Names of Wondrous Love—the Truth

Ash Wednesday, 2/13/13
John 18:37-38


Names of Wondrous Love—the Truth
I. No truth
II. Know truth


Children are naturally inquisitive. That’s how they learn things about their new world. But sometimes the answers to their questions aren’t so simple. They’ll ask things such as “Why is grass green?” or “Where does the wind come from?” There are good scientific answers for these questions, but it might be difficult to put those answers into words that a child can understand. And then they’ll ask, “Where do babies come from?” and before you answer, you pause and ask yourself, “Just how much do I want to tell them?”

And then there are famous questions. For instance, here’s one of them, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

There are famous questions in the Bible, too. Jesus asked one while nailed to the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We know the answer. God the Father had separated himself from Jesus and was letting him experience hell for our sins.

And then there’s Pilate’s question in tonight’s sermon text. (Read text.) What made this question different was that Pilate wasn’t looking for an answer. And when he had the answer standing right in front of him, he refused to acknowledge it.

On the previous evening as Jesus spent time with his disciples in that upper room where they celebrated the Passover meal together, Jesus told his disciples, “I am…the truth” (John 14:6). Think about what he said. He didn’t say, “I am truthful.” Of course he is; he’s the Son of God. He can’t lie. Nor did he say, “I am telling you the truth.” God’s prophets for centuries before Jesus and Jesus’ apostles for years after Jesus was on the earth proclaimed the truth. That’s wasn’t so unusual. But this is. Jesus is the truth. He is truth itself. Just what did he mean? Let’s find the answer as we listen to the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate on that first Good Friday. The answer will point us to one of Jesus’ names of wondrous love—THE TRUTH.

Part I.

It’s not uncommon for us to hear that a legal case has been transmitted to a higher court. That’s especially true regarding rulings about the law. Cases involving the death sentence are always reviewed and subject to appeals. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the charges being changed as a case moved from one court to the next.

That’s what happened, though, with our Savior, Jesus.

The Jewish Sanhedrin had allowed a disgusting display of injustice in trying Jesus immediately after his arrest. They found him “guilty” of claiming to be the Son of God. They called it blasphemy and, under Jewish law, it was punishable by death.

But wisely, the Romans reserved death-sentence cases for themselves. And so the Sanhedrin had to send him to Pilate to carry out the death sentence. There was just one problem. The Romans couldn’t care less if Jesus claimed to be God. That was no violation of Roman law.

So something had to change. The Sanhedrin would have to change the charge against Jesus. And their sin-darkened and hell-poisoned hearts quickly rose to the challenge. They told Pilate, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king” (Lk. 23:2).

This was a serious charge and one that Pilate had to investigate. If true, this would be a threat to the Roman emperor. So Pilate point-blank asked Jesus, “Are you a king then?” And Jesus answered, “I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” And that’s when Pilate uttered his famous question, “What is truth?” Again, he asked it not seeking an answer, but to make a statement. In Pilate’s mind there was no such thing as truth. No doubt by this time in his Roman political career Pilate had learned that, even if there was such a thing as truth, it didn’t matter. In his world, the truth changed from person to person. What’s more, the Roman world had long ago abandoned any hope of finding truth in religion or morality. Like many Romans, Pilate had probably concluded that the Roman collection of gods was a joke. If anything, Pilate was a pagan skeptic, a practical agnostic. For him, it was simple. There is no truth.

As much as things have changed in the past 2,000 years, they stay the same. Pilate’s view is the view of the world in which we live. Truth is relative. It changes from person to person. For others, there is no truth. They just live by what works for them in the moment and then move on. Our world has abandoned the truth of a Creator who is responsible for bringing all things into existence. It has come to the conclusion that human life is no more valuable than plant or animal life. Like other famous civilizations in history, we have now embraced the “truth” that there is no right or wrong when it comes to our roles in life or our sexuality. And as long as it makes money, it doesn’t matter who or what gets harmed. That’s the modern worldview. That’s was Pilate’s outlook as well.

But by God’s grace we know the truth. For so many of us, from little on we have known the truth of our salvation. It’s found only in Jesus Christ. He is the one who shares eternal truth with us and the truths for our daily lives. For us, the question isn’t “What is truth?” The question is, “What is the truth worth to me?” In this holy season of Lent, it’s time for us to ask ourselves, “What does my hearing of the truth, my reading and studying of the truth, my sharing that truth with others show about its importance to me?”

Part II.

There are times when knowing the truth is not that easy. There may be conflicting pieces of evidence. We may have to weigh what one person says over against another. There’s always another side of the story. It doesn’t happen often, but there are times when we simply have to say, “I guess I’ll never know the truth.”

Thank God we don’t ever have to say that regarding the truth of our salvation! Even before Pilate asked what the truth was, Jesus declared it. He said, “I came into the world to testify to the truth.” Truth was standing there before Pilate that day in the person of the Son of God. Truth always confronts us in the person of Jesus. He shows us what we are—sinful and condemned. He shows us what we can become—forgiven and eternally saved. When it comes to our salvation, there’s no need for speculation or searching.

Jesus Christ is the living word of salvation. If this were a math class we’d say, “Jesus=Truth” or “Jesus=Salvation.” He is truth in action. He stepped from eternity into time. He clothed divinity in humanity. He slept in a cradle and suffered on a cross. He shed his blood there as the God-man to make himself the truth of our salvation. If we want to know how to be saved, there’s only one answer—Jesus. If we want to share the truth with others about how to be saved, there’s only one truth to speak—Jesus. We can live without many of the truths that this world puts forth, but we can’t be saved without faith in Jesus.

Pilate had a golden opportunity to learn the truth that first Good Friday. He had truth standing right before him in the person of Jesus, but he wouldn’t listen. Today the truth stands before us in his word. With St. Paul we can state, “From infancy we have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Jesus said, “This truth will set you free”—free from the curse of sin, free from hell’s punishment, free from eternal separation from God. How do we know the glorious truth about how sinners become saints, about how enemies of God become his precious children, about how slaves of sin become servants of the Savior, about how hell-bent people become heaven-bound? It’s only through the word of Jesus. His word testifies to the truth. By God’s grace through the working of the Holy Spirit, you know God’s Truth, Jesus Christ.

Yes, children can ask a lot of questions. But they also listen for the answer. When we wonder what the truth is, may our God always lead us to the answer in his word where we find Jesus, our Savior, the Truth! What a wondrous name, the name alone by which we are saved! Jesus the Truth. Amen.