To Tell the Truth

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:

28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.

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

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

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

36 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.”

37 “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.”

38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. (John 18:28-40, NIV)

THE MAIN IDEA:

In reading through this passage many times, I came to the decision to discuss this section in a bit of a different way.  Rather than do an analysis of Jesus’ dialogue with Pilate, I thought we could look at what Jesus said and also what he didn’t say.  Jesus is standing accused before the guy that can have him crucified… or not.  So what was Jesus’ defense?  None!  He didn’t tell Pilate that he was being framed (which he was), and he didn’t tell Pilate that his accusers had a hidden agenda against him (which they did).  Instead, what he did was spoke the truth to Pilate!!!  Imagine yourself in this type of situation–you are being wrongly accused by people who don’t like you because you threaten their positions of authority and power.  What would you do?  Go on the attack against them, defend your innocence, or ingratiate yourself to Pilate hoping to get off easy?  All Jesus did was to speak the truth!

REFLECTIONS:

This makes me think of raising children and observing politicians.  Huh???  Let me explain.  When kids do something they’re not supposed to do, what is their typical reaction?  They “exaggerate” the truth in hopes of avoiding a spanking, right?  (Of course OUR children were never that way, but I’ve heard of this from other parents).  And remember the Watergate scandal back in the 70’s?  The politicians did something wrong, (breaking into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel), but the real mess came from all of the subsequent cover-ups, lies, and deceit.  I think that every one of us has, at one time or another, failed to “stand up and face the music” when confronted with our own wrong-doings.  What if instead of shrinking from our accusers, we simply acted like Jesus here and spoke nothing but the truth?  The short term results might be difficult to face, but the long term benefits to our lives in terms of reputation, trustworthiness, and integrity would far outweigh this, right?  The next time we are faced with taking the easy way out by fabricating a falsehood, remember how Jesus did it… he told the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  

WHO AM I?

I’m Alan Wassel.   This was a note posted at the Spicewood General Store bulletin board a while back.  You’ll only see this when living out in the country, right?