“Que es veritas…What is truth?”  Has that ever bothered you? Kept you awake?  It has me: Pontius Pilate, Roman Procurator of Judea, the one who sent Jesus of Nazareth, the “King of the Jews,” to the cross.  Because I don’t know what truth is!  And I’ve been washing my hands ever since…

I have to govern a very rebellious province.  The Jews are the unhappiest members of the Roman Empire, and they let every Roman within earshot know it.  And let me tell you, governing them has been very difficult.  More than once, my superiors in Rome have raked me over the coals for allowing matters to get out of hand.  Mistakes have been made, and my resume isn’t looking very healthy.  The Emperor wants order, and any procurator who cannot guarantee it will soon be looking for another job.

My job is on the line every day.  Trying to govern these people who are so possessed with religious debate!  They’re insane!  The Pharisees disagree with the Saducees.  The Herodians disagree with the Essenes.  This rabbi disagrees with that rabbi.  Every moment of every day could be taken up with trying to decide between all the different theological opinions in this religious-soaked land!  And we Romans know that none of them are true anyway!  And I have more important things to worry about!  Like keeping order so I keep my job!

And then one Friday morning, into all of this walked Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.  Now if he really was a king, I would have to deal with it, of course.  But a quick interrogation was plenty to convince me that there was no political rebellion in this man’s mind.  He was of no concern to me.  Another blathering prophet in a land filled with religious blatherers.  I found no basis for a charge against him.  And I should let him go, according to the Roman ideal of justice: fiat justitia ruat caelum “Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.”

But then, this guy standing in front of me says: “My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.  But now, my kingdom is from another place.”  “You are a king, then!” I said.  And Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”  This guy claimed to be from another world!  And that He is on the side of truth!  The real truth.  The right truth.  This is what frightened me!  This is why there is such an uproar!  And letting him go (which is the right thing to do) is going to add fuel to the fire out there, unless I can convince them he is harmless!  Which just shouldn’t be hard to do!  Except for him and his “truth”!  That’s going to blow things up!  That’s what’s going to make this difficult – him and his truth!  I mean, WHAT IS TRUTH?

So I sat there shaking my head, trying to wrap my mind around the concept of truth, and when I looked down, I saw this beetle crawling near my feet.  And I thought, “How did that get in here?”  It’s very unusual to see one of those inside my palace.  So I was looking at this beetle, thinking about what Jesus just said about being from another world and coming into this world to testify to real truth, and I thought to myself, I wonder if this beetle can relate to me?  I wonder if he sits there and ponders the truth of his world?  Do we have something in common?  Is it hard for both of us to imagine life beyond our own world?

I wonder if, as far as that beetle is concerned, his entire universe is this palace?  This building?  Does he look up at the ceiling at night in amazement of the huge “sky” he lives under?  Does he spend his life exploring all he can, thinking all reality is in this building?  Does he assume that since he has never seen the builder, there was no builder?  Does he live his whole life in here thinking this is all there is?  I bet he does.

So am I like him?  I have never seen the hand who made the universe.  I assume there is no life beyond the here and now.  I believe there is no real truth outside this world.  No real purpose beyond my own pleasure and survival.  No real Divine Being.  No eternal reality.  But am I as silly as a beetle who thinks this building is all there is to the world, when the truth is that there is something more out there, something much more?  Could that be true in my world?  Could this Jesus actually be sent here to testify to that truth?  Should I be listening to him?  OR… as all good Roman education has taught me so well, am I correct in saying that the truth is what we can see right in front of us.  That this really is all there is.  What is TRUTH?

You see, if there really is no truth beyond this world, (and that just does make the most sense) then:  I don’t have to acknowledge a God.  Yeah I have to honor Caesar as divine, but I don’t have to acknowledge a real God.  Then: I can satisfy my own desires with all that I do.  And then, I can make my decision here today in any way that will serve my needs the best.

If there is no truth, no divine standard, I can make any decision on this and be fine.  I would have a clean conscience, because I am the judge.  There is no divine standard, no truth I could be judged by… If there was truth, and this guy in front of me was from another place beyond this one, then I would be in trouble!  Unless I got in line with that truth!  Do you see how it is easier for me to live on the basis of no divine truth?  And yet, if there isn’t any truth, then guys like Barabbas can do what they want, can’t they?  We Romans try to insist that our sense of justice is truth.  Having no truth leads to disorder.  Men could violate my wife and children, people could commit robbery and rebellion.  Everyone living according to “their own truth.”  So maybe there is truth!  Or needs to be!  Maybe if Barabbas was raised in a home which knew of divine truth, like Jesus, he wouldn’t have killed so many of my men.  And if there isn’t divine truth, then why do I feel guilty?  Why do I keep washing my hands? Aaghh!  What is TRUTH?

Truth would give purpose, wouldn’t it?  I remember hearing a fable when I was young.  It was a conversation between a canary in a cage and a lark on a window sill.  The lark looked in at the canary and asked, “What is your purpose?”  “My purpose is to eat seed.”  “What for?”  “So I can be strong.”  “What for?”  “So I can sing,” answered the canary.  “What for?” continued the lark.  “Because when I sing I get more seed.”  “So you eat in order to be strong so you can sing so you can get seed so you can eat?”  “Yes.”  “There is more to you than that,” the lark offered.  “If you’ll follow me I’ll help you find it, but you must leave your cage.”  Now, I know there are implications of this fable just to help us get the most out of life.  But is there something more to it?  Is this world actually our cage?  Is there a greater purpose beyond?  Can we have real purpose without real truth? Without a real God?  What is TRUTH?

There was that beetle again.  Wondering if there is life and truth beyond this roof.  Some beetles probably believe there is.  They think: There must be a builder of this place.  How else would there be light in here?  How else would we find food to salvage?  Where would the other little bugs come from?  But then other beetles probably argue with them.  They notice there is light because people light torches.  There is food because servants bring it in.  They have figured out how everything works.

And I guess I tend to agree with them.  There has to be a more simple, logical answer for why everything is as it is than “truth from another place.”  I mean, look at all we know!  We have figured everything out!  We know the world is flat.  It will be only a matter of time before one of our explorers finds the edge of it.  We know the sun is a floating ball of light that revolves around our world.  And our medical advancements!  We have pretty much figured out the human body.  Our doctors can do amazing things.  I can’t imagine there is much more to learn.  And if there is, we will learn it.  So what is truth?  Sorry little beetle, but I guess I come down on the side of believing in what I can see.

The screaming of the mob woke me back up to my predicament.  This guy is standing in front of me saying there is a higher truth.  That he came from another place.  That there is a truth beyond what we can see here.  And they told me that he claimed to be the Son of God.  This made me even more afraid!  Where do you come from?  Who are you?

He was innocent.  I believed that.  Three times I tried to convince the Jews of that.  And then my wife sent this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”  OK, now what!?  Yes, he is innocent.  But did she mean something more by that?  What does “innocent” mean, anyway?  Who really is “innocent”?  Me?  You?  Don’t we do things behind closed doors that we wouldn’t do in front of others?  Don’t we all have our faults?  Our weaknesses?  Our little pleasures we like to dabble in?  You do, don’t you!  You just thought of yours when I said that!  So who really is innocent?  Innocent means “perfect” in the Latin language.  What does it mean in yours?  Who is perfect?  I find no basis for a charge against this Jesus, but is he really innocent?  Perfect?

Something told me he was.  So just in case, I washed my hands of it.  Just in case!  I wanted to be innocent of this man’s blood.  So I keep washing my hands, but it doesn’t seem to be helping.  Which makes me think:  we all have this desire to be innocent.  Why?  Doesn’t that mean that there is a truth out there?  IS THAT TRUTH?  I wanted to declare myself innocent, make myself innocent, but only a God, a real God, could do that, right?

Is that who was standing in front of me?  The Son of God, the power from above who came to bring truth and innocence into this world?  You know, his followers are being “baptized.”  They repeat his words and wash themselves with water, like this water.  And they say and believe this washes their sins away because of what He has done for them!  And then, being declared truly innocent, they get to be a part of the real kingdom of God!  His kingdom.  His world.  Forever!  Being innocent, forgiven, and at peace with God!  And by the way they live, and by the way they no longer fear me, you can tell they truly believe this!  They don’t even fear my cross anymore!  That is peace!

So was this really the innocent Son of God?  True God standing right in front of me?  I don’t know… I must be too much like the beetle.  Too concerned about my world, my boss, my life that is overwhelming me here and now.  I wouldn’t know Truth if it was standing in front of my face…  Would you?  I hope you do.  Because then, you wouldn’t have to keep washing your hands day after day to try to get rid of your guilt!  Then you will have someone like Jesus to be your King instead of the king I live in fear of!  Then you can live in true peace like those on the side of truth who listen to Him!  Then you can actually know forgiveness.  The forgiveness that was granted to my men… as they nailed him to that cross…Father, forgive them…