What is Truth?

Good Friday of Holy Week

Beuckelaer’s Christ on the Cross

Read it: John 18:28-38

There is so much more to be said about the day of Jesus' death than I can even mention in this format, but let me simply point out one moment. It is Jesus, standing before Pilate, questioning him and having Jesus answer with questions and hard sayings.

"Are you king of the Jews?" asks Pilate.

"Do you say this on your own, or did others say it about me?"

"Am I a Jew? Your nation has delivered you over..." Pilate responds. "What have you done?"

"My kingdom is not of this world..."

"So, you are a king!"

"For this purpose I was born," said Jesus, "to bear witness to the truth."

It is at this moment, as a well-known speaker first pointed out in a sermon I heard, that a huge opportunity is presented and missed.

Pilate responds to Jesus' statement by asking, "What is truth?"

But instead of waiting for Jesus to respond, he turns and goes outside.

Pilate was a skeptic, who didn't believe there was any ultimate truth to guide you; there were only opportunities to be snatched or missed, and circumstances to be controlled or be controlled by.

Imagine if he had waited. At every moment in this dialog, Jesus had responded to Pilate’s question. But here, Pilate doesn't wait for a response. If he had, what would Jesus have said? Would it have mattered? It would not have changed the outcome as Christ's sacrifice was not optional, but it might have begun a change in Pilate. We can never know.

On this Good Friday, many will not know what the day is about. Many others will recognize a historical event, but not seek to know the truth of what happened and why.

May your Good Friday be one where you know what happened, why it happened, and that it all happened for you.