I don’t know if you have ever seen a film starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson called “A few good men.” In the film Jack Nicholson plays a corrupt Colonel in the US Marines and Tom Cruise plays a US Navy lawyer tasked with investigating a death on a Marines base.
The climax of the film is a scene in a court room. Jack Nicholson’s character is on the stand being questioned by Tom Cruise. And Cruise keeps saying he wants the truth. Nicholson keeps evading until eventually he snaps and shouts out.
“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”
In a way, Jesus’ trial before Pilate reminds me of that, for like in all trials, it all hinges on truth. But unlike in the film, in this trial it is Pilate, the prosecutor who snaps, rather than Jesus the accused. It is Jesus who is in control not Pilate.
It may seem strange to be thinking about the story of Jesus’ trial before Pilate at this time of the year. It is normally a Bible story we associate with Good Friday. But in the church calendar, the Sunday before Advent starts is the Sunday when we think of Jesus as King and all that means. And in his encounter with Pilate, Jesus talks of his Kingship.
The passage is often referred to as “The trial before Pilate”. But in a way, it is Pilate who is on trial not Jesus. It is Pilate’s own morality and values that are on trial not Jesus.
Pilate knows that Jesus shouldn’t be on trial. Pilate says to the Jewish leaders
31 Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.’ John 18:31
Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent of the crime of which he is accused. Pilate knows that Jesus is not a threat to Roman rule in Judea. And that is all Pilate is concerned with – maintaining the “Pax Romana”. The peace of Rome.
But even though Pilate says in John 18:38 ‘I find no basis for a charge against him.’ and is ready to release Jesus, politics comes in to play. And then, as now, politics and the truth are not often acquainted.
Pilate can be regarded as the most powerful person in Jerusalem. As Lamar Williamson puts it in his commentary on John’s gospel, Pilate is “the local representative of the greatest power of the time.”
But Pilate, supposedly in control, is trapped by fear. The Jewish leaders want Jesus crucified. If Pilate doesn’t do what they want he is undermined. Will he lose control? Does he have enough troops to quell the trouble the Jewish leaders might stir up? How will it look in Rome if he is not able to keep control in Jerusalem? How will it affect his career?
In his heart Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent. But Pilate is a politician and he has to do the correct political thing. And that thing, for the good of Rome and to save his own skin, is to find Jesus guilty in some way. That will keep the local leaders happy and on side. And after all, what’s one more dead Jew?
After hearing Pilate’s trumped up charges, Jesus says:
‘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.’ John 18:37
But Pilate retorts
38 ‘What is truth?’
Those words of Pilate could be spoken by a politician today. Use your imagination for a moment. Think of Pilate as having dyed blond hair that seems to have a mind of its own; a fake tan and wearing a suit that always seems slightly too tight.
Jesus says:
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.’ John 18:37
And our blond, fake tanned, overweight Pilate replies
“What is truth? It’s all fake news.”
Pilate and Jesus were coming at things very differently. Pilate was interested in self-preservation. Of being in control of his own destiny. If this meant bending the truth or ignoring it all together so be it. (Sound familiar?) Whereas Jesus’ values embody the truth. God’s truth. One of the foundations of the Kingdom of God.
It’s worth hearing what Jesus says in John 18:37 once more:
‘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.’
Jesus saying that he is the truth, is a theme found in several different places in John’s Gospel. In John 14:6 Jesus told his disciples:
6 ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And earlier, in John chapter 8 Jesus said
‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’
“The truth will set you free”. If Pilate had accepted what Jesus was teaching, Pilate would not have been held captive by the shackles of ambition and power. The same goes for so many politicians today.
But the same goes for the followers of Jesus too.
On this last Sunday of the Christian year, the Church proclaims Christ the King. As ruler over all. On this day we reaffirm that we bow down only to Christ. We reaffirm that the Church does not give allegiance to any other person, principality or power that claims to be sovereign. We affirm that when Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life” , that is what we believe.
Do we really embody the truth of Christ? Sadly, not entirely. Why? Because we water down Jesus’ truth or corrupt it so as not to offend. And we do this I think to try and maintain a voice in society.
But the voice we then have isn’t Jesus’ voice speaking Jesus’ truth. And we know in our hearts that Jesus’ truth is often hard to accept.
More and more the church is afraid to speak the truth of Jesus to power. And it seems to me that more and more the Church is backing off when faced with the equivalent of Pilate saying, “What is truth?” Or, to put it in a more contemporary way when faced with “What the Church is saying is fake news” we back off. Or even worse, we water down the truth of Jesus to try and get a seat at the top table.
We’ve seen this happen in Nazi Germany in 1930s where a large part of the Church supported Hitler. We’ve seen it in places like China where the Church goes along with the regime in order to still exist. Dare I say it we are seeing in the USA where white conservative evangelicals have bought in to Donald Trump’s agenda. And I feel in our own country at times the Church is not vocal enough on social issues.
One of the truths Jesus spoke was one we all know, “Love your neighbour as yourself”. But have we done that? Have we loved our black neighbour, our Jewish neighbour, our Muslim neighbour? Have we loved our divorced neighbour? Our gay neighbour? Our single mum on benefits neighbour? Have we loved our Polish immigrant neighbour? Our assylum seeker neighbour?
Have we lived Jesus’ truth in caring for the sick? And those in prison? Have we lived his truth by clothing the naked or giving the thirsty water? It is easy to think that these are someone else’s responsibility. After all, when did we encounter someone who was naked or sick or thirsty or in prison? But that misses the point. Nowadays, in a world more complex than at the time of Jesus, the care of the sick, the naked, those in prison and the thirsty often falls to governments. Therefore, we can speak Jesus’ truth by ensuring that wealthy countries support poorer countries and that in our own country our health and welfare care is doing the job properly for the most vulnerable. And that prisoners are treated well including being educated and trained.
It's worth remembering that Jesus said
Luke 4:18
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
Jesus' truth is therefore about Good News not Fake News.
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Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’
Then later Jesus says
“… 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.
Are we on the side of Jesus’ truth? Do we seek to uphold his truth? And do we seek to ensure others uphold Jesus truth too?
“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth! Jesus truth!”
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