Musical Musing: Blessed To Be A Witness, Ben Harper

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” ~John 20:29

Witnesses are people who, being physically present, have seen or perceived a thing. They beheld it. They saw, heard, they know by personal presence and perception, or so it is defined by dictionary.com. To be a witness is to possess personal knowledge of a thing or event. It implies a certain level of intimacy of knowledge and awareness with events in question.

In Ben Harper’s “Blessed To Be A Witness”, he references the stone statue of Christ the Redeemer standing on Corcovado, a mountain in Brazil. It is possibly one of the most recognizable images of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, forming a short-hand reference for that city and even the country as a while; you see the image of Jesus, his arms outstretched on the top of this mountain overlooking the city and you immediately think of Brazil.

But while he’s spelling out this imagery in Brazil, he’s using it as shorthand for the larger story behind it. Cristo Redentor, the statue that stands atop the mountain he names, isn’t actually a scene of crucifixion; it’s a statue of Jesus with His arms open wide, welcoming. By referring to a figure crucified in stone, Harper calls our attention back to the sacrifice that made Christ a redeemer, that caused Thomas to doubt. He further invokes this imagery by pointing out that “his blood is my own.” Then he intones that he is blessed to be a witness.

What is he witness to? The crucifixion he’s invoked occurred nearly two millenia ago, so he could not have been there physically to see it. But he uses the image of a statue that is almost a 100 years old to draw our attention to events that are nearly 2000 years old, and does so very effectively. From the first time I heard this song, I thought of Thomas, I thought of the disciples who walked everyday with Jesus.

Jesus, after He had risen from the tomb, came and sought Thomas out intentionally. He knew that Thomas had doubts. He knew that Thomas was uncertain. Let’s be fair; Thomas wasn’t exactly unreasonable to doubt that a man could raise HIMSELF from the dead. I mean, yes, he’d seen Jesus do some stunning things, including raising several people from the dead. But operating from outside of death on another person to give them life… well, that’s one thing. To be dead yourself? And the way he had died… really… everyone else had died of prolonged illnesses. It would have been very easy for him to talk himself into thinking that Jesus had just healed them of their illness… that they’d been near death, but not dead. To have met such a violent death… to have been scourged so completely, then literally NAILED to a cross, and then stabbed in the side? Of course he doubted. Many reasonable, rational men doubt. You might be doubting.

We damn Thomas for doubting. Jesus sought him out in love. “Oh, Thomas, Beloved, come here. Come here and don’t be satisfied with the testimony of your eyes. There will be those who come after you who need more than eyewitnesses. Come, Beloved, and be a witness to those who will come behind you. Put your finger in the nail holes. Put your hand in the hole in my side. Come, my Beloved, Come, see, and believe.” There’s no judgment. There’s no anger. There’s no condemnation. There may be humor, but this is love.

Thomas, confronted with the evidence, facing wounds that no man could survive, and a man that stood before him speaking to him, alive and well, again made a rational decision. He fell on his face and worshiped his Redeemer. “My Lord and my God!” he cried. And Jesus, in His love, in His mercy, said, “You have believed because you have seen. Blessed are those who believe but do not see.”

Jesus was referring to you and I there. He was talking to Ben Harper. We can’t be literal witnesses to the crucifixion, so we are blessed through our belief in the redeemer. But how do we get to belief in a redeemer we never see? How can we be witnesses to something we’ve never seen?

Because, Beloved, we see redemption all around us. Cristo Redentor isn’t just a stone statue on a mountain in Brazil. He’s actively living and working all around us and through us. Every child that leaves the foster care system and leads a successful life is an example of a life redeemed. Every time a life is reclaimed from addiction, we see the power of redemption. Every child adopted is a powerful reminder that redemption is available to us all. Even when we choose to live after loss we see life redeemed from pain and grief.

Life, Beloved, by its very nature, LIFE is redemptive. Every time you choose life or love or joy over death or hate or grief, every time, you see redemption at work. Sometimes, it’s in the little things, the small choices we make as we go through life. But as we go through life, small choices add up, they accumulate, and they can have a huge impact.

And then, of course, there are the big ones… the baby born into an impossibly awful situation, adopted into a great one, who grows up, defying all the odds, and goes on to make a huge impact on society for the better… discovers a new medicine, becomes a judge or legislator, or an activist, and makes the world a safer place for children like him or her. Or the drug addict who cleans up and turns around and opens a rehab to help other addicts get clean, literally saving lives and turning them around forever, giving them the skills they need to climb out of their life of crime and hopelessness. Or the woman who was raised in and out of foster care, physically, sexually, verbally, emotionally abused, who determines that’s not who she’s going to be, who walks away from it all, marries an amazing man who teaches her about love, learns about the stunning love of God in new ways, decides to adopt, and becomes a vocal proponent for sharing the radical and life-changing redemptive love of Christ the Redeemer.

I never saw the crucifixion. But oh, Beloved, I am so blessed to be a witness of Christ the Redeemer. I have intimate, first-hand, eyewitness knowledge of a life redeemed. I have seen it, participated in it. And not only have I seen my own life changed, Beloved, I’ve learned how to see it, and I can’t not see Him all around me, redeeming lives and loving us all.

What, in your life, have you seen? To what things or events are you a witness? Could you say, as go through your life, even in the pain (as Ben Harper admits, and even I do) and still say that you have been blessed to be a witness?