Readings:
Sermon:
“The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” Augustine of Hippo
In the light of recent safeguarding reports and Archbishop Justin’s resignation, we realise that in the church, the Body of of our Lord, Jesus Christ, truth is important. Look around you in the world, we realise that in this supposedly post-truth society, no one seems to care about truth very much. I wonder how we hear Jesus’ words to Pilate: “I … testify to truth… Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Jn 18:37
I wonder how Pilate heard those words, with the world view he was operating in, as a representative of the occupying force? The seeking of truth was important to living a good life in philosophies contemporary to Pilate. People who sought to live a good life tried to be curious, rational, objective, open to critique, seeking to live virtuously if they were Stoics. Epicureans on the other hand were alert to the truth that their senses taught them. They worked hard to pay attention to raw sensory experiences to find truth, without overlaying them with opinion, which could be false. For the Epicurean, truth came through basic senses.
Jesus offers us another avenue to the truthful life, that of revelation. Truth is revealed to us by God. God the Holy Spirit can lead us into all truth. Jesus has come to testify to truth, he says. He reveals truth in all that he says and does. He reveals truth in who he is, in his very nature. He is the eternal word through which all things came to be. All that he said and did was consonant with who he is: He is God, God who is at the origin of all things. This is why John earlier in the Gospel could have Jesus say: “I am the way, the truth and the life…” (Jn 14:6) All that is real and reliable originates in God, and here is God in Jesus. Jesus who brings to us a revelation of God, this is truth.
Pilate unwittingly gets it when he asks Jesus the question: What have you done (v35b). For Christians, the truth is in what we do rather than residing in doctrines and statements that we can give mental assent to, but do nothing about.
Is Jesus a king? Asks Pilate. Is he King of the Jews? Is this true, that he is a king? Look at what he has done. He has healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, set the captive free. The blind see. The lame walk. Storms obey him. The dead even are raised. Signs of a Kingdom, a rule, that is not of this world.
Jesus is not only King of the Jews, he is the ruler of all things. As Colossians 1:20 and Ephesians 1:10 suggest, he, Jesus the Son of God, will unite or reconcile all things in heaven and on earth under his own rule. This is what he will do, this is truth.
To listen to the truth, which is the voice of Jesus, is to be part of this Kingdom, to be part of what is real and good. This is what the followers of Jesus do, they listen to him, and they do the works of God in the world: Micah summarises it well when he says that we must ‘do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.’
Truth is not only something to contemplate. If we hear something true and marvel at it and rejoice in it and think, ‘what a great idea that is’ we are not living in truth. Truth is something we do. Where we see injustice, we challenge it, we seek to do justly ourselves. Where we see wrong-doing we mercifully try to put it right. We know that our point of view will always only be partial, so we walk humbly with the God of truth, trusting to be lead into all truth by the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised us. (Jn 16:13)
Belonging to the truth, to Jesus, will change us. We will know when we are walking beside the truth or away from the truth, and we will have the opportunity to repent and to walk with the Truth.
This all sounds simple and easy. It is not always so. Discerning truth, discerning the way to go, is not always simple and clear or easy. Again, John gives us a clue. God is love, John says: “by this will all people know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13:34f.)
Living the truth is doing what is right, for that is the definition of love. Doing what is right is always bringing life to another. Truth and love are met together. They are seen in what we do, in Christ’s name.
- I wonder how you may live in truth this week?
- I wonder how you have received the love of God?
- I wonder who needs to know God’s love around you?
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." Jn 8:32