In 2014 Lamborghini opened a new showroom in Bangalore. It was the third showroom in India. Back then, not many people owned Lamborghinis in the country. The number was probably small enough to count.
My friend Mathews, my BSc classmate from St Joseph’s College, and I decided to pay a visit to the showroom. It was on Lavelle Road, the road perpendicular to Bishop Cotton Girls’ School.
We went there around noon. When we entered, there was nobody on the showroom floor except for two cars. There was a loft-like balcony above where we could hear few employees talking.
Seeing no one around, Mathews and I gathered enough courage to open the door of one of the Lamborghinis and sit inside. Boy, what a feeling. The car felt so low. I remember putting my hand out and trying to estimate the ground clearance. For two boys in our early twenties, this was dream territory.
Suddenly, we heard footsteps. Two charming saleswomen, perhaps a few years older than us, came downstairs and politely ushered us out of the car. Not wanting to hurt our egos, they asked whether we were looking for any particular model. I was completely mesmerised by the mechanical beauty and was in no position to answer. Mathews, however, took it upon himself to answer the questions and salvage our pride.
‘We are physics students,’ he said. ‘We have come here to study the car.’ Then he asked them about the engine.
‘What engines are these?’
‘V8,’ one of them said.
‘Hmmm,’ replied Mathews thoughtfully, ‘we are actually looking for a V12.’
And the conversation went back and forth. To their credit, these saleswomen genuinely tried to sell us the car. Looking back, it is quite funny. Two students who probably could not afford the tyres were being treated like prospective customers.
Now let me pause here and ask you a question. Did those saleswomen own a Lamborghini? Highly unlikely.
At that time very few people in India owned one. Yet there they were talking confidently about the car, the engine, the performance and the features.
Then what were they doing?… They were marketing the car.
They did not own the car but they were selling these cars based on information they had received through training and experience in the showroom.
Now fast-forward a few years. One of my classmates from St Joseph’s PUC now owns a Lamborghini. Suppose I ask him about the car. He may tell me about the engine and the specifications, but he will also tell me what it is actually like to own one. He can tell me what it feels like to drive it, maintain it, service it and live with it.
What is he doing that is different from the saleswomen?… He is witnessing.
He is speaking from experience. The saleswomen knew about the car.My classmate knows the car. There is a difference.
As Christians, we often focus on becoming marketers of Jesus. We feel the need to convince people, persuade people and sometimes even close the deal. We gather information from sermons, books, podcasts and other people’s testimonies. Then we repeat what we have learned.
But Jesus did not tell us, ‘Be my marketers.’ He said, ‘You will be my witnesses’.
A witness is someone who has seen something, experienced something and can truthfully testify about it. The difference matters. A marketer speaks from information. A witness speaks from experience.
Many of us know a lot about Jesus. We can explain doctrines, quote verses and repeat stories. But Do we actually ‘witness’? Our sharing of the gospel will only be as strong as the experience that stands behind it. Otherwise, we may be marketing Jesus, but we are not witnessing to him. Jesus did not call us to be his marketers. He called us to be his witnesses.