What Is Truth? In But Not Of
John 18:28-40 May 22, 2005
Intro:
When Pilate met God, he ended up articulating a timeless question. Listen to the story from John 18:28-40 (NLT)
“Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn’t go in themselves because it would defile them, and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover feast. So Pilate, the governor, went out to them and asked, "What is your charge against this man?"
"We wouldn’t have handed him over to you if he weren’t a criminal!" they retorted.
"Then take him away and judge him by your own laws," Pilate told them.
"Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone," the Jewish leaders replied. This fulfilled Jesus’ prediction about the way he would die.
Then Pilate went back inside and called for Jesus to be brought to him. "Are you the King of the Jews?" he asked him.
Jesus replied, "Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?"
"Am I a Jew?" Pilate asked. "Your own people and their leading priests brought you here. Why? What have you done?"
Then Jesus answered, "I am not an earthly king. If I were, my followers would have fought when I was arrested by the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world."
Pilate replied, "You are a king then?"
"You say that I am a king, and you are right," Jesus said. "I was born for that purpose. And I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true."
“ What is truth?" Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, "He is not guilty of any crime. But you have a custom of asking me to release someone from prison each year at Passover. So if you want me to, I’ll release the King of the Jews."
But they shouted back, "No! Not this man, but Barabbas!" (Barabbas was a criminal.)”
The timeless question, which I would like to pursue this morning, is the “what is truth” question.
Moral Relativism:
It used to be, back in “the good old days”, pretty obvious. Truth is, well… truth. We see that in the well known language of the American declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Today, however, we live in a different climate. Truth is no longer “self-evident,” as in clearly seen and acknowledged by all those around. Truth is now, apparently, only evident-to-the-self, as in it is relative: what is “true” for one person can apparently be “not true” to another. Our culture has largely rejected the idea of absolute truth, and has ridiculed and marginalized those of us who might still cling to such a notion.
A Junior High Example:
I first experienced this reality a number of years ago while working with junior high students downstairs here in our basement. I was in our YAC (Youth Activity Center) when suddenly, about two feet in front of me and in my direct line of sight, one young boy gave another a swat. Of course I intervened, and called this boy to account. Now, recognize that this happened right in front of me, this boy knew I was standing there watching him, and knew exactly what I had just witnessed. He looked me straight in the eye and said, and I quote, “I didn’t do it.” And he was completely serious. “I didn’t do it – it wasn’t me – and you can’t prove anything.” The truth is that he had done it, and I had seen it, and I didn’t need to prove it to anyone else, I just kicked him out. But this boy directly challenged that truth and denied the reality that I had just watched.
Our Culture:
There is a very serious lie rampant in our culture, which to be honest is really quite scary. The lie is that there is no moral truth, no right or wrong that universally applies. The scary part of that is that our entire system of order and justice is based on a common conception of right and wrong, of actions and punishments. And if we embrace a world-view that believes that there is no external standard of right and wrong to which we all must conform, we lose our societal basis for justice and protection. In many ways, we have already moved to a place where it is not so much that the action is “wrong” in the moral sense of the word, but that if you get caught you will get in trouble.
Those who buy into this idea that there is no moral truths that are absolute believe that they can create their own reality. “Right” is defined as anything that makes them happy. “Wrong” is anything that makes them unhappy. So if it will feel good, they do it without regard for how it might hurt others. Don’t you find that a little disconcerting?
The Illusion of Freedom and Power:
At the root of this rejection of truth is a misguided understanding of freedom and a false sense of power. The thinking goes like this: if there is no absolute right and wrong, then I am completely free to create my own version of reality and right and wrong; I can be the master; then I am truly free. The idea of freedom behind this, which is what makes it attractive, is that of “being able to do whatever I feel like.” Our culture thinks that is the perfect idea of freedom. I reject that definition of freedom, and suggest instead that it merely enslaves us to our own desires. It makes us slaves to our wants, our feelings, and creates a deep and pervasive and unsettling feeling that we are all alone. That is the heart of addictions – slavery to self. True freedom is only found in love.
At the root of this rejection of truth is also a false sense of power. The thinking goes like this: if there is no absolute right and wrong, then I have the power to determine what those are for myself. I am the master of my world, I am in control. Again, I think this is a wrong understanding of power based on a false premise – that we can and need to be in control of our lives. We cannot! And chasing that illusion only leads us to misery and isolation, as we face the futility of our attempts to control the ultimate things in our life such as our happiness.
Am I Over-Reacting?
Those of you who followed the election of the new catholic pope perhaps recall that just before the cardinals went into their secret deliberations, then cardinal Ratzinger led a service and preached a sermon. He has been widely quoted for one specific line, wherein he observes that our world is “building a dictatorship of relativism”. I went and looked up the whole sermon, let me quote it at greater length:
“Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism… seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.
We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceipt (sic) from truth.
We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.” (HOMILY OF HIS EMINENCE CARD. JOSEPH RATZINGER, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS, Vatican Basilica, Monday 18 April 2005. from http://www.vatican.va/gpII/documents/homily-pro-eligendo-pontifice_20050418_en.html)
The Freedom of the Gospel:
This Cardinal, now Pope, has it exactly right. Our “ultimate goal” is not ourselves, but rather relationship with God through Christ. “Friendship”, to use the pope’s word.
Because, you see, truth is not about statements. Truth is about a person – Jesus Christ. Jesus said that in His conversation with Pilate, which I read earlier: “And I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” It was the same thing He had said earlier, in John 14: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
Moral truth is not a series of undeniable statements. Moral truth is not even a list of what things are right and what things are wrong. Moral truth is the person of Jesus Christ, and is what we discover in our friendship with Jesus.
I know this is a little heavy, but stay with me: moral truth comes from our relationship of love and obedience and friendship to Jesus. In that relationship, we discover that “moral truth” comes from who Jesus is, who God is. That is the standard, that is the reality. Our response is not then one of conformity to an external standard of behaviour, our response is one of deep love and respect and gratitude in the context of relationship, and thus the choices we make about how to behave (in other words, the choices we make about what is right and what is wrong and how we thus act) flow out of that relationship and into our lives and actions. And then we are truly free, because in that relationship we know how deeply loved we are. We know how accepted we are. We know how empowered we really are. And that is so wonderful, so beautiful, so perfect, so fulfilling, so freeing, so exciting that we are then truly free to choose to do all these things that make this relationship stay good and pure and uninterrupted. We are free because we are loved unconditionally and completely. We are full of power because we are not undermined by self-doubt and rejection and unshared pain. We are free because of our friendship with the God of the Universe through the person of Jesus Christ.
Any other obedience to a “set of rules”, even a Biblical set of rules, which does not come from the vibrancy of this relationship is going to bring death and slavery. That is what Paul talks about when he talks about how the “law” brings death. That is what Jesus talks about in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 4-6, when He repeatedly goes beyond the external set of rules and into the true nature of the heart and the relationship of love that can exist between us and God.
An Analogy From Our World Of Relationships:
Perhaps we can imagine it like this. Across the crowded room, the young man discovers a young woman so beautiful that his very breath stops. She glances his direction, and at once he is exhilarated and terrified, and his heart is hers. Now consider two courses of action – he could walk away, discover everything he possibly can about her and what she likes and doesn’t like, become everything he thinks she wants in a man, obey every rule he can possibly imagine she might want him to obey, but never be in a relationship with her. Would we say he was free? Would we call that truth? It might be a “safe” route, he might fully conform to the idea of morality he discovers she would like. He might even create a mental “reality” in which they share a deep and meaningful relationship (yet such a “reality” would actually be called “fantasy”). But we would pity such a man, call him a coward, and decide that he was truly a pitiful slave.
Now consider the second course of action – he could pursue the relationship. He could be vulnerable, be open, and discover that she returns his love. If we assume in this analogy that this young woman represents God, and recognize then that this love is perfect, we then begin to see that in this perfect love this man could truly be free. He would still discover the things that make her happy, he would still work hard to become a man who could love her in return and not hurt her by his actions. And in this second scenario, the relationship of love sets him free to become a whole person guided by moral truths and actions that come out of this freeing relationship.
That Is The Radical Nature Of Christianity:
The radical truth of Christianity is that Jesus wants to be our friend. He wants to set us free by the depth and power of His love. That doesn’t make sense as words spoken, but when you discover it for yourself you will know the difference between acting a certain way because it conforms to a system of external rules, and acting a certain way because you know it will bring joy to someone who loves you and whom you love in return.
I want to be direct. For some of you, faith has never become personal, and relational. You are maybe even doing a fairly good job at “following the rules”, but it isn’t coming from a personal friendship with Jesus. Deep inside, you haven’t discovered truth in the person of Jesus. Let me encourage you to take the risk. To risk intimacy. To actually begin a relationship with Jesus, and to discover what Jesus meant when He said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32). You begin that with prayer – a simple one, maybe like this: “Dear Jesus, I want to know You. Please help me.” Or maybe like this: “Dear Jesus, for many years I have trying to live up to a set of rules. Now I want to know the truth. Please show me.” Following the prayer, you need to seek to know Jesus. Like the young man in my analogy, you need to be active in pursuit of your relationship, and the only way to truly know Jesus is not through your feelings or experiences, but through the Bible as the Holy Spirit teaches it to you.
I can’t emphasize this strongly enough – in this relationship metaphor it is possible to hear me saying that it is about how we feel or what we experience. That is not true, and takes us right back to moral relativism where what we “feel” or “experience” becomes the basis of our understanding. That is why I say that the only way to truly, undeniably, unquestionably know Jesus is through the Word of God – through the Bible. It is there that you will discover who Jesus really is – and when the Spirit of God brings that alive to you and real to you, and then as you obey and become the friend of the Jesus you discover in those pages, as you “hold to (His) teaching, you are really (His) disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
How Do You Know?
The end result, undeniable to everyone around you and of great threat to the kingdom of darkness, is love. When you are in an authentic relationship with God, the result will be a deep love for God and a deep love for others. If love is lacking – either for God of for others (and including enemies), then go back to your relationship with God. Rediscover His love for you, claim the truth of your acceptance as His child, know the freedom of being loved completely and purely. The result will be a life of love that powerfully changes you, your family, and in fact everyone you are in relationship with.
Any time we respond to one another with less than love, we miss the mark. We reveal that our relationship with God is not where it needs to go. We reveal our insecurities and our pains, and we reveal that we are still enslaved to them. And so we need to go back to Jesus, we need to rediscover His love and forgiveness and power, and the freedom that then comes from that incredible love of God and grace of God for us. Then we desire to extend that to one another, not out of duty or conformity to an external set of rules, but because “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Cor 5:14-15).
That is true freedom. That is true power. That, ultimately, is truth.
Conclusion:
Cardinal Ratzinger continued, and with this thought I’ll close: “Truth and love coincide in Christ. To the extent that we draw close to Christ, in our own lives too, truth and love are blended. Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like "a clanging cymbal" (I Cor 13: 1).
