“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” (John 18:37-38)
Truth can be hard to come by. I was sitting in the 19th hole with “the Grumps,” the Tuesday/Wednesday group of old codgers with whom I golf regularly.
At 71 years old, I am the baby of the bunch. Off the tee, I am usually way past this geriatric crowd because I still have some residual spinal flexibility, and they do not. But it is of little consequence since from 150 yards in, they make me look like a dope.
They were reminiscing about one of their number who had recently expired – a common event in this demographic. I never knew him, but their testimony was that in terms of maintaining his handicap, he was partial to recording his high scores but was not typically so forthcoming with his good ones. Tommy would shoot an 82 and say, ‘I ain’t posting that – no way!’
Truth. It can be elusive and is becoming more so in ways our parents and grandparents would have found unimaginable. Pontius Pilate’s question to Jesus, “What is truth?” was more profound than he knew.
He was puzzled by this unimpressive figure, whom the local hierarchy had delivered to him and accused of being a threat to the Roman Empire. This accusation did not add up to him—it did not ring true.
But in our day, an opinion has been gaining traction that the answer to Pilate’s “What is truth?” question is that there actually is no truth. This has given rise to such things as men identifying as women and competing against actual women in sports or two cohabiting people of the same gender identifying as married.
Of course, the notion that there is no truth is self-refuting. It prompts the immediate question, “You say there is no truth – can I rely on that? Is it true?”
In His reply to Pilate, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me,” Jesus declares His position in the “does-truth-exist” debate and locates truth and identifies its source—Embodies it. Pilate, there is your true answer!
Prayer: Father, we love the truth of the word you have revealed to us and the world you have created for us. We pray this in the name of your Son, who indeed is that truth.