Becoming True - Part 1

Focus Scripture

John 18 : 33-40 (NRSV)

Then Pilate entered the headquarters* again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’

After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, ‘I find no case against him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ They shouted in reply, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a bandit.

Daily Byte

How would you respond to Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” How have you usually understood truth? What role does truth play in your life? Jesus tells Pilate that he has come into the world to “testify to the truth”. This statement is the reason for Pilate’s question, which is never answered, according to John’s account. Perhaps Pilate was not really asking. Perhaps he was throwing his hands up and showing his scepticism of truth through a rhetorical question. There is a similar ‘suspicion’ of truth in our world today, but perhaps that is because we have failed to take the question seriously. From Jesus’ perspective, though, truth is real, available and important.

As you meditate on truth, ask yourself what the word ‘truth’ means to you. In what ways is your life built on truth? In what areas of your life do you think you’re failing to be true? What does it mean for you that Jesus “testifies to truth”? In what ways does your worship help you to find truth and live truthfully? How can you be more open to God’s truth?

Pray As You Go

We speak about truth all the time, God,
defending it as if it was fragile and weak,
as if we were its guardians,
as if we could possibly hold its weight in our hands;

But, truth does not need us to protect it,
nothing we could do can stop it being true,
nothing we could do can make it more true;

But, when we think that our weak grasp of it,
our small understanding of it,
is the whole picture,
we rob ourselves of the wonder, the mystery,
the life-long journey
that the quest for truth can be.

Help us to learn that the power of truth lies not in owning it,
but in always searching,
always questioning,
always discovering;
and help us to learn that truth can surprise us
at any time,
through anyone.
Amen.

Today’s devotion is taken from Rev John van de Laar’s outstanding book ‘The Hour That Changes Everything: How worship forms us into the people God wants us to be.’ Used with permission

To order copies of this book and for other superb worship resources visit http://www.sacredise.com