What is Truth?
Fear Not - Part 3
Sunday, March 7th, 2021
John 18:28-38, John 8:31-32, John 14:4-17
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
John 18:37-38
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
John 14:6-7
With conspiracy theories flying around on every side of every issue in our contemporary culture, Pilate’s question, “What is Truth?” is as poignant now as it ever was. We rightly encourage people to “speak their truth” by honestly sharing their experience and perspective, especially when their stories have been sidelined, ignored and marginalized for so long. On the other side, those in power tend to fear such stories and do whatever they can to undermine their credibility. In a world where everyone’s version of the truth is contradictory to someone else’s version of the truth, it would seem the idea of absolute or objective truth has gone the way of the dinosaur. Or perhaps truth is a more mythic creature like the unicorn that never really existed at all except in our own imagination.
And yet Jesus is clear. “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life” (John 14:6). “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).
If we are to take Jesus seriously, we must acknowledge that while people’s varied experiences and answers to the question, “what is truth?” are crucial to conversations about reality, there is also a sense that somewhere beyond all of our individual perceptions there is a greater truth which only God can rightly perceive. That’s why Jesus came into the world. He is God incarnate, God in the flesh, God with skin on. If all truth is ultimately found in God, then the only truly accurate image of that truth we have is the life of Jesus Christ. That is why he does not say that he has come to teach us the truth, but that he IS the truth.
Even among the religious leaders there were debates over right interpretations of laws and theology. As in our day, everybody wanted to be certain they were right and that inevitably meant that someone else had to be wrong. Jesus did not engage these debates. He transcended them. When we consider the way Jesus related to the sinners and the outcasts, we find that for him, it was far less important who was right and who was wrong and far more important how we show love to everyone, no matter their particular story or version of truth. A person did not have to be worthy to receive healing or forgiveness from Jesus. They did not have to be right. They didn’t even have to change their religious beliefs to be considered “right.” For example, Jesus did not tell the Samaritan woman she had to worship in the temple (John 4:19-21). The Roman Centurion who Jesus set up as a model of faith did not cease being a centurion and start attending synagogue as a Jew (Matthew 8:5-13). Later in Acts we find similar debates when the church finally decides that Gentiles do not have to be circumcised and become Jews in order to receive the Holy Spirit and be counted among the faithful followers of Christ (Acts 15:6-19).
The truth in these cases was not about where people stood on a particular issue. It was about their relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps the reason we struggle so much with truth in our culture is because like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, we are far more concerned about legislating “right” and “wrong” than we are abound living our lives according to the way, the truth and the life modeled for us in the person of Jesus himself. If Jesus is truth, than truth is not simply a matter of what we believe about any given issue or law. It is about how we live and to what degree our lives mirror the image of God revealed to us in Christ.
In Jesus’s trial before Pilate, he did not defend his position regarding any of the false charges brought against him. He stood silent in the face of the lies and conspiracies that would ultimately enable the people to feel justified in murdering an innocent man. The truth for Jesus had little to do with convincing people that he was right. The truth was that no matter what the people thought was right, Jesus was willing to lay down his life for them all the same. The truth of sacrificial love always transcends whatever truth we might perceive about a particular side or stance on an issue.
If truth is not found first in the way we show love toward one another, no amount of truth or self-justification about how “right” we may be will matter at all. Perhaps this is why we are so afraid of the truth. Living in the truth of Jesus sometimes means letting others think we are wrong. It might mean being shunned by our community or even our friends and family. It might mean that we ourselves are treated unjustly.
Nevertheless, “Love God and love your neighbor” does not mean “only when they are right.” The truth of right and wrong on any given issue is always more complicated and nuanced than what the fear mongers of our society would like us to believe. The truth of Jesus, on the other hand, is simple, even if it is the hardest thing to live out. The truth is always found in love. If we are to embrace truth, there is no room for self-righteousness, no room for hate, no room for fear, no room for condemnation or putting down those on the other side.
The law can offer feeble attempts to interpret and legislate right and wrong, but it will always fall short of accounting for the whole truth of every variable, every circumstance, and every heart.
Truth is not about being right on an issue. It’s about being right with God.
There is a reason James tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (James 1:19). Truth is not found in our angry shouts against one another. Truth can only be found when we truly listen. The more voices we allow at the table, the closer we will be to discerning the truth of God’s heart.
When it comes to the issues you fight for or against the most, what are you afraid of?
What would happen if you said, “I might be wrong?” or “I might not have the whole truth?”
Who is God inviting you to really listen to today or this week that might help you expand your own perception of what is true?
What convictions or beliefs or opinions is God asking you to loosen your grip on so that you might more fully know the truth of God’s love and be set free?
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
Video of the complete worship service available at http://asburyumc-huntersville.com/live