When I pastoring in Iowa a decade or so ago, I taught an “ethics” course at our local community college. In our very first class, I made it clear that I wasn’t so much interested in whether they could satisfactorily distinguish between such great moral philosophers as Aristotle or Jeremy Bentham or Immanuel Kant. Rather, my MAIN concern was seeing whether they struggled with their ideas THEMSELVES and were able to use them to better understand their OWN moral and ethical motivations. I stressed that they would probably forget 99 and 44/100 percent of the things we would read together and discuss, but I hoped that they WOULD remember how important it is to love truth and to never stop asking those larger questions which all the great thinkers have never stopped raising- questions of who we are and why we are here and how we should govern our lives. As Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and unless we are willing to examine ourselves and deal with those deeper questions that every person is CAPABLE of asking, our lives would remain shallow and impoverished, lacking any real depth and understanding. 

In light of the current issues dividing our country, a schism clearly reflected in our nation’s discourse, I can’t think of another time when a serious discussion on the importance of truth and of being truthful has been needed. On one side of the political divide, there are those who ardently claim that the President is a serial liar who has precipitated a “war on truth.” On the other, you have those who refer to the media as purveyors of “fake news” who are trafficking in lies in order to destroy his Presidency. Who are you to believe in all this! For instance, on Meet The Press a few weeks ago, the moderator Chuck Todd got into a testy debate with former mayor Rudy Giuliani when after taking issue with the honesty of many of the statements proceeding from this White House, Giuliani blurted out “But Chuck, truth isn’t truth,” a conclusion that left the moderator astonished. 

But the question of “truth” isn’t just confined to our present political climate, it is a question as old as antiquity itself as this morning’s lesson underscores- a question which arose two thousand years ago during a particular legal proceeding. A quarter of a century ago, the O. J. Simpson case gripped the world in what was then billed as “the TRIAL OF THE CENTURY.” But NO trial ever held GREATER CONSEQUENCE than Jesus’s appearance before Pontius Pilate in what people of faith regard “the greatest trial in HUMAN HISTORY.” However, rather than spawning the world-wide media-circus that O.J.’s case did, our Lord’s trial was held in secret and under the cover of night. In fact, when compared to TODAY’S court cases, it could hardly have even been CALLED a trial. Because the Roman world did not allow trials for those considered socially inferior, Jesus instead faced a proceeding where the local governor--in this case Pontius Pilate--functioned as both judge and jury. Jesus’s fate would ultimately lie in HIS hands and no one else’s.

Now very little is actually known about Pilate. We DO know that he served as the Roman governor over the region of Samaria and Judea from roughly 26 to 36 A.D., where his MAIN duty was to enforce peace by any means possible. He often resorted to harsh and cruel measures in order to do so which did not endear him to the Jews whom he HATED along with their customs and religion, and who, in turn, despised HIM. The religious leaders, who had earlier conducted their OWN trial of Jesus and found him guilty, now sought a CIVIL trial before Pilate. Not having the power to sentence him to death, they knew that that order could only come from the local governor, the Roman Procurator. Of course, they were well aware that Pilate would laugh at them if they told him that Christ was guilty of blasphemy for Rome was the most polytheistic culture in the ancient WORLD- Romans possessed a whole PANTHEON of gods to choose from. Thus, they came up with not one but THREE accusations to ensure that Pilate would hear their case. The FIRST allegation was that Jesus subverted their nation, that he was anti-Caesar and anti-Rome; the SECOND was that he opposed the payment of taxes to Caesar. This was a severe charge because it was through taxation that Rome was able to continue her many building projects and finance their wars; and the THIRD was that he was setting himself up as a rival king to Caesar- the most SERIOUS accusation of all.

Of course, every one of these charges was a lie. Had he indeed been the revolutionary they claimed he was, Pilate would have heard of him much earlier. And rather than withhold taxes, he had told his followers to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” And as for the allegation he had declared himself a king, you might recall how once during his ministry, when the people sought to seize him and MAKE him their king, Jesus perceived their intentions and escaped from their midst.

However, the charges are serious enough that Pilate has to at least hear the case. He escorts Jesus into the Praetorium--the judgment hall of the palace which no Jew would dare enter for fear of defilement--so that there would just be the two of them. Interestingly, Pilate never even inquires of the first two charges but deals only with the THIRD and most SERIOUS one. He asks Jesus straight out, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus responds that his kingdom is not of this world, that HAD it been, his followers would have fought to defend him from being arrested. As it was, he had no palace, no treasury, no army to speak of- nothing but a rag tag group of followers whose only weapon was compassion.

Jesus then goes on to explain to Pilate the nature of his kingdom. He tells him, “This is why I was born, and why I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Here Jesus reveals the purpose of his life and mission- to “bear witness to the truth.” Only those who hungered and thirsted for the truth which Christ came to reveal would hear his voice; they ALONE could ever become his disciples and citizens of his kingdom. With a contemptuous look upon his face, Pilate sneers at Jesus and says, “TRUTH? What is truth!”

Now there are many ways for us to interpret this comment. It’s possible that Pilate was being sincere and that he was indeed hungry to receive whatever truth Jesus could offer. Then again, it’s possible Pilate did not believe in ANY kind of objective truth, that the the answer to such questions is always relative and therefore should be left for each person to determine for his or herself. But then, maybe it was the cynical response of a man who couldn’t care in the SLIGHTEST what truth was or where it could be found. 

I believe the latter was the case with Pilate, that from the beginning, he lacked any interest in such abstract, philosophical questions. He was pre-eminently a PRACTICAL man, one whose MAIN concern was in getting things done whether the decision involved money or troops or seeing that his orders were carried out. His task was to be an administrator and not some idle speculator; he had no time or patience for such matters as truth or love or justice or freedom. And because he lacked all interest in such ideals, it resulted in his failure to recognize THE truth, even when the very EMBODIMENT of it was standing right before him.

The fact is that there is no more important inquiry in all the world than “What is truth?”- it is the most vital question ANY of us can ever ask. When you survey the world’s greatest literature, almost all of it was inspired by someone’s search for ultimate truth. The halls of academia are lined with persons FILLED with just that one thought. However, the answer to the question of truth simply cannot be found through intellectualism. There are many who demonstrate great intellectual curiosity about most everything, but when the TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL comes up for consideration, they turn their backs on it. When I was in college and seminary, my friends and I delighted ourselves for hours–both in class and out–debating such questions as the creation of the world, life after death, and what in the Bible was true and what was not. Not that these aren’t important questions- they ARE. But when I look back to those controversies, I realize now that rather than concerned about truth, we were more concerned about winning arguments and showing how clever or imaginative our answers could be. No, the reality is that the answer to the question “What is truth?” cannot be found through human reasoning alone, despite all the books and treatises one might read on the subject. 

Well, if truth cannot be found by merely sitting at the feet of the masters and reading all the world’s great books, then where CAN truth be found? The answer is given to us in our text this morning- it is in Jesus Christ alone, he who not only bears witness to the truth but is HIMSELF the truth. Regarding the great issues of history and science, Jesus can provide little guidance, but regarding the GREAT and FINAL and AUTHORITATIVE questions concerning God and the soul, of life and death, his word is FINAL. He revealed the truth in his words and WAS the truth in his very being, a truth that was stamped upon his character and born witness to by his ministry and Passion.

You see, the truth is not a doctrine or object of abstract thought or intellectual curiosity. Rather, it is a PERSON; JESUS CHRIST is the truth. It is NOT a series of propositions nor a collection of creeds found in a book, and this represents a profound shift in the way we usually conceive of truth. Statements may be true or false and people may “have” truth or not, but the idea that one IS the truth is totally REVOLUTIONARY. Three times in John’s gospel, Jesus speaks of himself as the True One. He is the TRUE VINE, in contrast to Israel which proved to be the false vine; he is the TRUE BREAD which satisfies the soul in contrast to the manna in the wilderness which only fed the Israelite’s stomachs; and he is the TRUE LIGHT which illumines both the heart and conscience in contrast to the feeble lights generated by men. When Jesus says that HE is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” he is indicating that in HIM is the true, the genuine, the ULTIMATE reality; in and through HIM is God present, unveiled, and undistorted in his infinite depth, in his unapproachable mystery. If we say his teachings are true, it is not because THEY are the truth but because they express the truth which he HIMSELF is. The same may be said of all our precious doctrines and confessions and even the Bible itself. If they can be said to be true, it is not because THEY are the truth but because they point back to the one who IS the very embodiment of truth itself- Jesus Christ.

The implications of this are crucial. If Jesus Christ is THE truth, then this means we can never POSSESS the truth, rather, the truth possesses US! It comes to us in an ENCOUNTER where we can either receive it–openly and willingly--or we can close our heart to it. I cannot emphasize enough that truth is not something to be believed or doubted but a meeting with Christ to whom we can either submit ourselves to or emphatically resist.

Further, we learn of this truth, not by studying or reading about it but only by DOING it. Jesus said that if any would do his will, he shall then know the truth, whether it be of God or of man. We discover the truth only when we live in the reality of the one who personified truth, by participating in his being when he approaches us. As the great British preacher Frederick W. Robertson declared from his pulpit over a hundred and fifty years ago: “Who is a true man? He who DOES the truth; and never holds a principle on which he is not prepared in any hour to act, and in any hour to risk the consequences of holding it.”

If the truth cannot be possessed but only received or welcomed by us as we open ourselves up to Christ when he comes to us, and if this truth can only be grasped and learned by DOING it, a third implication is that if we receive him when he comes to us and we allow him to live his life through us so that HIS love becomes OUR love, then we demonstrate that the truth of Christ is IN US TOO. Jesus represented pure, unconditional love, and when that same love is expressed through our OWN words and deeds, then we prove to the rest of the world that we live in the reality of his truth. Love--CHRIST’S love--becomes the ONLY standard, the ONLY criterion by which truth can be measured. Thus, you can always tell if someone knows and stands in the truth- if they love EVEN AS CHRIST HIMSELF DID.

Friends, perhaps you’ve guessed that the one on trial in our text was not Jesus, but actually the Roman governor over the region, Pontius Pilate. There in that Praetorium, the judgment hall of his palace, stood just those two; all the others had disappeared. Similarly, we find ourselves in that SAME judgment hall this very morning where we TOO are alone except for one other person- Jesus Christ. Like Pilate, the truth is that once again, it is not Jesus who is on trial- it is, in fact, YOU and ME. The German theologian Paul Tillich once wrote that when confronted with that most important of all questions, “What is truth?” there are always two temptations. The FIRST is to claim to possess the truth like the Jews of Jesus’s day did. They looked to their laws and customs and traditions; they claimed Abraham as their Father and had Solomon’s Temple to worship in. They were convinced that they had ultimate truth, and because they believed they “possessed” it, they became proud and vain in their imaginings, distorting the truth for their own advantage. Instead of knowing the truth and being made free, they used it to tyrannize and imprison those who disagreed with them. 

Similarly, throughout much of history, the church has ALSO viewed itself as the guardian of truth and as a result has often become an ENEMY of Christian freedom. During the Great Inquisition, the Catholic Church condemned and tortured those who refused to conform to their understanding of truth, while the Puritans of Massachusetts stamped out all dissent and drove from their community any who might disagree with them. In our OWN day, there are denominations which, not unlike the Taliban, require strict doctrinal adherence. They would purge those ministers and members from their rolls whose lifestyles or interpretation of the truth may be slightly different from what they consider to be “pure” or “orthodox.”

The SECOND temptation, said Tillich, is to avoid the question of truth ENTIRELY- by not caring for it, by becoming indifferent to it as Pilate HIMSELF was. Unfortunately, this describes the MAJORITY of people today. We come to church each week where we ritually go through the motions- singing the hymns, reciting the prayers, and respectfully listening to some carefully crafted sermon. We pay our tithes, serve on a committee when asked, and attend the monthly luncheon when it comes around, all without ever caring one whit about the truth- what it means and our relation to it. The fact is that what is important is not whether we’re in church week after week but is the church in US! If we’re not passionate about Jesus Christ, if we’ve never seriously asked ourselves, “What is the truth?” then the reality is that we are no better than Pontius Pilate was. And if in our heart of hearts, we are not concerned about TRUTH, then neither will we ever be concerned about any OTHER ideal whether it be JUSTICE or FREEDOM or even LOVE. 

The GOOD news is that the answers DO lie within our reach, for if we ask the question and seriously MEAN it, then God will be faithful to guide us into it. If we are genuinely sincere, we just may discover the truth AFTER ALL- not as a proposition, not in a creedal statement, not between the pages of the Bible, not even in a Christian denomination. They may point us TOWARD the truth but they are NOT the truth- THAT can only be found in an encounter and subsequent relationship with none other than Jesus Christ himself. And though we might not understand the answer entirely, that’s all right for by simply taking that first step and ASKING the question, it shows that we are ALREADY on the way to freedom and wholeness. Let us pray...

Gracious God, forgive us for being so concerned with the cares of our daily lives that we forget how important it is to keep our eyes fixed on you and the larger picture before us. You grant us the capability to ask such an important question as “what is truth,” a question which the animal world can never ask much less understand. Yet we reveal ourselves to be no better than the animals when we show such little interest in the answer you provide. Help us to see how “love”--CHRIST’S love--becomes the ONLY standard, the ONLY criterion by which truth can be measured. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.