Good Friday: What
is Truth?
The Passion of our Lord
Jesus Christ according to John
“What is
truth?”
Judas is in the height of
his betrayal of Jesus. He has brought
his entourage of Roman soldiers and religious leaders to Jesus so that Jesus
can be handed over to them and Judas can collect his payment. They approach Jesus, and he asks them, “Whom
are you looking for?” “Jesus of Nazareth.”
Jesus replies, “I am he.” With
that statement the group who has come to arrest him steps back and falls to the
ground! Today’s therapists tell us to
listen to our bodies, that our bodies have much to teach and tell us. This group hounding Jesus evidently chooses
to ignore their bodies’ message, chooses to ignore the fact that just being in
his presence makes them fall over!, This
group chooses to ignore the truth, chooses to dwell in denial of the presence
of God in their midst.
A little while later when
Jesus and Pilate, the Roman governor, have their conversation, Jesus tells him,
“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” to which Pilate
responds, “What is truth?” We cannot know for certain what tone of voice Pilate
was using. Was he being sarcastic, flippant or seriously interested in
Truth? What John does indicate is that
Pilate does not wait around for an answer from Jesus. Later when Pilate hears
that Jesus claims to be God’s Son, he is “more afraid that ever.” Again his body is telling him something that
he ends up ignoring.
What is truth? That God loves us so much that He gave us all
that he had to give us - his own Son, who poured out his life for us “on the
hard wood of the cross that we might come within the reach of his saving
embrace.”(BCP, p.101) Jesus withheld
nothing as he gave his life for us, that we might live fully. The truth is that
we have been created by God, that by Jesus’s gift of life we are forgiven our sin,
sins known and unknown, things done and left undone. The truth is that God wants us free from our
bondage, free from sin, transformed into the people that speak and live the
truth of God, the truth of love.
Sometimes it is difficult to open our eyes to the truth much less to
live in the truth. Judas chose money
over the truth, the religious leaders who were threatened by Jesus’s authority
chose power over truth, the Roman government chose control and civil peace (Pax
Romana) over truth. All were in denial
of the truth of Jesus even when the truth was right in their faces and they
felt it in their bodies. Sometimes it is
easier to live in denial, to try to escape the existential questions of life,
to dwell in the superficial realm. But today, Good Friday, is the day we peel
back the curtain of denial and focus on the reality of the cross, the reality
of God’s overflowing love as seen in Jesus giving his life for us.
“Everyone who belongs to
the truth, listens to my voice.”
Will we choose to belong
to the truth? Will we listen to God’s voice?
Will we choose to accept
God’s love poured out for us and give that same love to others?
No comments:
Post a Comment