John 18:19-32
23: Yet again we see the phrase "bear witness" in John. This time, Jesus is telling the guard to "bear witness" to what he thinks Jesus did wrong. This is fascinating to me, and seems to point to a form of subversive apologetics: get the other person to tell you what they believe and ask them why they believe it, in other words have them "bear witness" to their faith. Very often, like the guard with Jesus, they will most likely not know why, and this will cause them to think a little deeper than they did before. This is doing them a favor!
25: strike two
26: strike three - I love the touch that it's a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, specifically asking if Peter had been in the garden. On the one hand Peter is being reminded of his sin in the garden, but also, John is getting us to realize that almost certainly we would have acted the same: Peter here is in a situation where it really more or less came down to him choosing death on the cross (or at least 40 lashes minus 1) or not.
Lord, help me to bear witness of you throughout today, both in word and deed. Teach me how to listen to others and draw them out.
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