John 18.33

John 18:33-38

Dear Friends of the Truth,

Pilate found himself in a difficult situation early on Good Friday morning. The Jewish leaders had brought Jesus to him and claimed that Jesus deserved to be executed. Was that true? Pilate didn’t really want to get involved in finding out, but Jesus was accused of being a king, a rival to Caesar. That was a serious charge, so he had no choice but to investigate. Whether he wanted to our not, he had to serve as a judge and determine if the accusation the Jewish leaders brought against Jesus was true or not.

Pilate didn’t waste any time. After he heard the accusations, he had Jesus brought before him and got right to the point. He asked Jesus, Are you the king of the Jews?

Before Jesus answered he wanted to determine what Pilate was thinking about the accusation the Jewish leaders had made. Was he inclined to believe them or not? Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me? Am I a Jew, was Pilate’s answer. He was inclined not even to listen to what the Jewish leaders had to say. What had Jesus done to make them so angry with him? Convinced that Pilate was willing to listen to what he had to say, Jesus was no longer silent, he told him the truth about who he was and what his mission was.

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

At this point there was one truth that Pilate clearly understood. Jesus was no threat to Caesar. He had no army. He had no interest in earthly power. In fact, if Pilate cared to check, he had told his disciples NOT to fight for him.

Pilate went out to the crowds and spoke the truth. I find no basis for a charge against him. Jesus is not guilty of the accusations you made against him. Other gospel writers tell us that Pilate understood that it was out of envy that the Jewish leaders were trying to get rid of Jesus.

What a wonderful truth Pilate spoke! If only he knew the full meaning of what he said! Jesus is not guilty, not just of being a rival king to Caesar, but he is not guilty of any sin. The truth is that He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet he remained without sin. Because it is true that he had no sin of his own he was able to take upon himself our sins and the sins of the whole world. God was able to give him our sins and to give us his perfect righteousness. For God made him who had no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Isn’t it interesting that so many who call themselves Christians today don’t see the truth that the heathen governor Pilate saw? Some want to make Jesus guilty of sin, just a man who was sinful like us. Other Christians today want to make Jesus’ kingdom a kingdom of this world. They talk about Jesus as if his mission was to make them healthy and wealthy in this life. They long for a time when they think that Jesus is going to appear again on the earth and rule the world from Jerusalem and bring about 1000 years of earthly peace. But Jesus clearly told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world. He clearly told Pilate that his mission was not to establish earthly peace or to rule the world from Jerusalem. And Pilate got it.

Sometimes even we fall into the trap of thinking of Jesus as an earthly king. If there are wars or natural disasters we wonder, “Where is God? Why did he let this happen?” When we face sickness or disease in our own lives, we wonder about the same thing. We hear God’s promise to make everything that happens serve our good and we think only in terms of our earthly, physical lives. We think, or at least act, as if that promise meant that if we are sick, we will always be healed, or if we lose money in the stock market God will restore it, or if we wreck the car God will give us a better one. We at times are guilty of abandoning the truth that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, that his kingdom is a spiritual and eternal kingdom. Yes, he does rule the physical world as well, but always in the interest of his spiritual, eternal kingdom, always for our spiritual and eternal good.

Father forgive us when we fail to see the truth that Pilate saw; when we focus too much on our physical lives and abandon the truth that your kingdom is not of this world.

Although Pilate did see the truth that Jesus was not an earthly king, that he was no threat to Caesar, he totally missed the more important truth that Jesus was trying to get him to see. As soon as Pilate was convinced that Jesus wasn’t a rival to Caesar, he wasn’t interested in hearing anything else from Jesus.

But Jesus’ statement had raised some very important questions. If Jesus was not from this world, where was he from? What was the important truth that he came into this world to tell everyone? Jesus was ready and eager to tell him the answer to these important questions, but Pilate brushed him off with those infamous words, what is truth?

The truth is that Jesus is not from this world. He is true God, one with the Father from eternity. He came to earth to show us the truth about God.

From nature and from our conscience we know that God is righteous and holy. We know that he hates sin. We know that his justice demands that all who sin be punished eternally. That’s all true, but it’s not the whole truth about God. Only in Jesus do we see that it is also true that God is love. Only in Jesus do we see the full extent of God’s love; that he was willing to do everything necessary so that people don’t have to get the eternal punishment they deserve.

Jesus came to earth to sacrifice himself in our place so that we would see the truth about God. God is just. Sin has been punished. And that God is the one who declares the world not guilty of sin because Jesus was punished in our place.

Sometimes, like Pilate, we brush off this important truth, though probably for a different reason. For us, it’s too familiar. We’ve heard it over and over and over again for as long as we can remember. We’ve heard it in our homes. We’ve heard it at church, at Sunday school, and for some of us, in our grade school, high school and college classrooms. We repeat the words of the creed that so beautifully summarize the truth about God almost without even thinking about what we are saying, they are so familiar to us.

Father forgive us when we take for granted who you are and what you have done for us instead of making it the focus of our lives.

We know that Jesus said earlier in his ministry that he is the way, the truth and the life, that no one comes to the father except through him. We know that truth. We have memorized that passage and heard it often. But how we are tempted to abandon this truth in our world today! How many times haven’t you had someone tell you that all great faiths get you to the same place—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, all the great religions of the world are just different paths to the same place? Like Pilate, they say “what is truth”, who can know what right about eternity, and so they take the easy path and choose to focus on this life and leave the discussion of eternal things for another, “more convenient” time.

When someone says that in your presence, what do you do? Do you try to ignore what they said? Did you agree with what they said? Did you abandon the truth that Jesus is the only way to heaven, or did you do the politically incorrect thing and give witness to the truth?

Father forgive us when we don’t have the guts to witness to the truth, when we abandon the truth that Jesus is the only way to heaven by keeping silent when we should speak your truth.

Jesus told Pilate that everyone on the side of truth listens to me. But Pilate had already stopped listening to Jesus. He heard what he wanted to hear. Jesus was not a political threat. Anything else Jesus had to say didn’t seem important to him. It didn’t seem relevant. It didn’t seem that listening to Jesus talk about a kingdom that was not of this world would help him keep his job as governor or help him keep those rebellious Jews in line. So, Pilate missed the truth that Jesus wanted him to see.

Again, we sometimes feel the same way. We wonder, “What good is it going to do me to spend time reading the word, or coming to church, or praying? How are those things going to help me keep my job in a troubled economy? How are those things going to solve my disagreements with my wife, or husband, or room mate, or coworkers?” We fall into the trap of thinking that what Jesus says isn’t relevant in the here and now. Maybe when we get older and closer to the end of our lives, maybe then it will seem more relevant.

But the truth is that unless we focus on the forgiveness we have in Jesus, we can’t love our neighbor, or forgive our wife, or husband, or coworker. The truth is that focusing on the fact that Jesus is our savior liberates us from guilt and worry. The truth is that no one knows when this world will come to an end, or when their time on this earth will come to an end, so the most important thing is to listen to Jesus, to focus on the truth that forgiveness and eternal life are ours in Jesus. As Jesus said, what good is it to gain the whole world, but lose your soul?

Jesus didn’t come into the world to establish an earthly kingdom of peace. He came to witness to the truth. He came to witness to the fact that this world isn’t going to last forever. He came to establish an eternal kingdom. He came to live and die and rise again so that all who trust in him can be a part of that kingdom and live with him in perfect peace forever.

Father forgive us when we abandon this truth by taking it for granted, or by brushing it off as unimportant. Help us to focus daily on the most important truth of all times, that Jesus came into this world to witness to the truth that he is our loving savior, the only way, truth, and life, the only way to eternal life in heaven.