Truth is a Person

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

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.”

“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.”

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

- John 18:33-38

In the penultimate commandment of the Ten Words, Israel is told that they should not bear false witness against their neighbours. God is a God of truth, and his people should be people of truth.

Everyone agrees - in theory. Truth is a good thing. We want to know the truth. We like to think of ourselves as searchers for truth. But we all live under the power of the first lie: did God really say? (Genesis 3:1). The problem seems particularly acute in this age of truth decay. How can we become truthful people?

In John 18, Jesus stands before Pilate in one of the most striking scenes in Scripture. The Jewish leaders bring Jesus to the Roman governor because only Rome can authorize what they want - his execution. Pilate questions Jesus about their central charge: “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answer seems to be something like 'yes and no'. Yes, a king, but not in the way they think - a kingship of coercive power, violence and compromise. His kingdom is “not of this world” and he is a king that rules through speaking truth: “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Pilate’s reply—“What is truth?”—is the final time the word truth appears in John’s gospel, which is full of talk about the truth and how the truth comes to us. From the opening chapter (“the Word… full of grace and truth”) to Jesus’ promise that “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free,”... the truth is not an idea or ideal. Jesus is the truth.

When Pilate asks his question, it not clear whether it is cynical or genuinely searching. Perhaps he views truth as whatever is politically expedient. Perhaps he feels trapped between competing claims—Jesus’ truth, the leaders’ truth, Rome’s truth. His ambiguity mirrors the questions of our own age, in which truth can seem contested, subjective, or unreachable.

The tragedy is not that Pilate cannot discover the truth, but that the Truth is standing in front of him and he cannot recognise it. Joy Davidman said, "Pilate chooses to doubt reality rather than accept his own sin".

The irony is - the truth is! - that Jesus is not the one on trial. Pilate is on trial. Will he listen to the voice of the one who is Truth? And we all stand behind Pilate - we are on trial! Will we prove ourselves to be on the side of truth? Will we listen to voice of Jesus?