What is truth?

Jim Coggins

The speaker is the governor of one province in a great empire. In his travels, he has encountered many different philosophies and religions, and he is not certain which of them is true. He is not even certain that there is such a thing as truth. Moreover, his position makes him the supreme court judge in his province, the one who has the final authority for deciding right and wrong. Yet, in many of the cases that come before him, he finds it difficult to find out the facts, the truth of the cases, and he finds it even more difficult to decide what would be a just decision in the case even once he is certain he knows the facts. As well, on his way to the top, he knows that he himself has taken a number of dishonest and unjust actions, and he feels justified in doing so--so what do truth and justice mean anyway?

Now consider the immediate context. A man has been brought before the governor. The man is accused of causing civil unrest, even urging revolution. This is a serious matter because the political situation in the province is delicate. Any small spark could set the whole thing off and cause a civil war in which many people would suffer and die. On the whole, the governor thinks it might be wise to execute the troublemaker and thus prevent a war. On the other hand, he is not sure the man is actually a revolutionary as he is charged with being. What should he do?

The governor questions the prisoner about the facts of the case. But the prisoner turns the questions around. "What do you think?" he asks. The governor shrugs and says in effect, "How do I know? I don't know what the truth is."

The prisoner goes on to state that he really is a king. The governor feels that he is finally getting somewhere; the prisoner seems to be admitting that he truly is guilty of being a revolutionary and thus deserves to be executed for treason.

But the prisoner does not stop there. He says, "I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

Now the governor is frustrated. He is not even sure if there is such a thing as truth. This prisoner is not only claiming that there is such a thing as truth but that he himself knows it, knows it clearly and absolutely. The governor cries in frustration, "What is truth?" Then he orders the prisoner to be executed, thus preventing, or at least postponing, a civil war.

The governor made a mistake. The prisoner was not in fact a revolutionary and was not guilty of treason. The governor executed an innocent man. He executed an innocent man because he was more interested in keeping a handle on the overall political situation than he was in finding out the truth in this one small, insignificant trial.

Even more than that, the governor missed out on a great opportunity. The man before him claimed to know not just truth, but the ultimate truth, the meaning of the universe--and the governor did not even bother to hear him out. The governor, not being on the side of truth, not even knowing if there is such a thing as truth, did not listen to the other man. He had an opportunity to at least seek truth, and he was not interested, he passed it up.

The governor was a man named Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, a province of the Roman Empire, about the year A.D. 30. The man he executed was Jesus of Nazareth, also called "Christ". The story I have just related is told in the 19th chapter of a book called "The Good News According to John", which is part of the Bible.

This Jesus made a remarkable claim. He said that he was the Son of God (in addition to being born from a human mother). Just the day before he was executed, Jesus had said to His followers, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well" (John 14:6-7). Jesus was saying that there really is an objective truth, and that He Himself is the only way to God, who is the source of truth. Indeed, Jesus was saying that He Himself was the source of truth and thus was God.

That is a remarkable statement to make. But what if it is true? What if Jesus really is God? What if Jesus really knew the truth because He Himself is the source of all truth? Jesus said that anyone on the side of truth, anyone who was really seeking truth, would eventually come to realize that Jesus is exactly who He said He is.

Can we blame Pilate for not recognizing Jesus as the Son of God and as the source of truth? How was he to know that in executing one insignificant man in order to prevent a war, he was actually rejecting all truth and executing God who is the source of truth?

Pilate didn't know. How could he? He was only a limited human being. How could anyone expect him to recognize and decide ultimate realities? But the point is: Pilate did not even try. He did not listen to see if Jesus really did know the ultimate truth. He did not try very hard to find out the truth even about the specific charges made against Jesus. In refusing to recognize or even seek the truth in the small things where he could have found it, he failed to find truth at all.

This is the way it is. The great, ultimate truth is intimately connected to all of the small truths, the real day-to-day facts of our existence. More correctly, the small facts and simple truths are part of the great, ultimate truth that comes from God. God is the source of truth and the source of morality. He has revealed them to us through His Son Jesus and through the book called the Bible.

What will you do with that ultimate truth? Will you seek it, investigate it thoroughly to see if Jesus really is the source of truth? And what will you do with the small truths of life? Will you seek to know them, to face the facts and report them honestly? Or will you be like Pilate, who sacrificed the small truths for political expediency and ended up sacrificing the ultimate truth? Are you, like Pilate, faced with an opportunity to learn the truth, and will you, like him, pass it by?

Jim Coggins is editor of Encounter and lives in Abbotsford, B.C.

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