What is Truth?

Thought I’d do a little overview of what I mean by Christianity in a few posts.   In this one, I’m going to talk about objective truth, in response to moral relativism.

John 18:28-40 (NIV) ::  Jesus and Pilate

A few things to note about the context of this passage:  it is right before Jesus is crucified.  The Jews have handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect (akin to governor) of Judea, because they wanted capital punishment.  Wisely, the Roman Empire retained the right to the death penalty.  As you can imagine, Pilate probably hadn’t heard of Jesus at this point, and is a little confused as to why his time would be wasted with a poor man, a man obviously not a King in this world.  Without further ado, John 18:28-40:

“Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”  ”But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.

 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 

 ”Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

 ”Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

 ”You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
      Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

 ”What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.”

Pilate asks one of my favorite questions in the Bible, “What is truth?” Who knows what Pilate meant by the question, but I suspect that this is a question everyone asks themselves at some point.  Is anything true? Is anything real? Is there a God? .. Or is it all shades of gray?

In this passage, Jesus says that He has come into the world to proclaim the truth, and that literally, anyone who ‘is on the side of truth, listens to me.’  This is a radical claim, one that is completely absurd and egotistical, unless it is true.  In John 14:6-7, “Jesus answers, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know^[a] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”   Jesus literally claims to BE truth.  Thus, when you believe in Jesus, you believe in an objective truth, and that is Jesus.  He backed his claims up (those of being truth and being God) by rising from the dead, as he was predicted to do by himself and prophets from before his time.

 Further things of note from this passage::

1. When Pilate asks the crowd what crime Jesus has committed, they answer with a non-answer. “”If he were not a criminal…we would not have handed him over to you.” The crowd has heard rumors and is worked up.  But if we are to be true beings of reason, we must investigate for ourselves, and that is what Jesus challenges Pilate to do, “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

2.  Jesus says his kingdom is not of this world, but admits to being a king.  This brings up two questions; where IS his kingdom and where are his ’servants’?  In Matthew 26:52-52 (the famous, all who live by the sword, die by the sword passage), Jesus claims his armies are armies of angels from God.  Jesus’ kingdom is in heaven.

3.  In a very nifty little footnote from the NIV Study Bible, paraphrased here -  The Hebrew name Barabbas means ’son of the father’ (bar meaning son of, and abbas meaning father).  Instead of Barabbas dying, who is the son of an earthly father, Jesus died, who was the son of the Father (God). 

Christianity thus acknowledges an objective truth, that of Jesus, in ultimate love, on the cross.  This truth must guide our actions…even in the environmental realm.