True

Reverend Philip Stringer

John 18:33-38

LET US PRAY: O merciful Father in Heaven: You give the knowledge of your saving help -- a comfort to your people. Feed our hearts with your Holy Word, and make our hearts instruments of your glory, today and all days. AMEN

I was in the basement of my parent’s home — our home. I was probably about 12 or 13 years old. Our basement was “finished” — it was living space, but also sort of fringe living space — storage room and my dad’s workshop at one end.

I was in the workshop retrieving something when I heard the scratching . . .

Freeze . . . wait . . . listen. There it was again. scratch-scratch-scratch. There was a rodent in the house! The sound was coming from underneath the workbench — in the back where it was dark, and I couldn’t see. Carefully, I withdrew, found my BB gun and a flashlight and returned. All the while I was thinking about Ben . . . Not my cousin, Ben, who gave me the BB gun. I was thinking about Ben, the rat! Do you remember him?

“Ben” was the 1972 movie sequel to “Willard.” It was a bad movie, but in short, the plot is that a boy befriends a rat whom he names, “Ben,” and Ben turns out to be the rat king of a swarm of killer rats — and the boy discovers that with this army of killer rats at his call, he can exert vengeance upon his enemies.

So, as I returned to the basement workshop with my BB gun and a flashlight, I was thinking about killer rats.

I carefully and quietly approached the workbench. I could still hear that unmistakable sound of nibbling and crunching. I aimed the BB gun into the dark corner, ready to fire. I turned on the flashlight.

And there in the corner sat my sister’s pet hamster, merrily munching away on a pile of birdseed it had clearly carried down to the basement in its cheeks.

How often are your actions based upon the things you fear? How much are the things that you do — the opinions that you form — the choices that you make — To what degree are these things shaped by your fears rather than reality?

Today, our scripture readings present to us a vision that is free of fear and prejudice. A vision of the Lordship of Christ that sets us free from fear to live lives shaped upon faith in the power of God’s love to not only hold us safe, but to live lives of purpose and meaning. It is an invitation for us to become instruments of peace and justice which bear witness to the power of God’s love to make all things new.

Jesus spoke to Pilate about truth. He was flesh and bones — the reality that God is intervening; He is evidence that God loves us and will give everything to redeem us. “Everyone who belongs to the truth,” Jesus tells him, “Listens to my voice.”

Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus is speaking to his followers, and he tells them, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

St. Paul traveled the Mediterranean region attesting to this truth. In Athens the people were intrigued by what he said, so much so that they bustled him into the central town theatre to hear him speak. The author of Acts tells us, “Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.”

Paul said to them, “I see that you are very spiritual because you have many idols throughout the city — and I saw one with the inscription, ‘to an unknown god.’ What you declare as unknown I now reveal to you — we are all made in God’s image — so God is not stone like an idol.” And he goes on to tell them about Jesus.

Later, when Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia, he encouraged them to live lives shaped by faith in the truth that God has redeemed us through Jesus.

He framed it in terms of “flesh” and “spirit.”

Fruits of flesh are all vices — murder, adultery, envy, theft. These things are why we have laws.

Fruits of the Spirit are joy, peace, love, kindness, generosity, gentleness. There are no laws against such things.

The Spirit sets us free from a life that is defined by laws of limitation. Free from a life that is defined by the worst parts of human sin. Instead, we are empowered to live lives consisting of what is good.

Live lawlessly!

Returning to Jesus and Pilate. Jesus says, “I came to bear testimony to the truth. Those who belong to the truth listen to my voice.”

It’s not included in our reading today, but the next sentence is a statement from Pilate. Pilate says to Jesus, “what is truth?”

I don’t think Pilate is asking for Jesus to teach him something. I think it’s rhetorical.

There are two kinds of truth — what are referred to in scholarly terms as OBJECTIVE truth and SUBJECTIVE truth.

OBJECTIVE — fact. History. the laws of physics. These things are indisputable. “A rose by any other name is still a rose.”

SUBJECTIVE — deals with meaning, reason, value and purpose. This is the sort of truth that is debatable. People form opinions based on subjective truth. One person might say, “The truth is that this is more important than that.” Another might disagree: “That’s your opinion. I think the opposite is true."

Life gets confusing when the line between objective and subjective gets blurred or erased entirely. Too often our beliefs and feelings override logic and fact.

We are living in a moment that is being largely defined by confusing opinions with reality. The subjective truth of what people want and value is taking priority over the objective truth of consequences and what is at stake.

In the basement — my actions were based on my fear of rats. I failed to recognize the objective truth that we already had a rodent in the house — it was a hamster!

My flashlight revealed the truth to me.

Pilate understood — perhaps better than most — how subjective truth can override objective truth.

As governor his job was to mollify the locals while asserting Roman rule. Historians like Philo and Josephus indicate that he had a hard time of it, with several clashes being recorded between the two. Pilate walked a delicate line between mollifying the locals and asserting Roman rule — and he certainly saw the objective truth in the moment — the hypocrisy of the Sadducees.

You may have recognized that this exchange between Jesus and Pilate is part of Jesus’ trial. The religious leaders — the Sadducees — had already had their own trial and declared Jesus guilty — and they wanted him dead, but they didn’t want to defile themselves by doing it themselves, so they wanted Pilate to do it for them.

But even beyond this — the Sadducees refused to defile themselves by entering Pilates headquarters — so Pilate actually had to go outside to meet them. The hypocrisy of this bunch was incredible!

Pilate sought to release him, but in the end he saw he was losing control. He saw that he was on the brink of dealing with a riot, so he gave in to their demands.

What he concluded in his comment to Jesus is that sometimes the truth just doesn’t seem to matter. And so, Pilate does what he does — handing Jesus over to be crucified — because of his fear of unrest.

You and I don’t have to live like that.

Jesus came to set us free from lives defined by what we fear. He came that we might live abundantly through faith in the power of God’s love to make all things new.

Perhaps Pilate came to see this too — That the peace that he sought can’t be achieved by appeasing our fears.

Eastern Xn traditions— Ethiopian Church and Coptic Church believe that Pilate and his wife actually became Christians, and in the Coptic church they are even venerated as saints and martyrs.

Is that true? I don’t know, but I hope so.

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When John shares his vision in Revelation of the reign of Christ in its fullness, he says, “all eyes will see him.” Everyone will see the truth.

You and I have this gift of a foretaste. We don’t have to wait for the end. The end of the story is already written and the truth has come so that we can live free today.

AMEN