Jesus answered (Pilate), “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
Every year on this day, Pilate’s question haunts me… What is truth? There is so much in the events of the Passion of Jesus that are not truth, where people are acting in ways that are anything but truthful, or anything that Jesus deserves.
Certainly, there is Peter, the one on whom the church will one day be built; but today when he is asked if he is one of the 12, his answer chills to the bone “I am not”…
In an odd turn of events Pilate actually tries to stand up for the truth more than once; even when he finally gives up and lets the lies take over, he makes one last bold statement of truth… he places a sign on the cross, that reads in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”. It is a declaration to the world, the world that Jesus came to save, that he, and not the emperor is the King of the Jews and of the world…
What is truth? Why is the crowd so angry? Because, the crowd is confronted with the truth, and they cannot face it… they would chose to deny the truth and kill an innocent man rather than to face it…
Jesus is the ultimate truth of God… and on this day this “Good” Friday, we are confronted by the truth; and it is difficult to face… even Peter at least on occasion was able to grasp the truth on other days, even if it was just briefly… but for some reason, he cannot do it today… not today when the truth threatens his very existence; not today, when choosing what is easy seems like the best idea; not today, when the truth seems dangerous and against all good sense…
Peter and Pilate cave under pressure and do what makes sense… they do what will keep them safe… and as they both look on, Jesus is anything but safe; all those whom he has loved and trusted, have left him to walk this last walk alone and abandoned…
Jesus spent his life living as and witnessing to the truth; and it is not some truth that is judged by the ways of the world; but rather it is God’s truth… God has spoken truth in a life lived in this man; God has given truth a personal identity… one that can help lost humanity figure out what truth is…
We call this day Good… and in a way that makes no sense to the casual observer. it is good; Jesus, the one who is the ultimate truth, is lifted up today to save the world he so loved; unlike Pilate or the emperor, his throne is not to be found in a palace chamber, but rather in the pain, the suffering and even in the death of humanity… his friends could not be with him in the darkness and suffering, but he is there… and strangely enough, in his death there is ultimate victory; in the inexplicable way of God’s truth, there is still hope that radiates from the cross. To us, the cross seems a device of torture; to us, it appears that the empire has won; to us and to Jesus’ mother and friends, it seems that all hope is lost…
But the truth that Jesus embodies means that even here, even today, hope and love are not dead; the empire may seem to have won, but for a God who risked everything to love us, the cross is the only throne that makes any sense… it makes sense because the truth is, Jesus will be found in all those places we fear; he lived his life on the margins, speaking and touching and healing all those whom others were afraid of… he was by his very life, proclaiming the kingdom of God; and the leaders of the day had him crucified for it, because siding with the empire was safer, less risky, it took less personal investment…
But Jesus doesn’t think like we do; he thinks like God thinks… his life is a life of complete and total personal investment… it doesn’t get any more invested than dying for those whom you love…
And so, today is Good…difficult, yes… we face the fact that our truth isn’t not really the same as God’s truth; that we, like Peter and Pilate often chose what is easy and what is safe; Jesus chooses the more difficult path, and goes to those places that we cannot face… and because he is there, it is all made new and we are made whole… even in our death… Here is your king… Truth incarnate… Hail King of the Jews.