What is Truth?

Passage: John 18:28-40

Jewish historians Philo and Josephus describe Pontius Pilate as a violent and savage ruler who ordered executions regularly and arbitrarily. The Pontius Pilate we meet in John 18 doesn’t fit their descriptions. The Pilate who meets with Jesus seems almost conciliatory. He goes out of his way to avoid executing the Jew his peers have identified as a dangerous insurgent.

Pilate seems curious about Jesus and the furor that’s blown up around him. Rather than dismiss the whole business by passing down a quick judgment, Pilate engages the accused in conversation. He wants to understand Jesus. He asks some questions.

“So, are you really the ‘King of the Jews’?”

“Where’d you get that idea?”

“Your people. It was them that brought you here, remember?”

“My kingdom isn’t from around here. If it were, don’t you think my servants would have fought to keep me from getting arrested? My kingdom’s from somewhere else.”

“So you are a king!”

“Yes. I’ve come to testify to the truth.”

To which Pilate responds, “What is truth?” Pilate is a pragmatist. He represents an Emperor who has taken on god status. But he knows his Emperor isn’t a god. He represents a culture that demands worship of a pantheon of gods at myriad shrines and temples. But he knows he and his people are just going through the motions. Now he’s talking to a man who will go to the cross for yet another deity; yet another religion. And Pilate says, “Give it a rest. Give it a rest for fifteen minutes and you will save your life. Nothing is objectively true. At least not true enough to die for.

Pilate expects Jesus to back down. He would. He has. He has bowed at Athena’s shrine. He has kissed the feet of the Emperor’s statue. He will do what he has to do to save himself.

But Jesus isn’t interested in saving himself. That’s not what he came here to do. He came to testify to the one true thing. The only true thing. And if he backs down, he will simply confirm what Pilate and the rest of the world believe: none of it is really true. “This is true,” says Jesus: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life.”

Jesus refuses to lie to save himself. He sticks to his story, ensuring that he will be sent to the cross. Rather than save himself, Jesus saves the world.