As most of you know, Amy and I were out of town last weekend celebrating the marriage of her sister Beth to her now husband Aaron. I had the privilege of officiating or conducting the ceremony in which these two people whom we care for deeply pledged their lives to one another. I decided several months back that I was going to take the Sunday after the wedding off and attend church with Amy’s parents. I did that for a multitude of reasons. The main reason being that I knew I would just be too exhausted to stand before you last Sunday with the appropriate amount of rest, energy, and focus that being here deserves. The second reason I wanted to worship in Ocean Springs was because quite frankly, I never get to worship with my wife; something that she reminds me of many times. For the better part of three years now really, I bet I can count the number of services that I have spent the entire time with her on one hand. Thirdly, a long-time friend of mine is the senior pastor of that particular church and I wanted to hear him preach. While doing so I was reminded of how much I love to just sit and listen to other folks preach. He gave a wonderful sermon on King David and how God used him is some mighty ways, but perhaps the most impactful way that God used him was as the author to many of our Psalms. He spoke of David’s actual legacy being different from what he thought his legacy would be.
After hearing God’s Word, we then took part in the Lord’s Supper. Their church receives the element of the cup much like we practice here and hold it until everyone is supplied so that it can be taken in unison. We were sitting towards the front, so we had to hold the cup for a little while before consuming it. As I’m sitting in the pew, holding this little cup of juice, I’m looking down at it and for some reason I’m deeply convicted. Now, I know that the elements of the bread and the cup don’t change during communion. However, the sense of feeling that I am experiencing is that I am looking at the blood of Christ. I feel like I’m looking at the very thing that has achieved my salvation. I’m looking directly into this tablespoon full of salvation and I am completely awestruck. Like I said, I know that the elements in and of themselves are not what save me, but it is what they represent that has already saved me. The body has already been broken and the blood already shed. Here I am with all of this theological training and education and understanding, and I am left just absolutely speechless at something that seems so simple, yet is making no sense to me at all at that very moment. How could something as simple and common as blood and the shedding of it mean so much to myself and all others who profess saving faith in Jesus Christ?
Before my absence last Sunday, we had looked at the larger narrative that is taking place here in our text. We looked at how the Sanhedrin had brought Jesus to Pilate and that he had examined Jesus and found no fault in him. We saw that when Pilate gave the crowd in Jerusalem, many of whom were Jews, the chance to free Jesus; they chose to set free a man named Barrabas instead. They chose to free a true criminal in every sense of the word instead of the Savior. You can almost feel the shame and embarrassment that Pilate has for what has just taken place under his watch. You see, Pilate wasn’t a Jew. We mentioned last time that that fact alone caused him great hardship in dealing with the Jews in Jerusalem. He really had nothing for the Jews at all. Pilate can’t speak from a Jewish perspective. He really doesn’t care whether or not Jesus’ theology coincides with that of the Jewish people at all. And the Jews know that as well, that’s why they are very specific in saying to Pilate that Jesus had been calling himself a king. To say such a thing and to give oneself that title would be insurrection and that would not be tolerated. Remember too, like we said a few week ago, Pilate really doesn’t care to be the one who handles the Jews dirty work, so to speak. He doesn’t want to be the one who deals with the Jews problem when they are the source of the majority of his problems.
Throughout the numerous questions and responses in the conversation that Jesus and Pilate have (understanding that there very easily could be much more than what is recorded here in John’s gospel), Pilate continues to really only want know one thing; he wants to know whether or not Jesus has been calling himself a king. Finally, Jesus acknowledges Pilates persistent questions and says to him, “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.” Jesus admits to his royal nature and the royal mission to which he has come to complete, but he does so is a very tactful way. On the one hand he says that he is a king, but on the other he makes it very clear that he is not here to subjugate and conquer the world. He is not here to win great military conquests and battles in order to grow his empire. Jesus is in this world simply to bear witness to the truth. He’s not here to shed the blood of others for his own glorification, but he is here to shed his own blood for the glorification of the Father. He’s here so that all those who are of the truth may hear his voice. Pilate, having heard Jesus give this answer, then asks him somewhat sarcastically, “What is truth?” Here, Pilate seems to have given up all hope of ever getting a completely straight answer from Jesus.
What is Truth? As I gazed into that little cup last Sunday, much like we will do again this Sunday in just a moment, I already knew what my text for the next Sunday would be. I didn’t know what I was going to say, but I knew where it was coming from. Then, I thought of the words of Pilate, “What is truth?” Truth is God; or more accurately God is truth. Either way, everything that is true comes from God. The world that we live in that says that truth is different for every person doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense how truth can differ. After all, truth is when there is a standard and there are facts that do not vary. God is truth. God is that standard and He is that thing, that fact that does not vary. Way back when, when we first began our walk through John’s gospel, we looked at the prologue. We saw that Christ’s coming into the world was the true light shining in the darkness. The Word became flesh, the Truth became man. Christ himself referred to himself as the truth on more than one occasion. That little cup, that little symbol of the shedding the blood of the truth, represents God’s love for me. It represents the truth that God, through the person and work of Jesus Christ, has paid the price that is owed for my sins; and not just my sins, but the sins of all those who profess and proclaim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The King, the Prophet, the Priest, the Messiah, the Lord, the Lamb, the Truth; no matter how many titles we may ascribe to Jesus, his work remains the same. He is the one who lived the life-to-perfection. He is the one in which there is all holiness and righteousness. He is the one who laid down his life so that we may live. What is the truth? The truth is that apart from Jesus Christ, we have nothing, we are nothing, and we are going nowhere (at least nowhere good). But in him, we have everything, we are the children of God, and we will one day enter into our eternal home and dwell in the presence and glory of our Father for all eternity. That is the truth. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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