“What
is truth?” is the best question that anybody asks in the Bible.
I could be going out on a limb here,
but I can’t think of a better one—maybe Peter saying, “Lord to whom shall I
go?” though that’s sort of rhetorical. This question is an absolutely seminal
moment in the history of the Christian faith. Of course the scene between Jesus
and Pontius Pilate is most important because of the looming crucifixion, but it’s
also important on its own. Here, Pilate raises one of the great existential
questions of every age: What is truth? And Jesus’ response is telling. He gives
none.
That might seem like a let-down. We
have this crescendo in the scene where Pilate is raising the stakes, where he
and Jesus go back and forth—this game of cat and mouse—with Jesus’ life on the
line, and then, at the most critical moment, Pilate raises THE question—the
question of all questions. And we
wait for Jesus to lay down the hammer—to give the answer to it all. What is
truth? Tell us Jesus!
And the curtain falls and we have no
answer.
But that’s not remotely true. If we’ve
been reading along with the Gospel of John then we know that the question has
already been answered before it was asked. Four chapters earlier, in John 14:6,
Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me.” Jesus answered Pilate before Pilate even asked.
So, when Pilate asks the question:
“What is truth?” what is Jesus to do but shrug? He’s already given him the
answer. The only question is whether Pilate will believe it.
Doubtful. And not just because
Pilate was the bad guy that it seems he was. No, all of us struggle with this,
because we are so habituated to the idea that “truth” is a concept. Truth is a
thing dependent on evidence and proof. Truth is all the stuff that can be
proved to have happened. That’s truth.
But Jesus says otherwise. He doesn’t
say, “I am true.” He doesn’t say he is a thing to be believed in by
intellectual assent, by which I mean that he isn’t a category of things to say
“Yes” to, as if there is a divine true-false quiz. No, Jesus is more than true; he is truth. He is the basis on which we can decide whether a thing is
true or not. He is the litmus test of all questions—ethical, moral, or
otherwise. So, if you want to know how to act, don’t ask “What would Jesus do?”
Instead ask, “Does this thing I want to do point to Jesus or not?” Because,
ultimately, everything that is humble will point to Jesus, while everything
that is self-serving will point away from Jesus. Everything that is good will
point to Jesus; everything that is evil will point away. Everything that is
about God will point to Jesus; everything that is about me will point away. Anything
in the universe that is true will inevitably lead us to Jesus; everything that
is not true will lead us away. What is truth? Does it lead to Jesus or not?
That’s the litmus test.
It’s so hard for us to understand
that truth is not a concept; it is a person. To be a Christian is not only to
believe that Jesus is true; more importantly, it is to believe Jesus is truth.
It’s like that great C.S. Lewis quote, “I believe in God as I believe that the
sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything
else.” When Jesus becomes your truth it colors everything in the world that you
are, everything that you, and everything that is done to you.
This is so important, because I know how
little many of you believe in anything you see or hear or read nowadays.
Nothing is worse than statistics, which are 50% made up, 50% misleading, and
50% true. And that is the only statistic that is 100% fact. Opinions are just
as bad. Everybody’s got them and many of them stink.
“What is truth?” the TV networks ask
mockingly, the internet asks mockingly, the left and the right and the middle
ask mockingly.
“What is truth?”
If it is a concept, then it is totally
subject to human interpretation, and human interpretation—if you haven’t
noticed—is often terrible. Humans like power; we like having things; we carve
out security and comfort for ourselves. We are selfish.
If truth is a concept then it can be
controlled, manipulated by those who have power and wealth. If truth is a
concept then it is Pilate who is in charge, as the people expect him to be. He is
the one who has the power to give life or death. “What is truth?” Perhaps it is
the power to release Jesus or send him to the cross. That’s where we end up
when we believe that truth is a concept; everyone can be their own God.
The curtain closing on this scene leaves
us to wonder, “What now?” Is truth a concept or a person? Because if it’s a
concept then it’s all about to come crashing down. Then the cross is the end of
it; then death wins. Then the stone never moves.
But... if truth is a person… if truth is
embodied… if truth came down to earth and lived and died… if truth rolled away
the stone and rose again… if truth is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, this man,
this Savior, this Lord. If truth is a person, then everything changes. Then everybody who is testifying to their own
truth is playing make-believe. Then everything that you see on the news, read
on the internet—everything invested in its own personal gain—holds none of the
cards, because Truth died and Truth rose again.
What
is truth? It is the only thing that lives on. It is allergic to
our arguments and contentions about concepts and ideas and philosophies. It is
simply God-embodied-in-humanity. It is the thing. The big thing. The only
thing. The thing that does not require you to justify a dang thing, because it
has it all figured out for you. No justification; no data; no filling out the
right forms or giving the right answers. If Jesus is Truth he has answered it
all for you. He’s got it. You can settle down, stop tweeting that nonsense,
stop feeling so angry, stop staying up late worrying that somebody is wrong on
the internet. Forget it: Jesus is Truth. All of that stuff—all of it—is
nothing. It’s Pilate, pretending he holds all the cards.
Meh. What you going to do, Pilate? Truth
will out. And it’s coming back, just give it time.
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