May 30th

May 30th

'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 inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn't be allowed to celebrate the Passover. 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 law," 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 into his headquarters 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 retorted. "Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world." Pilate said, "So you are a king?" Jesus responded, "You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. 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 one prisoner each year at Passover. Would you like me to release this 'King of the Jews'?" But they shouted back, "No! Not this man. We want Barabbas!" (Barabbas was a revolutionary.)' (John 18:28-40 NLT)

I am always fascinated at this conversation between our Lord and Pilate. The first reason I am fascinated is the outcome. Pilate knew Jesus wasn't a criminal, and I think Pilate might have even knew that Jesus was the Son of God by the end of the story. (Whether he cared or not is another question) What it comes down to is this question by Pilate: "what is truth?" In Pilate's mind, the truth was Jerusalem was on the brink of a riot; the truth was he didn't care if he had to kill an innocent man to stop said riot from happening; the truth was, if said riot did happen, he would probably be killed by Caesar for not keeping the peace. Pilate was known for his ruthless nature, and this time would be no different. But I think the question posed here goes a little deeper. Pilate did not want an answer, he wanted to acknowledge that truth was relative to him. Truth, in Pilate's eyes, was whatever he judged was right, based solely on what Caesar thought. Period, point blank. To us there is a greater question here. We should all ask the same question, what is truth? What is the truth for which we base our lives? Is it God's truth? Is it America's truth? Is it that we make up our own truth? This is a very dangerous question to ask, and it might even be scary the answers we might give, or receive if we ask the people around us. But it is a question that we must ask, and that we must wrestle with, until we understand the answer. One of the awesome things about this life is we are able to make our own conclusions, to be able to discern truth. We are able to not just follow blindly. So again, I ask, what is truth?

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