What is Truth? (John 18:38)

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" - John 18:37-38

Jesus's encounter with Pontius Pilate is a fascinating display of dialogue between earthly power and heavenly power. Pilate was the most powerful man in the land of Judea in earthly terms, and Jesus was (and is) the most powerful man on earth in spiritual terms.

If we can try to imagine it, this scene produces a powerful and vivid image in our minds. We can imagine Pilate dressed in his royal garb, and Jesus dressed in tattered clothes as a prisoner. At first glance we would never suspect that the seemingly powerless man in this image is the King of the world, while the man who seems to wield power is in truth a prisoner to the world.

At first glance, all we would see is a Roman governor talking with a lowly prisoner. But if we had eyes to see, we would see the stark contrast between Eternal power and temporal power. Spiritual power and worldly power. Divine power and human power.

Pilate though, like many still today, did not have eyes to see. Though he was staring Truth in the face, he asked the question, "What is Truth?"

We would do well to learn from Pilate, and ask ourselves what we believe the answer to this question to be. For the way we answer this question is more significant than we could possibly imagine.

Since the fall of man, humans can not be faulted for failing to know the answer to Pilate's famed question. However, since the incarnation of God into our world, man has no excuse for not finding the answer. The incarnation has brought the answer within reach of man.

Man's only obligation in this world is to devote Himself to the Truth - even before he quite knows what it is. If he does this, all other answers will come of their own accord. If one is willing to sacrifice all for the sake of Truth, he cannot possibly fail to find to find what he is seeking.

Ask, and it will be given to you;

seek, and you will find;

knock, and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives,

and the one who seeks finds,

and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Matt 7:7-8