What is Truth?

 

Once upon a time, a regional governor on the outskirts of a large and powerful dictatorship was in his palace luxuriating in the privileges of his position, and trying to stay on the good side of the emperor.  However, on a spring day, a noisy, rabble appeared at his door demanding justice in a local dispute.  A peasant claiming to have all the answers had disrupted the foundations of their culture, and had to be punished.  Local priests were stirring up the crowd with ever-increasing fervor, mainly because it was their status at risk.

He interrogated the troublemaker and was not sure he saw anything to be concerned about, but the mob outside was insistent. He tried to duck the issue and send him off to another authority, but he was returned.  He had the man flogged – but that was insufficient to stop the shouting.  Despite his almost unlimited resources to disperse a riot, the governor was cowed by the crowd, and let them have their way, leading to the torturous death of the perpetrator. Keeping peace with the crowd was more important to the Governor than delivering justice, and he did not need the distraction right now.

What looks like a travesty of justice, however, was at the heart of God’s plan for humanity.  Jesus’ undeserved death is the source of our hope for eternal life.

The similarities with the current American political environment are intriguing:

• The powerful are more concerned about their comfort and job security than the well-being of their subjects
• The voice of the mob drives the powerful
• The mob in turn is directed by a few influencers, who have an agenda
• The message of the mob may be far from truth
• Truth is hard to identify amid the noise

A weakness of the democracy model is that it is fundamentally mob rule, and the mob may not always be right, or even know what is really going on.  It is jarring that the same mob that bawled for Jesus' death, beat their breasts in grief 24 hours later when he died.  It is clear today that people’s political opinions are directly shaped and hardened by the news source they follow.  “Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.” - Allen Ginsberg.  The terrifying part is that truth is extremely hard to identify amongst the hysteria.  The loudest voices in the media are the least reliable, the most biased, and the most divisive, and many of us are controlled by them.  Opinions are radicalized on both sides.  Relationships break down.  Compromise is a dirty word.  Changing your mind in the face of new information is a crime.  Forgiveness is weakness.

The other factor influencing our behavior is the plethora of labels.  Applying a pejorative label to someone you disagree with gives permission to stop loving them.  Similarly, once someone chooses to align with a certain grouping and adopt their label, then they take on all of the baggage that comes with that group – even if it contradicts scripture, and so they drift away from truth.

And so, we come back to one of the last questions that Pilate asked Jesus: “What is truth?” The answer had just been provided by Jesus, “I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 

The critical question for us then, is “Who are we listening to?”