Main news for 30 June 2022

What does Jesus mean? And why not prepare, why not think through at least in general terms what will need to be said when one has to bear witness before the authorities? God, of course, will help in a critical situation, but surely it would not hurt to think through and formulate one's own views and convictions?

If this were about convictions and views, perhaps it would all be so. If Christianity were some new teaching, new religion, new theology, or new ethical system, then this teaching would need to be defended like any teaching, with arguments in hand, preferably with a clear and previously thought-out plan, or at least with ready answers to the most probable questions.

But the point is precisely that Christianity is not a new teaching, but a new life. Life with Christ in the Kingdom that He brought into the world. Of course, one can speak about this life as about any other. But words alone are not enough here: behind them must stand real experience of this very life. So that the listener understands that the speaker truly knows what he is talking about. And for this the life about which the witness speaks must be a reality for him himself.

A reality being lived at the very moment when witness is given to it. Such speech, of course, cannot be prepared in advance in any way. The breath of the heavenly Father, the breath of the Kingdom, is always unpredictable. One can never say with certainty what it will reveal in a minute. Such is the life of the Kingdom in general, and only in this way can one speak about it. The matter is not that in a critical situation it is hard to speak and therefore the direct participation of the Father, the Savior, the immediate sense of the breath of the Kingdom is needed at that moment.

It is needed not only at that moment; it is needed always. Witness before authorities is only a particular case of witness in general. But the likelihood of spiritual breakdown in a critical situation is, of course, higher. Therefore the Christian especially needs there what in fact he constantly needs. And the Savior reminds His listening disciples of this simple truth, the truth that a true witness of the Kingdom is not the one who speaks about the Kingdom, but the one through whom the breath of the Kingdom speaks. And the voice of the Father.