What is Truth - Jn 18:33-38
Christ the King is the last Sunday of the season of pre-Advent and of the end of the church’s year.
The Church’s year begins next week with the preparation for the birth of Jesus in Advent.
And so the Feast of Christ the King - is the last Festival in the Church’s year.
It is particularly fitting that we begin the Church’s year - by reflecting on Jesus’ coming to earth 2000 years ago in Advent
It was then he left the absolute power of his Everlasting Kingship behind.
And at the end the Church’s year - TODAY - we remember that he has taken up again that absolute power of his everlasting Kingship.
“Christ the King” Sunday is a fairly recent festival.
Story of the Feast Day
It was started by Pope Pius XI - when he published his encyclical on 11th December 1925.
It grew out of Pius’ concern at how secular the world was becoming.
In those days communism was on the rise and people were beginning to think that “science would soon prove there was no God”
The First World War had shattered traditional values of faith in God – especially in the light of the horrendous numbers of people killed in war.
People were turning from God to humanism
And so Pope Pius wanted a festival where we remembered that Jesus really is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So you might say – as I did when I was first preparing this talk
“what a strange lesson we have this morning to remember “Christ the King
Our Gospel reading is part of his trial before Pilate, prior to his crucifixion.
And it is in our reading that Jesus is asked if he is a King by Pilate.
And Jesus replied
"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."
We live in a post-modern society that no longer believes in the absolutes of truth
Our modern philosophy has been summed up as follows:
“There are no absolutes except the absolute that that there are no absolutes.”
Each person is entitled to “his or her truth” and one is deemed arrogant to contradict this position.
We see in politics that “content of policies” seems to be less important than “image”.
But this isn’t a new dilemma.
For we see in this morning’s Gospel passage, Pilate asking Jesus the question that is so relevant today:
“What is truth?”
Pilate was a man with a dilemma in the
middle of Jesus’ trial for his life.
The Jews had him in a corner.
Pilate knew Jesus was not guilty – he had
said as much yet when push came to shove, what was going to win out – his career or justice.
Was Pilate prepared to put all that he had worked so hard for on the line for an obscure Jewish carpenter?
Truth seemed to be quite an alien concept to the Roman Procurator.
1. Introduction:
What does history tell us about Pilate?
He was Roman Upper middle class man and had been appointed Procurator of Judea – very much a poisoned chalice in the Roman Foreign Office.
Judea was consider “uncivilized” by Roman standards.
As Procurator, he had
i) the power of life and death
ii) appointed High Priests
iii) controlled the Jewish Temple and funds
What do we know of Pilate from historical sources.
There are four acts of Pilate recorded by Josephus
1. Roman standards in Jerusalem
Pilate’s first recorded action can be found in Josephus’s Antiquities (Ant. 18 55).
Here Pilate set up Roman Standards (bearing the image of the emperor) in Jerusalem.
He broke with the previous practice of Roman Procurators and inflaming Jewish sensitivities because
• not only was it a sign that the Jews were an occupied nation but
• the Roman Standards were considered a sacrilege too - as the Emperor was by this stage deified.
For the Jews in Jerusalem this contravened the second of the Ten Commandments. (Ex 20:4)
Jewish feelings ran so high that he had to remove them six days later.
2. Pilate raided the Temple Funds to build an aqueduct in Jerusalem
Pilate’s second recorded action is also found in Josephus’ Antiquities (Ant.18 60).
Here Pilate appropriated Temple funds to build an aqueduct into Jerusalem.
When the Jews protested he sent in the troops and caused a massacre.
3. Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus
Pilate’s third (and most infamous) recorded action can be found in all four Gospels – for example in Jn 18-19.
This was the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
4. Massacre at Mount Gerizin
Pilate’s last recorded action again comes from Josephus (Ant. 18 85 89).
This was the massacre of Samaritans at Mount Gerizin.
This led to such a protest that Vitellus, Governor of Syria recalled him and sent
him to the Emperor to explain his actions.
Philo – a contemporary Jewish historian
from the 1st Century AD (in his book De Legatione ad Gaium 301) sums up Pilate as
by nature rigid and subbornly harsh
of spiteful disposition and an exceedingly wrathful –
a man full of bribes, ‘
acts of pride
acts of violence,
outrages,
cases of spiteful treatment,
constant murders without trial and
ceaseless and grievous brutality.
And it was this very man, when confronted with Jesus - asked the poignant question – “What is truth”.
Pilate had a choice to make.
Pilate asked him if he was a worldly king – a question incidentally that would carry the death penalty for Jesus if he answered in the affirmative,
But Jesus replied:
“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” (Jn 18: 37)
An unknown writer summed up Jesus’ life in a poem called One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he
was thirty.
Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He did not go to college.
He never visited a big city. ( Jerusalem in those days was considered a backwoods)
He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.
He did none of the things associated with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only thirty three years of age when the tide of public opinion turned against him.
His friends ran away.
He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.
When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone and today he remains the central figure of the human race, and the leader of mankind’s progress.
All the armies that ever marched,
all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever sat,
all the kings that ever reigned,
put together have not affected the life of man on this planet so much as that one solitary life.
Yes, Jesus Christ was someone special.
What have other people said about Jesus
1. Napoleon Bonaparte
Emperor Napoleon I of France (1769-1821), was one of the greatest military commanders of all time.
He conquered the larger part of Europe and did much to modernize the nations he ruled.
What did Napoleon say about Jesus?
"I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison.
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires.
But on what did we rest the creations of our genius?
Upon force.
Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of people would die for Him."
"Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me ..
I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything that can approach the gospel."
When Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled on St. Helena, he was asked by one of his friends, 'Who was the greatest warrior the world has ever known?"
Without hesitation, Napoleon answered, "Jesus Christ.'
"But" said his friend, "you have not always talked that way.
When you were winning battles, even up to the very time of Waterloo, you left the impression that you were the world's greatest warrior."
Napoleon replied:
"Yes, I have always acted as though I was the world's greatest conqueror.
I have had lots of time to think since I have been here on this island.
The Caesars, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Charlemagne and myself have fought with blood and tears and swords of iron, and we lost.
All of us lost.
We lost our sceptres, our crowns and our offices.
The only sword Christ had was a broken reed:
His crown, some twisted thorn:
His army, a band of fishermen and farmers.
His ammunition a heart of redeeming love.
He lives, and I and my kind die.
I stand here and call for the Old Guard to come, but they do not hear me.
There are no responding voices. My old soldiers do not hear me.
I hear nothing but the waves as they bite at the rock beneath my feet.
But after 1800 years or so have gone into the tomb of time, Christ calls and men answer.
If needs be, they give their bodies to be burned:
If needs be, they follow Him into the heart to Africa; but better still, they live patient and triumphant lives in His name.
Yes, the other warriors and I will ride down to dust, but Christ will live forever.
That in a nutshell sums up the Kingship of Christ.
But how have others viewed Jesus
2. ALBERT SCHWEITZER the famous liberal “Christian” theologian and one of the German Nobel Prize winners said this:
“He was a deluded fanatic who futilely threw away his life in blind devotion to a mad dream.
There is nothing more negative than the critical study of the life of Christ.”
Hardly a Christian answer!
3. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW – the famous atheist and writer who said
“Jesus was a man who was sane until Peter hailed him as the Christ and who then became a monomaniac…his delusion is a very common delusion among the insane…”
But there have been other Christian answers.
4. Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris the martial Arts Expert and Actor said this
Real men do live for Christ.
It is important to make your peace with Christ while the opportunity exists.
Life is so fragile that you never know when it's going to be over.
It could be over in the blink of an eye, and then it's too late to accept God's gift of salvation.
4..George Bush 43rd US President
As God's only Son, Jesus came to Earth and gave His life so that we may live.
His actions and His words remind us that service to others is central to our lives and that sacrifice and unconditional love must guide us and inspire us to lead lives of compassion, mercy, and justice.
6, Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin said this in 2001
Why did Christ come into the world? To liberate people from sickness, troubles, from death.
In its essence, Christmas is a holiday of hope.
7 CS Lewis
And in his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis made this poignant statement,
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be
the devil of hell.
You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.
But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."
(my thanks to the Campus Crusade website)
The key to understanding Jesus’ kingship is that God the Father raised Him from the dead
How was Jesus different to other world religious leaders?
Mohammed the founder of Islam died in 632 AD,
Sidd/har/tha Gaut/ama, better known as The Buddha - founder of Buddhism died in 949 BC and
Confucius founder of Confusian/ism died in 481 BC.
Their followers never claimed that any of these leaders rose from the dead.
But Christians claim that Jesus died and rose again.
His followers testified to the event.
Sir Lionel Lucknoo was the most successful lawyer the world has ever seen, winning 245 murder acquittals in a row
Sir Lionel said this
"I can say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt"
An English House of Lords judge, Lord Darling once said that "the Resurrection is the best proved fact in history".
St. Paul in 1 Cor 15:3-8 tells us that at least 514 men saw Jesus after the Resurrection, and that does not take into account the women!
Often when we look back on an encounter with God, we recognise that He was there.
Not one of force but of love.
Yes, Jesus is the Truth - yet Pilate failed to recognise the Truth.
Jesus – who personified the Truth (Jn. 14:6) was standing in front of him and he could not see the Truth.
Conclusion.
As Christians, we are called as Jesus said “to be on the side of Truth”.
We are called to listen to Jesus. His teaching needs to become part of the fabric of our lives.
If we are serious in seeking the Truth, then we need to take St. Paul’s exhortation in Romans seriously
Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom 12:12)
For the Christian - truth is not an abstract concept.
Truth is a way of life.
If we choose the truth, we choose to know Jesus and to follow Him all the days of our life.
We are called – not to assent to a set of intellectual propositions.
We are called to live the Christian life –as the modern idiom puts it - 24/7.
I find that hard – I find that a challenge.
But it is a challenge that I find on the pages of Scripture – however unpalatable that might be to me at times.
“What is Truth?” Pilate asked.
Jesus answered the question himself when he said in John 14:6
“I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6)
