John 18:38-40

John 18:38–40 NKJV

38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.” 39 “But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40 Then they all cried again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

Pilate the great governor tasked with finding truth was completely oblivious to truth. Jesus is truth incarnate standing right in front of him. When we consider “what is truth” the scriptures have a great deal to say about the matter. John 14:6, John 16:13, James 1:18, John 1:14, etc.

Truth does not need updating. There is a story of a man who came to his old friend, a music teacher, and said to him, “What’s the good news today?” The old teacher was silent as he stood up and walked across the room, picked up a hammer, and struck a tuning fork. As the note sounded out through the room, he said, “That is A. It is today; it was five thousand years ago, and it will be ten thousand years from now. The soprano upstairs sings off-key, the tenor across the hall flats on his high notes, and the piano downstairs is out of tune.” He struck the note again and said, “That is A, my friend, and that’s the good news for today.”

Pilate goes out again to the Jews and now the crowd was growing in number and anger. He declares that he can find no fault in Jesus once again. Then he tries to propose a way for himself to get out of this predicament. Pilate had started a tradition of releasing one of Rome’s prisoners to the Jews at passover. So he really thought that perhaps Jesus would suffice the crowd as the one to be released but the chief priest had already been speaking in the ears of those around saying to call for the release of Barabbas. Barabbas was identified by the Gospel writers as a robber, murderer, terrorist, insurrectionist and such. It would be difficult to believe that they would much rather have this one that poses potential harm to them personally. The request for Barabbas in itself is a bit of a miracle in that his name is broken down to Bar- the son of; abba- father. So through God’s providential plan the crowd was shouting give us the son of the father. They wasn’t interested in the true Son of the Living Father, God Jehovah. Instead they were wanting the worldly son of the father. We in our anger and discontentment can wind up making the same disastrous request. When we think in the carnal, instead of the spiritual we ask for things that bring us harm and pain. God in His providential wisdom keeps us often from the times we error.