In John 18:38, Pilate, the man tasked with ascertaining if Jesus was guilty of all that he was accused, asked a question: what is truth? Pilate didn’t accept it, but the answer was right in front of him.
Truth is not found in ourselves, our opinions, our politics; truth is found in Jesus, and we have to be willing to submit our lives to it.
Truth is revealed
“So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 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?”” (John 18:33-38).
As Pilate enters the court of judgment, he assumes that he is the one judging and determining truth. But divine truth can’t be determined through logic and reason; it’s revealed. And Jesus tells Pilate that He has been sent to “to bear witness to the truth”—the truth that Jesus is king and deserves our submission.
Truth is exposing
Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Jesus split humanity into two categories: of truth and not of truth. And the only difference between them is whether they listen and accept Christ.
Truth exposes our hearts. Our responses to Christ expose our spirituality and faith. We’re either walking in light or we’re walking in darkness; there’s no such thing as gray or middle ground.
If we want to be of truth, we have to be willing to submit to it. In the book of John, when someone listens or hears, they’re experiencing a fundamental change in themselves. Listening encompasses understanding, belief, and obedience. It means submitting to the revealed truth. Knowing God’s word isn’t enough; we have to obey it, as well.
Truth is rejected
We often dislike it when revealed truth challenges what we already believe. In the 1840s, for instance, a doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that in one hospital, one in ten mothers were dying after childbirth due to postpartum infections. But in a second clinic, staffed mostly by midwives, only 4% of mothers died from infection. Upon investigation, he found that doctors at the first hospital were not washing their hands between performing autopsies and assisting in childbirth, transferring contamination of ‘cadaverous particles’ (germ theory had not yet been accepted in Vienna) to new mothers. Midwives did not perform autopsies; thus, the lower mortality rate at their clinic. Semmelweis ordered doctors in the hospital to wash their hands in chlorine solution between patients, and the postpartum mortality rate plummeted. You’d think this would’ve been celebrated, but the medical establishment rejected his findings: it was impossible to prove he was correct without germ theory; autopsies of deceased women showed multiple reasons for their death, rather than just infection; doctors were offended by the accusation that their gentlemanly hands could be unclean; and some people simply misunderstood his findings. The practice of handwashing only gained widespread acceptance after Semmelweis’ death, decades after his original breakthrough.
Semmelweis did not invent germs or disease vectors; these things existed long before anyone thought to wash their hands after touching a dead body. His research—and the research of other scientists—simply revealed them. In the same way, Jesus reveals truth, and sometimes that truth reflects badly on us. We often attempt to mold it to fit what we want, to align with the lives we’re currently living—but Biblical truth is unchanging, and we have to shape ourselves to align with it. God determines truth, not us. The world’s wisdom cannot guide us; our own opinions cannot be our authority.
Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, but he still delivered Him to be crucified. Why? The truth was revealed to him but Pilate was unwilling to respond, because submission has a cost. Accepting Jesus as truth would have cost him everything—his career, the peace, and possibly even his life. How many times have we stood in Pilate’s place, fully aware of the truth before us, and chosen the easy path? Semmelweis lost everything after he found truth; he was harassed, driven out of Vienna, and eventually died in an asylum, after being beaten by guards. But his truth was vindicated, in the end.
Are we willing to let Jesus’ truth guide us? Are we willing to submit?
Discussion questions
