What is Truth?
“Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world— to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.” John 18:35-38 (ESV)
A friend of mine once said to me, “Yeah they really didn’t give us a manual for this new creature stuff.” My friend, Rob Russomano, was trying to break me out of a moment I was having with myself. He succeeded and to this day I still have the photograph of that moment. And everyone once in awhile I look at it and it helps with my today moment that I still have with myself. Maybe you know the feeling, no one likes what you had to say, and no one agrees with a decision you have had to make or my personal push over the edge, no one understands the frustration you have to endure in order to make things work.
I have recently been to a Men’s Conference at Babcock Community Church in Belcoville New Jersey and in the first session their senior pastor, Pastor George Sanders, brought up a very interesting illustration. Did Pontius Pilate approach Jesus as a cynic and went, “What is truth?” or after all the chaos and disorder that surrounded the Praetorium that day did he approach with a heavy, pleading sigh and asked Jesus, “What is truth?” After all what was he to do? He had already offended the Jews of the time by bringing his design a god /moral system from Rome and by killing Galileans while they were at worship and letting their blood mingle with the sacrifices on the altar.Let’s not forget some of that “temple tax” money that went to build an aqueduct or better yet, his wife, Claudia Procula, who said “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” Matt 27:19 (ESV)
You could read this list and think Pilate says to himself “I need to shut these people up” and you would be right but I think he has having a moment with himself like I get. No one was liking anything Pilate was doing, not even Caesar, but he to do something even if it was wrong. He was running on his authority and had no guide.
For us as Christian men (and women) we were promised that if we followed Jesus Christ a guide would be provided. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-15 (ESV)
The truth for me in this is quite simple and clear. I cannot walk this narrow road without a “G.P.S.” My friend, Pastor Robert Roman, once wrote about how we need to use God’s Positioning System. Maybe that system would just happen to be Spirit of Truth and the cool thing is he does not speak on his own authority.
So if your G.P.S sounds like your voice speaking to you, you have the wrong model, because quite frankly it will be your own authority that may leave you like Pontius Pilate. And his final act of authority was to suppress a small of religious rebel rousers and ended up, once again, killing the innocent.
Pilate followed a truth that was not absolute. He was from a design your god, design your own sense of morals and profit from the two kind of society. Sounds pretty close to the world around us today doesn’t it? Over time the absolute truths that once shaped our society has faded into a sea of grey and not very refreshing water. But it doesn’t have to be that water we drink.
Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life and gave us all an open invite to freely drink the living waters that only He can provide. I am praying that this morning I am guided to those streams of living waters because I can’t get there myself and I am thirsty. Are you? -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter
Dig This Quote: Proverbs 8; 2 Kings 4-6; Luke 24:26-53
Dig This Quote: “We are to bring all our ways under His scrutiny, deeply confident that He knows better how to live than we do. Flowing from this wellspring of trust will be the marks of wisdom: teachability, marital faithfulness, gracious speech, generosity, hard work, honesty, and loyalty in friendship. The wise child learns gladly and humbly from his parents, knowing that submission leads to the knowledge of God. The wise man bows to God’s discipline, confident that “the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.” the Ancient Love Song
Charles D. Drew
Determined Digging: Determined Digging: Level 1: Proverbs 4:18; Level 2: Psalms 63:1-5
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