Every year, a local community garden invited the neighbourhood to plant a plot. Early in the spring, the registration line was always out the door. People arrived with bright visions of the harvest— tomatoes, lettuce, and strawberries. They happily signed up, dreaming of the abundance they would soon take home to their dinner tables.
For the first few weeks, the garden was full of laughter and excitement. But as the season deepened, the reality of the garden shifted. The scorching summer sun arrived. Weeds began to choke the soil, requiring backbreaking work on hands and knees for hours.
Slowly, the garden grew quiet. Many who had joyfully signed up for the harvest stopped showing up when the dirt got under their fingernails and the heat became uncomfortable. They loved the concept of the harvest, but they were entirely unprepared for the cost of cultivation.
We, as Christians, often approach our faith journey much like those eager garden people. We flock to the beautiful, triumphant promises of God. We expect and enjoy God’s blessings, protection, comfort, and the glorious assurance of heaven. But we often live with an unspoken assumption that the Christian life is supposed to be one long, comfortable concert.
This story points to the theme of one of the readings for today, the first letter of Peter, chapter 4. Let me read a couple of verses for you. “My dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful test you are suffering… Rather be glad that you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may be full of joy when his glory is revealed.”
When hardships come, we often feel like God has abandoned us, but Peter flips this thinking completely on its head, showing that suffering is actually a normal part of the Christian life, and something that unites us deeply with Christ and with humanity.
We must change how we look at hard times. Instead of seeing suffering as a human tragedy, Peter states that it is a purposeful test, which is a sacred discipline that eventually refines us and proves that our faith is real. I agree. Christian suffering is not a sign of defeat or weakness. It is a badge of discipleship. It is something we should wear with holy pride.
The English word ‘witness’ actually shares its roots with the ancient Greek word martys—from which we get our modern word, ‘martyr.’
Today, witness simply means sharing what you have seen or believed. But in the early centuries of the Christian community, especially under the brutal and harsh rule of Roman emperors like Nero, the two concepts were inseparable. “If you witness your Christian faith, you’re in big trouble; your entire family is in trouble.” Back then, if you publicly witnessed to your faith in Christ, it almost guaranteed that you would face imprisonment, torture, or even death.
But not anymore in this modern world… though there are some countries that ban witnessing your faith publicly.
I came across a story regarding how easy we hide our Christian identity in public.
For years, a Christian businessman shared a quiet office space with a close colleague. They were an excellent team—managing high-stakes projects impeccably, developing close friendship between themselves. To the colleague, this person was simply a kind, reliable, and thoroughly modern professional.
But there was a massive, vibrant world inside this believer that the office knew absolutely nothing about. On Sundays, he was a pillar of his church community—leading prayer gatherings, mentoring youth, being a committed member. Yet, the moment he walked into work on Monday morning, he became a “silent Christian’ or ‘hiding believer.’
It wasn’t out of a fear of being killed when his faith was exposed. It was out of shame, uncomfortableness. Like many modern Christians at work or schools, he found it easier to keep his faith invisible to avoid social friction.
For example, when lunch conversations turned to morality or culture, he simply nodded, sipped his tea, and kept his thoughts to himself. He seldom spoke the name of Jesus, ensuring his faith never disrupted the smooth, comfortable surface of his working relationships.
Well, I think this is one of the most humiliating dilemmas about our modern Christianity. It shows how easy it is for us to divide our lives into two separate boxes. We live out a vibrant faith in private or within the safe walls of our church, but we remain completely invisible Christians in our everyday lives—at work, at school, and even with our own families.
Today, we live with a striking paradox. In our modern, Western world, we face no threat of arrest, no shadow of the gallows, and no fear of execution for what we believe. The threats of being believers have never been lower—yet our silence has rarely been greater.
Why is it that when the cost of witnessing was death, the early Church couldn’t be stopped, but now, when the cost is merely an awkward conversation, many modern believers choose to remain silent and invisible?
In the ancient world, the enemy was the Roman sword. But in the modern world, the enemy is the rolled eye, the cold shoulder, or being labelled as “intolerant” or “outdated.” We are terrified of social awkwardness. We prefer comfort over friction, so we choose to live and work as a silent Christian.
In John 17:11, Jesus says, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world…” He does not ask the Father to take his disciples out of the world, nor does He encouraged them to become silent or invisible within it.
In Jesus’ time and afterwards, to be “in the world” carried a strong sense of vulnerability all the time. To be in the world meant to be subject to its shifting cruel rulers and its physical dangers, and hostility coming from all direction.
By stating that Jesus is no longer in the world, but they are, Jesus is encouraging them to continue their mission of being witnesses to the gospel, no matter what, even in the absence of Christ, their master.
Friends in Christ, when we are in the church, we’re together celebrating our common faith and mission. But when we go back to the world, we are to continue our mission of being Jesus’ followers and witnesses, no matter what, even when it complicates our relationships or jeopardise our social life.
Friends, Jesus is still calling you and praying for you to be a living witness of His gospel and God’s kingdom within our broken world. If not you, then who could ever be? If not you, who else?
