Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Luke 24: 44-53

Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶ and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." ⁵⁰ Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. ⁵¹ While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. ⁵² And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³ and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Henry Hill was an enterprising and mischievous child. He became associated with the mob at an early age. He met capo Paul Vario in the late 40’s at the bus stop and began washing the cars of Pauli’s mob crew. Even though Henry was only half Sicilian and could never be a made mafia member he worked his way up to a wise guy in the Lucchese family. Henry had a long and distinguished career as a wise guy and is the source for the 1990 movie "Goodfellas." His crowning jewel mob accomplishment was passing along the tip that a huge shipment of diamonds was coming into JFK on a Lufthansa flight. The ensuing heist ended up being the largest in North America and no one has been charged for that crime to this day. One reason for the open case is the leader got cold feet and killed his crew to silence them, some 13 people. Henry was next. Henry and his wife were arrested for dealing drugs and decided to turn states evidence to save their lives. He and his family entered the witness protection program and received immunity. Henry is one of the worst of the worst and he receives protection and immunity. The U.S. Marshals relocate them to Omaha Nebraska. Through his testimony 30 mafia members were sent to jail including his mentors Pauli and fellow Irishman James Burke the leader of the diamond heist. Henry couldn’t keep his mouth shut and blew his cover. They were moved to Kentucky and after he blew his cover again the family was thrown out of the program. Surprisingly, Henry survived. He never should have survived. He survived mainly because the mafia members that would have killed him died in prison. Henry passed away June 12, 2012 peacefully in Los Angeles with his family around him. Henry is the exception to the rule. Most people do no leave the witness protection program which has never lost any of its witnesses.

Luke records Jesus declaring the disciples to be His witnesses. They are witnesses to the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus shows them how all of the Old Testament has been fulfilled in Him. He shows them how the Old Testament is the promise which He fulfilled and is now recorded in the New Testament. Jesus wants them to present a unified message. The message though presented differently in the two testaments is the same. The message is repentance and forgiveness. He instructs them to testify to the people from Jerusalem and on to all nations. Henry was not very popular once he testified about what he witnessed. In fact, he became public enemy number one because he knew so much. Imagine how the disciples felt.

They left their families and homes to follow Jesus. I’m sure their friends and family thought they were crazy and probably subject to punishment just like Jesus. The disciples knew they would be persecuted for proclaiming Jesus to the people; Jesus told them they would. In fact all but one apostle dies a martyr’s death. They go to their grave proclaiming Christ as the risen Lord and Savior. So, where was their witness protection?

We are called to be witnesses as well. We are to proclaim Jesus promises and fulfillment. We are to proclaim Him as the Risen Lord and Savior. HE IS RISEN (HE IS RISEN INDEED, ALLELUIA!) We are to tell His story; the story of His perfect sinless life which fulfilled the Law. We are to tell the story of His love; the love He has for the world that led Him to sacrifice Himself on the cross to pay price of death for everyone’s sins. We can’t end the story with His death either because a dead savior is not a savior. We are to tell the story of how God raised Jesus from the dead. We can’t end the story there either. We must tell why we have a risen savior. We must tell them that Jesus will come back the same way He left to resurrect everyone, believers and unbelievers. We must tell them He will come to bring the believers to Himself where they will live with Him for eternity. We must tell of the glory of eternity in the presence of Jesus. We must proclaim the story of Jesus. We are to be His witness in a slightly different way than the apostles. You see, we don’t have the privilege of seeing the body of our risen Lord face-to-face. We didn’t witness His life, death, rest in the tomb, and resurrection. But we have the Old and New Testament Scriptures which bear witness to Jesus. These are sufficient for our faith and our witness.

So what is our witness? Our witness is the transformation you encounter when The Lord "sends the promise of the Father upon you... [and] you are clothed with power from on high." This happened at your baptism where through the washing of the water with the Word the Holy Spirit took up residence in your heart and you were clothed with Christ’s righteousness which gives you the power from on high.

As you use this power from on high to witness and proclaim Jesus our Savior will you be the most popular person? No! Will you be ridiculed? Yes! I see people proclaiming Christ all the time on Facebook and those that oppose the proclamation are ruthless and relentless. Their responses are personal attacks instead of calm discussion. So, where is your witness protection?

Your witness protection is the same as the disciples. Our witness protection is the very message we are proclaiming. Our protection is the gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life in the presence of Jesus Christ. You entered God’s witness protection program at your baptism and you received immunity through Christ’s righteousness too. Like Henry, we too are the worst of the worst. We are sinful people and we don’t deserve immunity but we get it anyway through Christ’s gift. Henry was thrown out of the program because he couldn’t keep quiet, he kept blowing his cover. God’s program is a little different. He wants you to talk; he wants you to blow your cover. He wants everyone to know you are one of His by what you say with words and actions. Just like the disciples, even though Jesus is gone from sight, our hearts are filled with the great joy of knowing him to be God’s servant, having come to rescue the world from sin and death. Just as they were, we too should be prepared to give our lives as a witness. After all, we are in God’s witness protection plan and I guarantee His protection is far superior to the U.S. Marshals. They have never lost a witness and God promises you life in His name. That is a guarantee you can trust your life on. Amen