Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
-John 18:38
It is the most honest question in the whole Bible.
And it’s spoken by a politician.
(That’s already enough for me to question the validity of this passage!)
All kidding aside, it is pretty astounding to me the way this plays out. A man with so much worldly power admitting to Jesus (who appears to have none) that he has no rock-solid foundation upon which he has built his life.
He may be on to something.
Right now, there’s a constant throb in my head. It’s caused by the deafening noise of people declaring that they know the truth.
You’ve noticed this, right? People are just dug in to their version of the truth.
Remember “truthiness?” That was Stephen Colbert’s word, from 2005. It was an instant commentary on the noise of so many people bending, breaking, or just plain ignoring facts.
Ah for the innocent days of 2005. We had no idea that a couple decades later “truthiness” would be replaced by out and out truthlessness.
Jesus offered a deceptively simple idea. Truth, with a capital “T”, is not contained in this earthly sphere. “My Kingdom is not here.” You can search every continent, sail every sea, and you’ll likely never find it.
Truth is so big, so transcendent, that it may be staring you in the face and you might not recognize it.
This is an eternal Kingdom, not of this world. A power beyond our comprehension, not just for its scope, but for how it is wielded.
Jesus came to testify to it. That was his primary goal, to reveal Truth to anyone who was willing to see it.
What is Truth?
I’m not going to try to define that word, because I don’t think I can. Not fully. I go through life trying to grasp it, but if I want to understand the real thing, I’m going to have to listen to Jesus.
Pilate didn’t listen. He seemed to recognize the limits of his power, and wondered about the possibilities Jesus hinted at, but eventually washed his hands of the whole thing.
I feel like after so many years of trying to follow Jesus, I’m beginning to perceive the outlines of the silhouette of the vague shape of Truth.
I won’t stop seeking, but even if I can’t fully understand it, I, too, can testify to it.
We see this happen in politics, but it happens to all of us, every day. We either try to live by a truth, any truth, or we throw up our hands at its evasiveness.
Jesus was so aware of Truth that he could not deny it. Couldn’t live outside of it. That’s what got him killed.
Jesus died for the Truth. Can we live with it?
I want more for my life than what Pilate claimed. But I want to be honest that Truth is more than a loaded word to throw at someone else.
That doesn’t mean stepping back from the cacophony, or screaming into the void.
It means undertaking a lifelong project:
Seeking the music
behind all the noise.
Have a great week,
Mitch
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