Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?” That’s an easy question to ask. It’s a hard question to answer. Then again, it isn’t a hard question to answer at all.
I think people want truth to be simple and straightforward. They want it to be something that can be expressed with the brevity of a text message, and by reading it they can then make informed decisions. Sometimes that works. If you want to know how many apples are in a basket then you count them and get an exact number. That number is true. Anything else is false. But, say you want to know the fuel efficiency of a car, and even something so simple gets complicated. The answer depends on how you drive it and what you do with it.
We also like there to be clear distinctions between good and bad. And of course we want to root for the good. Take the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The way it is presented to us in the news I think we’d all agree that the Russian invasion is bad and that it must be stopped. But then take the Israeli/Palestinian situation. That’s a whole lot more complicated. Who antagonized who first? Who really started it? Who’s in the right and who’s in the wrong.
What is the truth?
Pilate asked Jesus an ancient question. Philosophers had been asking it for centuries. Ethics, morals, and values all get complicated. The adult Sunday School class is watching the series The Good Place. It’s a light hearted comic show but it’s really all about ethics. It regularly points out how complex things are. And it points out that any and every ethical framework runs amok pretty quickly.
Do you want to live according to the truth?
Do you want to do what is right?
Do you want to be a “good guy”?
It turns out that’s not such a simple thing!
Our second Bible reading for today is the very famous passage from Romans 7 where Paul is grappling with wanting to do what is right. It’s complicated right from the beginning and makes our head spin. Paul says, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want but the very thing I hate.” And, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.” (Romans, 7:15, 21)
Paul swims through the mess pretty quickly and comes to the answer that we seek. He says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
That is the answer that we need.
When Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” he actually asked the wrong question. He should have asked, “Who is truth?” for Truth was standing right in front of him!
This is a good time to explain some more about the way John uses words. The word “Jew” or “the Jews” comes up numerous times in our gospel reading. Christians have taken those words wrongly and justified all sorts of horrors against Jewish people. Martin Luther didn’t help the situation either. He inadvertently paved the way for the mindset that the Nazis used against Jewish people in World War 2.
But we have to remember John’s gospel in its context. The early Christians were a tiny religious minority with no power whatsoever. Those who first read John’s gospel probably were Jews who had converted to following Jesus. They had been rejected by the religious leaders and thrown out of the synagogues for that decision. If there is anger toward “the Jews” that is one thing. But change the context to Christianity becoming the world’s largest and most powerful religion and you have another thing entirely.
John does an interesting thing with his words. “The Jews” does not mean what we immediately think it means. John makes some subtle but significant distinctions. Let’s go back to one of the opening scenes of the gospel. It is chapter 2 where Jesus calls the disciple Nathanael. When Nathanael is walking towards Jesus, Jesus says, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Notice Jesus does not say, “Here is truly a Jew in whom there is no deceit!” And Nathanael says to Jesus, “You are the King of Israel.” He does not say, “You are the King of the Jews.”
In John’s gospel when he wants to refer to the Jewish people in general, and Jewish religion and beliefs in general, he likes to use the word Israelites. And remember, Israel is not just a word or a name. It means one who strives with God. And so John sees the Jewish people as a whole in a positive light as they are the ones who strive with God. It refers to their relationship with God.
But when John wants to refer to the Jewish leadership, for whom John holds no liking, he calls them, “the Jews.” Throughout John’s gospel “the Jews” is pejorative. But again, it does not mean Judaism in general. John has no problem with Judaism. He does have a problem with the Jewish leadership, whom he thinks should be seeing what God is doing through Jesus. But they don’t.
And then in our gospel reading today we realize that the term “the Jews” and “Jew” represent more broadly, “the world’s resistance to the revelation of God in Jesus.” (Gail O’Day, New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, pg. 816-7) Again, “Jew” means the world’s resistance to the revelation of God in Jesus.
Keep that in mind as Pilate asks Jesus, “You are the King of the Jews?” It is a sarcastic and mocking question. Of course Jesus is not!
Jesus replies, (And again, this is about accepting Jesus as God’s revelation.) “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”
Is this about Pilate seeking to know about God as revealed in Jesus, or is this about something else?
Pilate replies to Jesus’ question with a question of his own. And be sure to realize Pilate speaks this with scorn and complete contempt. “I am not a Jew, am I?”
Well Pilate, no. You aren’t a Jewish person. Not by bloodline. Not by belief. Not by religion. You are as non-Jewish as a person could be. But actually Pilate, as John defines it, you are a Jew!
This little exchange between Jesus and Pilate takes us to a clash of world views. It is not a clash of religious beliefs. It is not a clash of races. It is a clash between Jesus, the Truth, and the ways of the world.
Pontus Pilate is an historical person. He enters into Christian scriptures at the trial and execution of Jesus. But we know plenty about him from other historical sources. Pilate was a tough no-nonsense ruler the Romans appointed to govern the region. By all accounts he was cruel and ruthless.
He didn’t care one bit about truth. He didn’t care one bit about justice or fairness. He’d have a person executed simply to simplify things. Pilate was driven purely by political and militaristic expedience.
The clash of world views between Jesus and Pilate is the clash between God’s love and human greed. What is Truth? You’re never going to answer that as long as you come at it from the world’s perspective. You’ll go round and round with endless complications and exceptions.
But if you answer it from the perspective of God’s love, you do get a solid answer.
Truth is that God loves this world and wants to be in a meaningful relationship with it. That is especially true for the species called humans. Now, are you going to base your life on your relationship with God, or are you going to base your life on the world?
I did not say that basing your life on the truth of God’s love would be easy. And I did not say it would be simple either. It’s still pretty complicated and hard. But it is the way of life.
Jesus, truly and fully alive, is willing to die as the fulfillment of his existence. Pilate, worldly pragmatic to the point of cruelty, will kill Jesus just to make the day easier.
Let me end with these words. To understand the death of Jesus and the truth of who he is, you must recognize that the man who died on that cross was the loving shepherd, the witnessing judge, the servant king, the full witness of Divine Logic, who did not hesitate in laying down his life for those he loved. And in doing so was fullest expression of human life there is.
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