What is truth? That's the question Pilate asks Jesus,
and Jesus has just said, For this I was
born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. We who just
have heard John's Passion remember that Jesus has earlier said that he, Jesus himself,
IS the truth, so we look to Jesus for the answer[1].
What truth do we
see in Jesus in the Good Friday story? Jesus has been betrayed and abandoned by
his friends. He is mocked, and slapped, and yelled at. He is stripped and
tortured and killed. What is truth?
The Good Friday
truth is that life hurts. All of us here are old enough to have experienced
that truth. We, like Jesus, know how it feels to have someone we love
disappoint us, perhaps even betray and abandon us. There may even be times when
life hurts so much that we, like Jesus, think even God has abandoned us, and
cry out My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?
The truth is
that life hurts. We, like Jesus, know what it means to feel pain in our bodies.
Perhaps we have not been slapped and tortured, but we know the pain when our
bodies betray us: when our bodies no longer work like they used to – the loss
of our body's ability to run or to remember; the sickness, the cancer, the
weakness of eyes and ears and heart…
The truth is that life hurts. We, like Jesus,
know death. The agony and emptiness when someone we love dies, and the pain of
facing our own death… So, the Good Friday truth is that, like Jesus, we are all
going to die.
What is truth? Ask Pilate; a good question for
today. Jesus said that Everyone who
belongs to the truth listens to my voice, and Pilate didn't listen. John's
gospel tells us that after Pilate asked the question, he walked away.
So the only
truth that Pilate knows is the one he sees all around him: The truth is life
hurts and we're all going to die. But those of us who do listen to Jesus know
something more. Those who listen to Jesus have heard the Easter message and can
hold it close to our hearts on every Good Friday of our lives. We cling to it
when life hurts and when we face death.
We, who listen
to the truth that is Jesus, remember that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, AND the life.
We, who listen
to his voice, have heard Jesus say, I am
the resurrection and the life; those who believe in me, even though they die,
will live[2].
That is truth. My brother, my sister, let us believe it! ■
