I don’t know how many of you noticed, but since All Saints Day, our Sunday readings have taken us back to Holy Week but instead of focusing on what happened to Jesus, our gospel readings are about what Jesus said and did during Holy Week. Today, we are back at Good Friday with Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator appointed by Caesar to govern Judea. If we read this passage from John’s Gospel slowly, we see that while Pilate asks Jesus several questions, Jesus does not answer them. Pilate’s first interrogatory is, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answers his question with a question, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” … in other words, “Are you thinking for yourself or merely repeating what others told you?” – a rather cheeky response for a man whose life hangs in the balance! Then Pilate asks, “What have you done?” and Jesus again does not answer the question – he answers a different question: “From where does your authority come?” Pilate asks, “So you are a king?” Jesus answers without answering again: “You say that I am.” Finally, Pilate asks, “What is truth?” and Jesus is silent.
Pilate’s philosophical question “What is truth?” has been asked down through the ages. The word “truth,” in both the English and Greek languages is a noun. Now I won’t launch into Grammar Rock, but we all remember that a noun is a person, place or thing and “truth” would fall into the category of “thing.” Because it is a noun, a thing, we tend to believe that truth is a thing that we can somehow get our arms around … or at least get our minds around … a thing to be grasped … something we can hold onto. This is the image we have when we ask “What is truth?”
There’s a problem with this image of truth as a thing and indeed with Pilate’s question. When we see truth as a “what,” a thing, we can tend to fall into two main ways of understanding truth. On the one hand, we can fall into fundamentalism. We are familiar with this term from a religious perspective but I want to address fundamentalism in all its forms: political fundamentalism, nationalistic fundamentalism, cultural fundamentalism, and so on. Fundamentalism is the belief that we possess the truth and anyone else who has a differing interpretation or idea is just plain wrong. We see this in the Church when one interpretation of Scripture is held up as being the “truth” and anyone else who sees it differently is labeled apostate or heretic. We see it in the political arena when the left labels the right as “wing nuts” and the right labels the left as “socialists.” Fundamentalists make no space for others to express differing ideas because the fundamentalist knows that truth is a thing they possess, and those who don’t agree obviously don’t know the truth.
We can fall into another kind of flawed understanding when we image truth as a “what,” a thing. It goes something like this: “I have worked out the truth of my life. You might have a different truth and I respect your right to have that, but you have no right to impose your truth on me.” While on the surface it appears more tolerant than fundamentalism, this privatized type of truth is actually intolerant of anyone who challenges my understanding of truth … because it’s mine and I know what truth is … for me! There is an illustration of this kind of privatized possession of truth in a book entitled Resident Aliens which I have been revisiting this past week. The book is written by United Methodist Bishop William Willimon and my favorite cantankerous theological curmudgeon Stanley Hauerwas (I consider Hauerwas the grain of sand in the oyster of my faith). Bishop Willimon tells the story of a confirmation class he was teaching where he paired up the confirmands with mentors and he put together a 14 year old young man named Max with a 30-something fellow named Joe. Joe was a young professional who had a girlfriend but really hadn’t “settled down.” Pastor Willimon thought this would be a good opportunity for Joe to step up to a new level of responsibility and that the relationship would be mutually beneficial. Joe took on his new responsibility eagerly and gave Max his phone number and the address to his apartment. He told Max to feel free to call or stop by sometime and they could go out and get something to eat. Well, Max took Joe up on his offer and went over to his apartment one Saturday afternoon. Joe answered the door and was a bit annoyed at Max’s timing. Max quickly figured out why when he saw Joe’s girlfriend was there and, well let’s just say it was obvious they weren’t watching television! At 14, Max knew what was going on and he told Joe that he had a girlfriend too and maybe it was time he and his girlfriend did the same thing Joe and his girlfriend were doing. Joe blew up and told Max that he couldn’t do that! Max said, “Why not? If it’s good enough for you, it should be good enough for me.” Joe shot back with, “You’re only 14! Things are different when you get to be my age.” Max replied, “Oh yeah? Well the church says you’re not supposed to do this until you are married!” Hmm … imagine that! Joe, who was holding on to his private truth about what was ok for him but not for Max, was not prepared to be held accountable to the gospel truth … especially coming out of the mouth of a 14 year old.
Whether one tries to possess truth as a thing and either privatizes it or slips into fundamentalism, both images are wrong and bound in Sin. While their approaches differ, what they hold in common is that truth becomes something centered in my own ego: “I have the truth and you are don’t” or “I have my truth and I don’t want to hear yours.” Both break relationship by centering the truth on our own egotistical understanding and shutting everyone else out.
I am persuaded that Pilate’s question, our question, “What is truth?” frames truth as a “what,” a thing to be possessed and defended and sends us down a path that does not lead to God … because it’s the wrong question. So what is the question? Interestingly, it’s found in Pilate’s question … as found in the original Greek text. The question Pilate asks, “Ti estin alathea” is rightly translated “What is truth?” which works linguistically. But the word ti can also be translated as “who” … “Who is truth?” I believe THIS IS THE QUESTION! Who is truth? Jesus Christ is truth! The man standing right in front of Pilate, the King of the Jews, is truth! John even tells us this at the very beginning of his gospel:
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
When we ask “Who is truth?” and are able to see the incarnate truth of Jesus Christ, we can let go of the false image that we can ever really possess truth. It is less a thing to be grasped and more of a mystery into which we live. But where do we start? We begin with Jesus’ command in the 13th chapter of John:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
Jesus’ command to love one another as I have loved you is the bedrock of Christian community. When we love one another as Christ loved us God gives us grace to be completely honest with ourselves, each other and God. Bit by bit, living in a loving Christian community allows us to peel away the layers of the false self – the self that likes to think it can possess “truth.” As this false self diminishes we become more willing to hear others when their interpretations and experiences differ from ours. We become less defensive when our friends in the Church lovingly hold us accountable to the greater truth of Jesus Christ. The Christian community of love empowers us to be more honest, more authentic … more real. I truly believe the life’s journey of each Christian is not to become more spiritual, but rather more human. French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Our aim is to become authentic, honest, and fully human – to be who we really are in God. This is the journey we are on as Christians and into which we welcome four new companions as they are baptized today and those who are making their commitment to enter this community we know as Calvary.
Changing our focus from “What is truth?” to embrace the real question “Who is truth?” and answer “Jesus Christ is truth” is not a one-time event. It is a process … a journey … the journey of a lifetime to follow Christ the King whose power working in us transforms us into who we really are in God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
