Today’s author is Prince of Peace’s Intentional Interim, Pastor Steve Sylvester.
Text: John 18: 28-40
“Just how naïve/stupid/uninformed are you?” This was what Pilate was asking Jesus when he, dismissively, I believe, said, “What is truth?” You see, from Pilate’s perspective, truth was simply what the emperor said it was. As governor of Judea, Pilate’s role was to enforce the emperor’s “truth.” And I do mean “enforce.” In Pilate’s world, one did not “search” for truth as if it were something independent of the emperor. Anyone who believed otherwise was naïve, stupid or uninformed.
Before Caesar there was Alexander the Great. Before that there was Nebuchadnezzar, Sennacherib and various pharaohs. Go all the way back to Grog the caveman, who stood over his cave mates with a heavy stick or a rock, and it was those in power who defined the truth. My favorite title of all time, because it takes the truth and power thing to the limit, belongs to Idi Amin Dada: “His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”
So, have we “evolved”? A few decades ago, political consultant Karl Rove said, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities.” And just a few months ago, Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Adviser, had this to say: “We live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.” Pilate, without the need of the above two to fluff his own pillow, simply asked, “What is truth?” I think that is a “No,” to the question of whether we have evolved.
Where does that leave us, then? It leaves us with a need to decide whether to follow Jesus , truth or Grog’s. The hard thing about that, of course, is that even though we are not of the world, we are in the world. That means we cannot pretend that the problems of this world do not affect us. Our pain is real when hurt is visited upon us by those who rule the world, and our pain is real when we see the powerless crushed by those who define truth according to craven self-interest. Believing that Jesus is the truth (“I am the way and the truth and the life”) is not a decision that is lightly made. As Deitrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book, “The Cost of Discipleship,” “Many people come to church with a genuine desire to hear what we have to say, yet they are always going back home with the uncomfortable feeling that we are making it too difficult for them to come to Jesus.” So, what is truth? You decide.