Truth On Trial

John 18:33-38

A few people had to learn law by the hard way of going to graduate school—reading all those books, memorizing all those definitions and taking all those tests. But most of us took the easy law course. We grew up watching Perry Mason on television, and thus we learned about prosecuting and defense attorneys, defendants, objections and all matters that were irrelevant and immaterial.

Maybe when we picture Jesus in Pilate's court we imagine something like a scene from Perry Mason or Ben Matlock. But when we step back into the ancient Roman world we are playing, or judging, by a different set of rules. When Jesus stands trial before Pilate, you can't look around and find a jury, or even a prosecutor. If we think of Pilate as a judge, we must realize that his is a different form of judging. He is an inquisitor. In modern terms Pilate is the prosecutor, jury, and judge. Yet even for his time Pilate plays by Roman rules of power more than by Roman jurisprudence.

Jesus' countrymen have brought him here to Pilate and accused Jesus of pretending to be the Messiah. That means that Jesus comes before Pilate accused of treason. Pilate has the unenviable task of determining if this is just one more of the countless squabbles boiling up among this hotheaded people that he tries to govern for Rome. Even if it seems like a frivolous accusation to him, for safety sake, he must investigate and find out if Jesus is a dangerous revolutionary or just another harmless religious crack-pot.

All four gospels agree that in his interrogation Pilate asks Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews," which means: "Do you plead guilty or not guilty to sedition?" The Gospel of John alone grants us the information included in this private encounter between Jesus and Pilate.

Ultimately Jesus does not talk here about himself or his being a king. In responding to Pilate he talks about "my kingdom"; and he says that his kingdom is different than other kingdoms. His kingdom does not originate from here in this world. He has a different source of power than Pilate and he has an allegiance that is over and above anything Pilate can even consider.

Of course, Pilate misses the meaning of Jesus' remark. All Pilate hears is "kingdom" and he doesn't try to understand how Jesus defines the word. When Jesus talks about his kingdom he means the way God governs. The vision of Jesus' kingdom is the picture of the way things ought to be (absolutely no reference here to Rush Limbaugh).

Pilate's misunderstanding Jesus portrays the yawning gulf between the two. Jesus and Pilate are facing off, a little like in a hockey game, two players face one another for different teams. Yet they prove to be playing a different game. They also belong in different leagues. The confrontation is between the purely religious and the merely political, the idealist verses the practical person, the heavenly agent against the one whose understanding is locked within this world.

Jesus is no immediate political threat to Pilate. At the same time Jesus is much more deeply subversive than Pilate thinks, and the Jewish leaders understand this better than Pilate. Shouldn't Pilate really be disturbed by this fellow who teaches his followers to pray, "Your kingdom come, on earth as in heaven?" If another kingdom is about to arrive, the current administration must be booted out. If Jesus' kingship is the way God governs the world, then his government is against, contrary to, and in immediate opposition to any government that does not operate as Jesus' Heavenly Father would.

Jesus certainly is an unusual case, and Pilate is truly puzzled by this nuisance. He has little patience with him even though he declares him innocent—kind of like modern day politicians have little patience with preachers who want the scriptures to speak to government policies of mere national self-interest—although it's interesting that politicians always seem free to pronounce upon religion. It's hard to diagnose exactly what Pilate thinks during this exchange. But we could imagine Jesus before similar politicians today and we'd probably perceive astonishment and admiration for the pure mingled with disdain and disregard for the weak.

Jesus says that he has come to testify to the truth and that everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice. Pilate cuts off this conversation by saying, "What is truth?" If Pilate says this with a sneer we don't know. We can't tell if it's a putdown stated with deep contempt or just a way to escape a conversation that has begun to pinch like a pair of sandals two sizes too small.

For certain what Jesus says sounds odd to him. Pilate knows about truth, the Greek and Roman Philosophers cut their teeth debating truth. Yet for them truth was something eternal, kind of an essence that floated high over human life like a cloud of an unchanging, eternal ideals.

However, Jesus conceives of truth as a Hebrew. Truth is not something that is static, but active, living, accomplishing things. In the Old Testament, truth meant standing firm, being established. Truth was something that supported life, something that could be relied upon, that did not shake, that was dependable.

In the Bible, truth is a virtue that energizes people's lives, not merely a thought that floats in or over people's heads. We arrive at truth by committing ourselves to it and doing it. We prove truthful by practicing truth. So, truth becomes the persons we are. You see truth in what we do and say. It's like character. It is exhibited most when there is no one else around to watch.

Truth is more than just internal and personal, truth is also relational. It must operate between people. Thus Jesus can say, "I am truth." Now in Pilate's world, ruling requires power but not necessarily truth. Pilate and his kind would kill for much less than truth. Jesus will die for truth.

"Pilate asked him, `So you are a king?' Jesus answered, `You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.'" Jesus' answer means that his kingdom is established here among us when anyone listens and honestly responds to his truth. He even gives Pilate the chance right here and now to listen and respond.

Strange thing, as we watch this little court room scene, the one who should be answering questions here asks them. When Pilate questions him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus counters, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?"

Jesus switches roles with Pilate. The accused criminal asks questions of the judge. And Pilate shows how vulnerable he is before Jesus, because Jesus will not buckle to a mere show of power or intimidation and he will not accept authority established by force or violence. Before our eyes, Jesus places Pilate on trial. You might as well have the judge and the accused physically switch places in the court, because Pilate now stands trial before the judge of the universe.

The question is not whether Jesus will be found guilty, Pilate determines he is innocent. But between the two of them the subject becomes whether Pilate will respond when he sees and hears the truth of Jesus. It is not enough that Pilate have sympathy for Jesus. For all his sympathy, he still kills him. Pilate doesn't concentrate upon what Jesus says to him, because if he did, Jesus says that, "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Pilate does not listen to Jesus' voice, but to the chief priests and the police that call for Jesus' death. He does not listen to his heart, but to political pressure and thus he surrenders to expediency. The truth about Pilate is that he does not respond to the offer God is making him through Jesus. Jesus does not have to judge him. He has judged himself, as do we all.

What do you suppose it was like for Pilate, years later, when he was living in exile as a failed government administrator? What was it like on those quiet nights when the lights were out and he walked under the stars with just memories of the captive peoples he had ruled, and ruled none too effectively? Oh, he could rationalize that he was just doing his duty. He had a number of people bumped off, but such has to be done for the good of the empire, even if some of the executed were innocent.

Pilate walks along the path in his garden and a shooting star catches his attention. "Even that Galilean who made such a stir. Have to do in that kind if you're going to keep order. That is what a prefect has to do, find out the truth and then execute the order. Of course, `truth' is kind of slippery. I remember he confidently flung that word around, like truth was an old friend of his, very familiar."

God's kingdom is always present in the uneasy conscience of those who have faced the truth in Jesus. You can put him out of your mind, you can even make a critical judgment against him, sentence him to death, as did Pilate. But still there is a court room in the heart's silence where he regularly returns. Jesus always returns to worry us about his truth. The spiritual presence of Jesus is not like a haunted house where people simply project all their childhood fears or adult prejudices. Jesus' Spirit makes us face the truth about God and ourselves.

Jesus is here as the truth in relationship. He comes inviting people to live with him and for him. We might think we can decide about Jesus, make a judgment about who he is or was. We might presume to have the evidence of his case before us and that we can consider the matter of Jesus for ourselves. But Jesus looks at us and asks what we are doing. We become the ones questioned. "Will you listen to the truth I bring you from God? Will you read the living truth of my ministry: Healing, forgiving, dying? That is truth. I am truth. What do you decide?" The truth is, we judge ourselves when we decide about him.

Pilate, years later, recalls that odd Jew, Jesus. He should be able to banish such memories. Pilate winces slightly with a sudden chill, puts his ten years in Judea out of his mind. The case should be closed. He wanders on through the shadows in his vegetables and tries to quiet an old man's memory.

When Pilate entered the court with Jesus, Jesus told him, "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Pilate suddenly found he was on trial. We came to this story and thought it was about Pilate. But the tables revolve once more. Jesus turns and looks at us and asks if we will listen to his words of truth. Will we allow Jesus' kingdom to enter and permeate our very selves with the truth and love he brings from his heavenly father?

This might occur in a garden, under the stars, or in worship surrounded by friends. But when Jesus speaks to us the court room of the universe falls silent. All the way from heaven the camera zooms in for a close up of the defendant. All the saints and angels await our answer.

David Bales First Presbyterian Church, Klamath Falls, Oregon