You Say that I Am a King

Day 150: John 18:25-40, 19:1-22

“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?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him.'” - John 18:37-38 ESV

Everything that Jesus did bore witness to the truth. Nothing He did was unintentional. Pilate was having trouble wrapping his mind around the concept of truth, and many of those in our culture today are having the same struggles.

We want to make allowances for people to float through life however they desire, even if it may lead to destruction. Yet, the problem with everyone creating their own truth is that it causes mass confusion. Nobody really knows who they are anymore, at least for more than three days at a time. For me, this is my great fear. What if I live a majority of my life and end up wasting it with an everything-is-relative mentality?

Jesus knew who He was, and He also wants us to be sure of who we are.

The word used for truth is the Greek word ἀλήθεια alētheia, and Louw and Nida translate it as the content of that which is true and thus in accordance with what actually happened.

Who gets to decide what reality looks like? Us? Finite, created beings? Or perhaps we should let our Creator take the lead on this one. Jesus has given us every reason to believe that we can trust Him.

"Pilate wanted an acknowledgment from Jesus that he was a claimant to worldly kingship. Jesus refused to be pinned down in this way. Instead, he said he came as a witness to God’s truth, a witness to the coming kingdom of God, and informed Pilate that Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. Thus he challenged Pilate to stop listening to the manufactured charges of his accusers and start listening to him. In this exchange of challenge and riposte Jesus emerged as victor and Pilate was reduced to confusion: ‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked." - Kruse, C. G. (2003). John: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 4, p. 354)