It is a surreal scene, this genial interrogation by the governor of an occupied territory of an itinerant holy man with no visible support – whose life hangs on the outcome of this interview. These two do a conversational dance, Jesus never answering a question directly, making no effort to defend himself or suggest a scenario in which his life might be spared. When asked directly, “So you are a king?,” Jesus only says, “That’s what you say,” and that his purpose in being born was to testify to the truth.
And then he says enigmatically, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
This is an odd way to put it – we don’t think of "belonging to the truth,” so much as having the truth, possessing the truth, grasping the truth, denying the truth. Jesus suggests that the Truth is much bigger than we are; we can no more possess it than we can contain the ocean or corral the stars in the sky.
This truth that encompasses us, Jesus suggests, is an objective reality – which prompts Pilate to pose his famously early post-modern question, “What is truth?” I don’t think that’s a question on many people’s lips these days. There is your truth, my truth, the media’s truth, doctored distortions of history masquerading as truth. In the age of “truthiness” and “fake news,” how can anyone know the truth, much less get lost in its vastness?
Those who follow Christ are given a clue – he said he was the Truth, the Way, the Life. Coming to know Jesus as he was, and is, and is to come is one way we enter into the Truth. The time we invest in growing our relationship with this Lord who calls us friend brings us deeper and deeper into the ultimate reality of things – the Truth.
And he offered another clue: “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” I see many who claim to follow Christ responding out of deeply human emotions these days, showing little evidence that they are listening to the Prince of Peace who commanded us to love our neighbors, to tend the wounds of those considered outcast, to lead with humility and not with combative fear and rage.
How do we listen to Jesus’ voice? We study his word. We listen for him in our interior prayer. We follow his commands and teachings. We engage other followers of Christ. We pay attention to where his Spirit is bringing life to dead places around us, and join him there.
As we listen, we will hear, and we will know the truth, and the Truth will set us free.
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