Jeremiah 2:11-13 Ephesians 5:6-17 John 18:28-40
What is Truth?
Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” (John 18:38), echoes through the ages, but especially in times when those entrusted with upholding God’s Word deviate from it. How does one define truth amid a smorgasbord of options that all claim to be true? Can truth change or adapt? Can God change his position on truth? We all know how we feel about flipflopping politicians…but are we ok with a flipflopping Church, or worse…a flipflopping God? Are there non-negotiable boundaries that delineate truth, and how are we to determine the limits of these borders? What is truth?
The trial of Jesus provides us with a striking example of how human agendas can distort the truth. Recent decisions by revisionists in the Church demonstrate a troubling parallel, as cultural pressures lead to the compromise of Scriptural authority.
Those among the leaders who did believe that Jesus was who he claimed to be, failed to openly acknowledge their faith in him because they were afraid they might be ridiculed or excommunicated. As John put it: “they loved human praise more than praise from God.” (John 12:42-43) For example, Nicodemus came to Jesus under cover of darkness (John 3:1-21) and only cautiously challenged the Pharisees’ misuse of the law, backing down immediately after they dismissively mocked him (John 7:45-52). Joseph of Arimathea remained a secret disciple of Jesus, right up until after the crucifixion, because he feared the Jewish Leaders (John 19:38). These men wanted to keep their seats in government and, no doubt, their comfortable lifestyles, and so they said and did little that might jeopardise their future. As Edmund Burke reputedly once said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
But what is worse, is that the ecclesiastical leaders had led the people astray. On one level, they had kept them ignorant, calling them an accursed rabble who did not know the law (John 7:49), but on another level they had added so many extrabiblical rules and regulations that the truth had become totally obscured. Quoting Isaiah, Jesus said of the Pharisees and Scribes: “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9) And all too often, as the leadership goes, so go the people.
In short, it was a classic case of the blind leading the blind. The ecclesiastical leaders were twisting truth to suit their agenda. They rejected Jesus because he threatened their power and their political positions (John 11:48) and they obstinately chose to ignore his truthful and authoritative teaching as well as his corroborating powerful humanly unexplainable deeds.
Now, like the Sanhedrin, the revisionists in the Church, many of whom hold a position of spiritual leadership and have been entrusted to faithfully teach and uphold the Word, have exhibited a total disregard for Scripture. Unlike the liberals of yesteryear, these new revisionists no longer seek to reinterpret certain Scriptures to suit their agendas, but rather they agree with the plain meaning of these texts but they deliberately choose to disregard them because they believe truth has changed.
This is no longer undermining the authority of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16) to conform to cultural trends that dictate theological shifts. This is no longer twisting truth for Cultural Relevance. No, this is a declaration that truth as defined by Scripture is no longer relevant because truth (or some will even dare to say God) has changed. The Church’s desire to appear inclusive and relevant has led to compromises that prioritize societal approval over Scriptural fidelity. Like the Sanhedrin, there’s a tendency today to not reinterpret God’s Word to fit human agendas, but rather to ignore God’s Word as written, replacing it with “the commandments of men”.
In Jeremiah 2:11-13, God asked: “Has a nation (and he was talking about pagan nations) changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and (they have) hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (ESV)
One may well ask today if our church has changed its God. Since God declares in Scripture that he does not change (Malachi 3:6), if, as the revisionists claim, the god of the church does and has changed, well then, it can no longer be God in our church, can it? It must be something else…some other god.
But at this point in our Gospel story, another party is introduced. Pilate, the pagan Roman governor. Note that although the religious leaders regarded this man with contempt and refused to so much as cross his threshold lest they be ceremonially defiled, they were eager to seek his assistance in their bid to extinguish the Light that consistently exposed their lack of religious reality. Well did Jesus say of them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” (Matthew 23:25-26)
You see, there’s no point in going through the external motions of religiosity if there is no internal basis for such behaviour. If you deny the validity or veracity of the Word of the One you claim to follow, you really aren’t following him now, are you? Then at least be honest and walk away from his Church…don’t try to recreate his Church to mirror your own or society’s image.
And yet, defying all logic, it is at the praetorium, the very symbol of Roman judgement and oppression and everything the leaders defined as unclean, it is there that they seek to extinguish the truth. False piety has no limit to the extent to which it will stretch to keep itself from being exposed as worthless and meaningless.
They knew they had no legitimate charge to bring against Jesus and yet when Pilate indicated that he knew that too, they were offended. “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” Now Pilate may have been many things, but he was not a fool. He knew he was being used here. If there was no charge specifically relating to Roman law, well then, they ought not to have expected him to conduct a Roman trial.
However, according to Roman law, no one in any occupied territory was allowed to put someone to death. This was more than likely an attempt to protect those who were sympathetic to Rome and thus judged to be traitors by their own people. Nevertheless, this is why the leaders countered Pilate’s attempted dismissal with this fact: it was not lawful for them to put anyone to death.
And so, at this point their true hearts were exposed. They wanted him dead. As Jesus said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
But because the leaders were not allowed to put Jesus to death – a regulation, by the way, they did not always follow, as in the case of Stephen – Jesus would not be stoned to death as was the Jewish custom, but rather he would be crucified which was the Roman custom for non-Roman citizens. John interpreted this as an act of providence. In numerous places, Jesus had indicated that his death would be a result of being “lifted up”. In John 3:14 he is recorded as having said: “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” Then later as in John 12:32: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” But more specifically, as Matthew recorded Jesus statement in chapter 20 of his Gospel (20:18-19): “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
It is interesting to note that the Early Church interpreted the trial and execution of Jesus as a fulfilment of David’s prophetic words as recorded in Psalm 2. In Acts 4:27-28 they prayed, “…for truly in this city (Jerusalem) there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate (both representatives of the kings of the earth), along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”
Unlike some of our brethren who see the convergence of the nations upon Jerusalem as a future event yet to be fulfilled, the Early believers understood it as an event fulfilled at the crucifixion. Nevertheless, whatever our eschatological presupposition might be, the interpretation of the Early Church concerning the passion of our Lord should help us to look beyond the mere human hands involved to focus on the Divine hand that controls all things to the benefit of those who love him (Romans 8:28). Even though the trial, sentencing, and execution of Jesus was marked by flagrant injustice from start to finish, the Godhead (remember Jesus laid down his life willingly – John 10:18) was in sovereign control of all events and of all peoples involved at all times.
Now, by this time, Pilate had realised that he was in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, there was no accusation warranting his involvement as a representative of Rome. On the other hand, things were clearly getting out of control. He was already on tender hooks with Caesar because of the underhanded activities of his close friend Sejanus who had risen to power as prefect of the Praetorian Guard but had been executed for treason in AD 31. It is possible that Pilate thought that one misstep might make him the next in line to lose his head. And so, he summoned Jesus to himself.
We do not know the exact motive for this summons, but his line of questioning indicates that he was intent on acquittal. The first question centred on political power and political aspirations. A claim to rulership was a threat to Rome and therefore would have justified Pilate’s intervention. Now, Jesus’ reply is an interesting one. Essentially, he was asking if Pilate was merely parroting the false accusation he had heard or if he had arrived at this conclusion by some other means. If truth is to be owned it must be revealed and received.
Jesus then further exposed the ludicrous nature of the accusation by stating the obvious. If he was some sort of zealot seeking to overthrow the government, his followers would be fighting tooth and nail for his release. Sadly, as it were, just about all of them were in hiding. But this may have been our Lord’s veiled way of uncovering the reason for the leaders’ rejection of him as messiah. Remember, popular belief was that the messiah would be a warrior king who would lead Israel to victory and independence. But Jesus’ aim was not to reinstate the geographical kingdom of Israel. No, his kingdom was not of this world. His kingdom was and is a spiritual kingdom…a heavenly kingdom inhabited by a spiritual Israel.
Pilate’s next question, “So, are you a king?”, led to a divine declaration of purpose. “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth.” This is where the true horror of the revisionist agenda comes to light. “Everyone,” Jesus said, “who is of the truth listens to my voice.” A rejection of the Word that Jesus described as the Truth in John 17, places those who twist or dismiss the Word in one of two roles: either the role of the Sanhedrin or the role of Pilate.
Pilate’s final dismissive rhetorical question to Jesus, “What is truth?” reflects a worldview where truth is subjective, making it malleable or changeable to personal or political convenience. He seemed to have been aware of his ignorance…otherwise he would not have sought to have Jesus released…but he also seemed unwilling to admit it and therefore he ultimately rejected it even though he later regreted it.
Interestingly, there are two stories about Pilate’s untimely end. One says he committed suicide out of remorse for what he did to Jesus…the other that he was executed by Emperor Caligula. Knowing the man and his character, the latter is more likely the reality.
However, my point is that when some revisionists in the Church abandon the clear teaching of Scripture, for personal or political expediency, their action mirrors Pilate’s relativism, treating God’s eternal truth as negotiable. But as we’ve already seen, Jesus declared God’s Word to be Truth (John 17:17). Indeed, he claimed to embody that truth. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” he said. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Ultimately, truth is not a human construct that needs regular revision to suit cultural shifts. Truth is a divine revelation, defined and delineated by an unchanging and an uncompromising God.
Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin and Pilate as the embodiment of that Truth (John 14:6). His trial exposed humanity’s rejection of God’s truth for self-serving purposes. What is Truth? Truth was standing right in front of them and yet they chose to ignore him or dismiss him, because their aim was to extinguish him so that they might replace him with themselves.
Similarly, the revisionists seek to reinvent a church that maintains an external and outward appearance of truth with an interior that is not empty, mark you, but filled with what is diametrically opposed to the very truth they claim to represent. If they say God has changed – and therefore Scriptural truth has changed – well then, they have abandoned God – or at the very least, they have exchanged him for a different god.
And what are we left with then? A godless organisation pretending to be a church.
If they say that out of pastoral concern or political correctness or expediency, we must disregard the truth as revealed in Scripture, the same is true. Abandoning the words of the one who speaks is the same as abandoning the speaker. And so, the faithful in the Church must stand firm on the foundation of truth (1 Timothy 3:15), even when we face opposition or cultural or political or peer pressure. Faithfulness to God’s Word requires courage, humility, and a willingness to be countercultural.
The trial of Jesus reveals the dangers of rejecting God’s truth for the sake of power, tradition, or cultural acceptance. The Church today faces the very same temptations. Will we twist the truth or ignore the truth or distort the truth or reject the truth for the sake of political pragmatism?
Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” challenges us to return to what the true Church has believed through the centuries so that we might once again stand firmly on God’s Word as our primary and ultimate standard for all matters of faith and practice. As believers, we are called to uphold and proclaim the unchanging truth of Scripture, regardless of the cost.
What is Truth? God’s Word is Truth. Reject the Word and you reject God.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2025
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