Seen, heard and touched
1 John 1:1-3 (NIV)
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
John hammers this point across that this is not something they have made up. He and the other apostles heard Jesus. The saw him with their own eyes. They touched him. Now, these might be things that an fan might gushing to say about the time he "actually got to touch" Jesus. John is not bragging like a fan. He is writing with what seems to be a desperate urgency--like someone who has found the cure for cancer and is trying to convince the world.
A cure indeed for a fatal disease we all have called S I N positive. There is only one cure for this disease and it happens to be a blood cure. We may not be able to see, hear and touch Jesus Christ in the flesh like John did but what John writes about is more than a cure, it is a relationship. John talks about fellowship with each other and with the Father and with Jesus Christ. Can you blame John for his eagerness?
I like having an eyewitnesses to what Jesus said and did. The number and quality of these eyewitnesses would overwhelm any judge and jury beyond any reasonable doubt. But come to think of it, I am called to be a witness too. Not that I have seen, heard and touched Christ, but that I have been changed by his words and that I have the testimony of the Holy Spirit living within me.
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