What is truth?




 
"What is truth?"

Today, the Christian church all around the world commemorates Good Friday, the anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus.  The question,"What is truth?" is as pertinent today as it was on that day 2,000 years ago.  It came in the context of an interesting conversation between Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Jerusalem, and Jesus Himself.


Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. "Are you the king of the Jews?" he asked him.

Jesus replied, "Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?"

"Am I a Jew??" Pilate retorted. "Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?"

Jesus answered, "My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world."

Pilate said, "So..you are a King?"

Jesus responded, "You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. all who love the truth recognize that what I say is true."

"What is truth?" Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the peole and told them, "He is not guilty of any crime..."

The Gospel of John, Chapter 18, verses 33-38 (New Living Translation)

On this Friday in March of 2013, a question for meditation in each of our lives might well be, "What is truth?"  Is truth found in some philosophical axiom, a mathematical solution? Or perhaps, might truth be found in the person of Christ?

In the famous words of C.S. Lewis, we are forced to choose between just a few options - either Jesus was who He said He was; or he was a religious lunatic, a fanatic and crazy person.  He cannot be both.

Who is He to you this Good Friday? And what does that mean for your life?

What is truth?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Contemplative Politics

Image
I began writing this blog 2 1/2 years ago...what can only be described as several lifetimes ago, from the perspective of the events that have transpired in my life since May of 2010.   I won't take the time to recount those events, but suffice to say, I never imagined that I would use this space to contemplate politics, or the place that our political perspectives may take on the path of our individual spiritual journeys... To rightly share my story, I must go back in time to January of 2008, when I, like many Americans, first heard then-candidate Senator Barack Obama speak after his groundbreaking win in the Iowa caucus.  I remember the experience quite vividly, because I was mesmorized by the ideal he seemed to represent.  As I sat in a theater this afternoon watching the Dinesh D'Souza political documentary "2016", I was struck by the fact that much of our political consciousness is defined by what each of us projects upon the candidate of our choice. ...
Read more

Crawl into a box, and wrap yourself up as a gift to others...

Image
What if we could wrap a box of love, and put it under the Christmas tree? What would it look like? Would it rattle if you shook it? Would it be heavy or light? I am woefully behind on my Christmas preparations this year...there's no Christmas tree in my front room...no Christmas candles around the house....no presents wrapped, or even waiting to be wrapped! What is wrong with me?? When I was a kid, my Dad sometimes traveled for work, and periodically, my Mom would let me sleep with her while he was away...on those nights, she would tell me stories from her childhood...and one that comes to mind is Christmas. When my Mom was a young girl in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Christmas festivities didn't really begin at all until the week between December 18 and 25. During this week, the general mercantile store would add a toy department, and for just that one week...the kids would ooh and ahh over all the toys in the display window. Christmas trees went up on Christmas Eve, and of...
Read more

A question to ponder...

Image
Last night I was reading The Richest Man in Babylon , by George Clason. If you've never heard of the book, it's a classic...an allegory on the subject of how to wisely handle your finances. Sometimes when I'm reading a book, I stumble upon a statement or question that is totally unexpected in its impact, and last night was such a time. In this chapter, the story was of a young man who had squandered the money his father entrusted to him to begin his life as a man. As a consequence of his bad choices and seemingly insurmountable debt, the young man ultimately ends up being sold into slavery... While a slave, the young man has a conversation with the wife of his owner, and relays his tale of woe...how his life has been marred by "ill fortune." In response to his tale, the wife asks this question: "Have you the soul of a slave or the soul of a free man?" If you happen to be a Christian, or even if you're simply familiar with the writings of the Apostle ...
Read more