possible, so he pitched his writing to speak to as many people as possible. He understood his audience.

If public reading was big in the ancient world, oratory was even bigger. Oratory in the ancient world was a highly cultivated skill. Rhetors – people who taught and practiced skilled oratory – could shape and manipulate public opinion, and were highly sought after by politicians and office-seekers. It was what St. Augustine did before his conversion. Rhetors were the social media of their time.

This is what Jesus said not to do.

As good as Rhetors were, they weren’t enough. The most persuasive witnesses were those in whom Jesus Himself spoke: “I myself shall give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict” (21:15). Those people who have, and know they have, the life of Jesus living in them would be the most effective witnesses, and they get that by a lifetime commitment to Jesus in Scripture, Jesus in the Sacraments, Jesus in prayer, Jesus in evangelization. That’s not just a skill, but a life.

Witnesses like that don’t just have a mission. They are a mission.

The average American teenager, and the average American young adult, spends 5-6 hours daily playing on the internet. Imagine what a difference it would make if they spent just half that amount of time reading. Imagine what a difference it would make if they took just half of that time – 60-90 minutes a day – in Bible reading and prayer. It would be a total life transformation.

That’s what it takes to think it through ahead of time.

That’s what it means to be ready always to account for the hope that is in you.