What is Truth? How one lives and dies, what and who one values, and what one believes is dependent upon how one answers this question.

Pilates Search for Truth

²⁸ Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. ²⁹ So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

• Vs. 28- Notice the absurdity, they would not enter a gentile palace/home so they would not become unclean before Passover, but would execute an innocent man for personal gain…a truth generated from tradition
  • In Matthew 27:18, it says Pilate knew the Jews were killing him for self-gain
• Vs. 29 – What charges do you bring?
  • This is a trial intended to learn the facts, find the truth, and make a judgment about Jesus

*Every person puts Jesus on trial. The question for everyone, then, is the truth or the facts we make in the judgment about Him are either generated from real truth or other peoples truth/judgment

³⁰ “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”³¹ Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. ³² This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.³³ Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

• They want Pilate to execute a judgment they made from their truth…not make a judgment from his truth
• Vs. 33- Pilate seeks truth before he executes his own judgement
  • The charge, as we learn in the synoptic gospels is that Jesus is inciting a rebellion as the rightful Davidic king of Israel; but Pilate asks “are you a king?”
• Pilate understands the Jews want him killed, but seeks precedent to execute him according to Roman justice
  • To proclaim yourself king is a threat to Rome (establishes rivalry), as well as assumes a type of revolutionary character that Jesus does not seem to display.

*How often do we make judge people or decide positions based off of what other people say, or from their or different standard of truth?

³⁴ “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”³⁵ “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”³⁶ Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

• Vs. 34- “is that your own idea?” i.e. is that your thought or a regurgitated thought?
  • Jesus is a king, but not a rival as Pilate thinks
  • Jesus clarifies, “Do you think I’m a rival/rebel, or did others tell you I am?”
  • Jesus places personal responsibility for Pilates judgment to Pilate…not what others say is truth but, What do you think is truth?

*When a thought develops into a concept, then the concept becomes accepted as a tradition/doctrine, so eventually, the tradition/doctrine eventually morphs into a believed truth

• Track the origin of “truth”
  • Theological Example: Original Sin, Election
  • Worldly Example: Nazism, Gender/sexual identity

*We don’t simply compare the teachings of Jesus with “truth,” but the teachings of Kant VS. the teaching of Jesus, or the teaching of Freud VS. teachings of Jesus. All concepts have an original generation of thought

*Jesus has what no other teacher in the world has…the empty tomb!

*Is what you believe to be truth generated from your own conviction or simply adopting what others say is truth?

• Vs. 35- Pilate answers, the truth of your people is that you’re a criminal worthy of death…so, what is your truth Jesus?
  • Vs. 36- Jesus responds to alleviate Pilate’s fear and/or possible charge against Rome as a challenger to Rome’s authority
• Vs. 36- Jesus says, if I was the threat they think I am, then my servants would not even allow them to take me as they did

*Jesus takes the truth of Pilate to drive him to the real truth that is Jesus…so that no man is without excuse

Pilate Questions for Truth, Jesus Clarifies the Truth

³⁷ “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”³⁸ “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” 

• “You say that I am a king,” but Jesus says “I came as a witness to truth”
  • Jewish authorities truth: Jesus is an insurrectionist (not to Rome, but religious establishment)
  • Pilate’s truth: Jesus is a king
  • Jesus’ Truth: I am a witness to truth
• “What is truth?”
  • In Plato’s Protagoras, Protagoras (paraphrased) says to Socrates, “What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me.” This pagan notion, that truth is always personal and relative to self, is widespread even today.
  • Pilate ultimately says, I have my truth, Jesus has his, the Jewish authority has there’s: all of which seem to have competing facts.
    • Pilate concludes: Universal truth cannot be established in this situation, so per his truth, he cannot make guilty judgment

We all have a perception of truth, but Jesus is the Truth

*Every belief generates from previously established beliefs. Every accepted truth generates from previously established beliefs about truth. All belief and truth deduce to a foundational belief no one is taught (Romans 1:18-20)

• Example: Murder is wrong
  • I believe life is intentional and given to a purpose
    • I believe people don’t live life randomly
    • I believe death is unnatural and a tragedy
    • I believe the universe is to precise to be random
  • I believe everyone contains inherent value (image of God)
  • I believe murder acts outside the necessary and universal moral boundaries
    • I believe there is a moral law
      • I believe there is a moral law-giver

Truth is not knowing the reality of things, but knowing the reality of a person…Jesus

Its about knowing Jesus, not knowing everything about everything

*Eventually, all truth and belief deduces to a basic truth and belief everyone holds…the Logos

• John 1:1: In the beginning was the Logos (Rational principle that governs the world)
• We are not expected to know the truth about everything (omniscience); rather, know the One who knows the truth about everything and learn to OBEY His instruction

Questions for Guided Discussion

1. John 18:28-38 surrounds making a judgment about Jesus. Every person has to decide, and make a judgment about Jesus. What does this narrative show about how we share, and approach Jesus as the truth that centers our lives?
2. Think about a recent judgment you’ve made or a strong opinion/position you hold. How much of that judgment or opinion is influenced by other peoples “trials,” truths, and the judgments they’ve made? Do they share the same “truth” as you? If not, then why do we accept their judgments?
3. Does thinking about the origin of thought/truth/belief encourage you to explore why you believe what you believe? How much of your “truth” is grounded in tradition developed from someone else’s thought, and how much of that truth is grounded in your own conviction?
4. Romans 1:18-20 discusses the concept of basic belief. How can the concept of basic belief help identify fallacies in the positions we and others hold? Learning how Jesus used the basic belief of Pilate to establish His innocence, how can we approach people with their basic beliefs to point to Jesus?
5. Many “truths” today is not truth at all, rather teachings of others that have been conceptualized, doctrinated, and made into a tradition we believe to be true. Many positions, therefore, pins the teachings of Jesus against the teachings of another (i.e. theologian, psychologist, scientist, politician, philosopher, etc.). Why are we so quick to accept the teachings of others whom we don’t even know than that of Jesus whom we do know?