Calvary Road Baptist Church
“WHAT IS TRUTH?”
John 18.38
For the first time I recollect, I recently used the phrase cognitive dissonance. The phrase has become popular over the last few years to describe the reaction of someone whose opinion is settled, but who finds it challenging to deal with facts that do not support it.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when someone whose mind is utterly made up about something or someone is confronted with evidence that shows him to be completely wrong. Being wrong is not something he can process in his thinking. Rather than change their conclusion about something or someone, those with cognitive dissonance choose to completely disregard the evidence that proves their conclusions or opinions to be wrong. They treasure their positions more than they value the truth. This is an issue we must all be aware of.
The illustration of cognitive dissonance I recently referred to was the chief priests and elders standing outside Pilate’s Judgment Hall and demanding the crucifixion of Jesus the Nazarene, even though the miracle worker had done nothing wrong, was found innocent of all charges by Herod Antipas, and was twice found innocent by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Additionally, Pilate asked Christ’s accusers three different times, “Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him.”[1]
The chief priests and elders were so determined to effect His crucifixion, so unwilling to entertain any notion or evidence their conclusions about Him might have been wrong, that they held a tight grip on their prejudice against the Savior despite overwhelming proofs that they were wrong, mistaken, and campaigning for the crucifixion of the Son of God.
Cognitive dissonance is a real thing, even though the descriptive term is relatively new. It is an old combination of pride, stubbornness, and ignorance that produces an irrational unwillingness even to consider that my opinion might be wrong. I have dealt with it for forty-five years, mostly with people who avoid the open display of cognitive dissonance by avoiding altogether the curiosity that might expose them to facts that would undermine their erroneous convictions. But sometimes with myself.
Take a young man contemplating the direction he will go in life. He has never been a young man before. He has never given serious thought to decision-making. He pays no attention to the consequences he might have to live with for decades if he makes a wrong move. But he is sure of one thing, though he has no basis for imagining that what he is sure of is correct. No one is going to tell him what to do. No one. He is determined, above all else, to make his own decisions without regard for the wisdom of those nearby, who care for his welfare, and who are demonstrably better decision-makers than he is. He has already decided that it is preferable to risk experiencing catastrophic failure by calling his own shots than to experience great success by heeding the advice and counsel of those with more experience than he has.
But he is not alone. Also in his company of near cognitive dissonance are couples with serious marital issues, who are simultaneously averse to seeking counsel about their marital challenges. They are more willing to live in misery and discouragement, possibly leading to divorce, than to entertain any suggestions that their approach to married life might not be healthy. Better the misery they are familiar with than the unknown blessing of marital bliss that requires humility and using God’s means of grace.
We could add to that the many parents who are losing or have already lost what little influence they hoped to have on their child or children. Yet, while they were losing their struggle to remain relevant in the lives of their kids, who might love them but certainly do not respect them, they seek no help from anyone, least of all those with demonstrable success as Christian parents.
So, you see, cognitive dissonance, and what leads to it, is not only found in the Bible. It is also found throughout our culture and can be found in our congregation and our bathroom mirror. But this morning I want to turn back to the Bible to show you yet another example of cognitive dissonance, this time in the life of the Roman governor who twice found the Lord Jesus Christ innocent of any wrongdoing but condemned Him to crucifixion anyway.
I draw your attention to what I think was the final question Pilate asked the Savior before quickly turning away without waiting for His answer. Remember, he had already asked our Lord, “Art thou the King of the Jews?” Matthew 27.11, before asking Him, “Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?” in John 18.35.
Now, near the end of our Lord’s final trial before Pilate, after Pilate had unsuccessfully attempted to rid himself of responsibility for this innocent Nazarene and to satisfy His enemies short of crucifying Him, Pilate asked Him a final question. It is perhaps the most important question ever asked by a human being.
Luke 23.4:
“Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.”
But what preceded that statement?
John 18.38:
“Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.”
What is truth? That is the question Pilate posed to the Savior, but without waiting for an answer from Him. How can truth be known? Or, to rephrase it, How can you know what you know? How someone knows what he knows is the concern of epistemology. Webster defines epistemology as “the theory or science investigating the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge.”[2] Epistemology has to do with how you know what you know. Being dead certain is not always enough.
I want to drill down on the text by looking closely at the actual question Pilate asked before he quickly turned away from the Lord Jesus Christ without waiting for an answer. Once more, the first half of John 18.38:
“Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews ....”
Let me share with you several opinions about Pilate’s question and his subsequent action. Puritan commentator
Matthew Henry wrote about Pilate’s question, “What is truth?”
“It is certain that this was a good question, and could not be put to one that was better able to answer it. Truth is that pearl of great price which the human understanding has a desire for and is in quest of; for it cannot rest but in that which is, or at least is apprehended to be, truth. When we search the scriptures, and attend the ministry of the word, it must be with this enquiry, What is truth? and with this prayer, Lead me in thy truth, into all truth. But many put this question that have not patience and constancy enough to persevere in their search after truth, or not humility and sincerity enough to receive it when they have found it, 2Ti 3:7 (‘Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.’). Thus many deal with their own consciences; they ask them those needful questions, ‘What am I?’ ‘What have I done?’ but will not take time for an answer.
It is uncertain with what design Pilate asked this question. First, Perhaps he spoke it as a learner, as one that began to think well of Christ, and to look upon him with some respect, and desired to be informed what new notions he advanced and what improvements he pretended to in religion and learning. But while he desired to hear some new truth from him, as Herod to see some miracle, the clamour and outrage of the priests’ mob at his gate obliged him abruptly to let fall the discourse. Secondly, Some think he spoke it as a judge, enquiring further into the cause now brought before him: “Let me into this mystery, and tell me what the truth of it is, the true state of this matter.” Thirdly, Others think he spoke it as a scoffer, in a jeering way: “Thou talkest of truth; canst thou tell what truth is, or give me a definition of it?” Thus he makes a jest of the everlasting gospel, that great truth which the chief priests hated and persecuted, and which Christ was now witnessing to and suffering for; and like men of no religion, who take a pleasure in bantering all religions, he ridicules both sides; and therefore Christ made him no reply. Answer not a fool according to his folly; cast not pearls before swine. But, though Christ would not tell Pilate what is truth, he has told his disciples, and by them has told us, Joh 14:6.”[3]
Here is what Methodist theologian Adam Clarke had to say:
“Among the sages of that time there were many opinions concerning truth; and some had even supposed that it was a thing utterly out of the reach of men. Pilate perhaps might have asked the question in a mocking way; and his not staying to get an answer indicated that he either despaired of getting a satisfactory one, or that he was indifferent about it. This is the case with thousands: they appear desirous of knowing the truth, but have not patience to wait in a proper way to receive an answer to their question.”[4]
Andreas Kostenberger suggests Pilate’s question was flippant, possibly reflecting his disillusionment (if not bitterness) from a political, pragmatic point of view.[5] If that is the case, perhaps Pilate was exhibiting cynicism or skepticism. I am persuaded cynicism and skepticism are the end products of a disappointed idealist. Some of us know idealistic young people who were once so shocked and dismayed by adults they admired as children, they were left with bitterness that turned into a corrosive cynicism and skepticism, resulting from their cognitive dissonance.
Whether Pilate’s question was serious or silly, motivated by curiosity or cynicism, with a heart that was wounded and torn or calloused and hard, doesn’t matter in the end. Everyone lives out his or her existence somewhere on the spectrum between offender or offended, wrongdoer or one who was wronged, brutal or brutalized, attacker or the one who was attacked, victimizer or victim.
Also, every one of us has experienced both sides of these situations at different times, and sometimes simultaneously. Therefore, not only is Pilate not all that different from so many other people (First Corinthians 10.13), but he was as responsible for his personal life decisions and responses to situations as anyone else.
Okay. It was not his fault that he was born into an influential Roman family, to well-connected and powerful parents and extended families. It was not his fault that his tender heart was torn by brutalities and disappointments growing up, and that his successes in life resulted from having to harden himself, to treat others then despicably, and also demonstrate the characteristic Roman cruelty toward slaves, non-Romans, and women. Argue that if you will.
All of this and more being true as mitigating his circumstances, he was the most powerful and influential of those who found themselves in the Lord Jesus’ presence that day. Don’t think he had not received a detailed briefing about the Lord Jesus Christ’s activities over the past three years, with updates covering the last few days and especially the last twelve hours.
Therefore, regardless of how mean his dad was or how inattentive to him his mother had been during his childhood, Pilate knew the Man standing before him had fed 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes, had raised back to life several dead people, had taken a coin to pay taxes from a fish’s mouth, had given sight to the blind, had cleansed lepers, and made the lame to walk again, and most recently a few hours before had made 500 Roman soldiers look foolish in the Garden of Gethsemane, where they apprehended Him when He could so easily have escaped as they arrived in the darkness.
Despite all the justifications he might have assembled in his mind to absolve himself from personal responsibility for the sinfulness of his soul, and the mistreatments by others, he might have wanted to blame on them for the nasty kind of man he knew in his conscience he was, Pilate and only Pilate was responsible for his response to the Lord Jesus Christ. And just like you and me and everyone else, it was Pilate and the Savior, and no one in between.
Roman Catholics like to pretend there is someone between the sinner and the Savior, the Roman priest. But the reality is it is impossible, First Timothy 2.5. There is only one Mediator. When it is all distilled down to the basics, to the bottom line, it is only you and the Savior. It is only me and the Savior.
Hundreds of Roman soldiers were nearby. Scores of Jewish priests were a short distance away. But the reality that it was Pilate and Jesus Christ and no one else is an essential reality for everyone. In the end, your mom, your dad, how you were treated as a child, who you blame for this and that, and the other thing, really does not matter at all.
Standing before Pilate was Someone who, a dozen hours before, had said,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
With the opportunity of a lifetime, a crucial moment that he will live with throughout the ceaseless ages of an eternity in the lake of fire, he asked,
“What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews ....”
If your impression is that Pilate posed his question and then abruptly turned away before the Lord responded with an answer, I think you are right. In that, Pilate was wrong. But at least he asked the question. True, he did not wait for the answer. But at least he asked the question.
Are you delivered? Or are you damned?
You are delivered if you have been justified by faith in Jesus Christ. You are damned if you have not trusted Him. My present interest is in leading you out of darkness into the light. I will use Pontius Pilate as a starting point, correcting his errors and adding to what he neglected.
First, YOU MUST ASK THE QUESTION
For decades as your pastor, I have emphasized that you are unlikely to learn the right answers unless you ask the right questions. I stand by that claim. You must open your mind and heart to curiosity about the truth by first asking. So many are unwilling to ask because they don’t want to know, so set are they on doing what they are of a mind to do. Those few who ask are taking an important first step. But it must be the right question you ask, or you will not likely get the right answer.
By asking, you acknowledge the answer is to be found nowhere in you. The truth is not something anyone possesses innately, waiting to be discovered. Eastern religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and many more, place outstanding stock in introspection and self-reflection, as though truth somehow wells up from within. Nothing in human history or Scripture supports that notion. Truth is external to us, originating outside us, and does not reside internally, waiting to be discovered or awakened. Thus, it is a significant, though mostly unappreciated, illumination of one’s understanding to come to the place where you are willing to ask the question. I am not suggesting that “What is truth?” is the only profound question to be asked, humanly speaking. Abram asked,
“Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?”[6]
The awakened sinners, on the Day of Pentecost, asked
“Peter and ... the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”[7]
And the Philippian jailor asked Paul and Silas,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”[8]
Even the thief on the cross reached out with his plea to the Savior:
“Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”[9]
Different sinners ask different questions. Abram sought an heir in fulfillment of a promise. Those on the Day of Pentecost were weighed down by guilt and were perplexed about what they should do. The jailor wanted salvation, though we cannot be sure how much of what he asked for he understood. The thief on the cross asked only to be remembered. The key is the humility to ask, an admission you have a need you cannot meet. Pilate, asking the most abstract questions that might be posed, “What is truth?” did something everyone would be well served to do. He asked.
Next, YOU MUST ASK THE RIGHT PERSON
Abram asked God. Pilate asked the Savior. The thief on the cross asked the Savior. The Day of Pentecost audience asked the apostles of Jesus Christ. The Philippian jailor asked the Apostle Paul and his colleague, Silas. But most who ask are not so careful about who they ask.
Many, if not most, who have spiritual or philosophical concerns do not ask the right person. Most of the time, people are content to ask someone they have confidence will agree with them or will at least not offer them a blatantly honest response. This is because truth is not prized, but feelings.
Those few who ask questions are often careful not to ask questions of those who know the truth and are committed to telling the truth, but to those who may or may not know the truth but are predictably committed to sparing your feelings instead of responding with a truthful answer that might disturb you.
It seems wise from what we learn in the Bible that the person you ask should be God, or Christ, or servants of God and apostles of Jesus Christ. Then, of course, there is God’s Word. It is wise to seek answers from God’s Word if you are not a patriarch, or if you do not have access to the Savior or one of His apostles. Ask someone who will take you to the Bible.
Third, YOU MUST PATIENTLY WAIT FOR A RESPONSE
Here I would part ways with Pontius Pilate, who was impatient. I applaud his willingness to ask the question he asked. I applaud his willingness to ask the Person he asked. Where he went wrong was his impatience to wait for the Savior’s answer.
Why did Pilate ask that question without waiting for an answer? Why did he, first, interact with the assembled crowd outside the Judgment Hall, then come in to pose that question to the Savior, to then immediately return to the assembled crowd? I admit that this is conjecture on my part, but I suspect that when Pilate asked, “What is truth?” it was in a moment of unguarded honesty and vulnerability. You might call it a slip, but it was an honest slip for a change.
Abram’s question to God seems to have been answered immediately. The Pentecost Day crowd’s question to Peter and the others seems to have been answered immediately. The Philippian jailor’s question to Paul and Silas was immediately answered. But questions are not always answered immediately. Questions are not always answered fully ... at first.
Since we are not patriarchs that God speaks audibly to and have no access to the glorified and enthroned Savior to speak audibly to us or His designated apostles, our source of truthful answers to the questions of life and eternity is the Bible, the Word of God. Especially when prayerfully seeking answers from the Bible, we should be willing to wait for a response to our question patiently.
The answer to our questions will come in the form of Bible truth that we are exposed to, that the Spirit of God grants illumination to us to understand and apply to our lives, and the wisdom to make the right decisions we have prayed for, James 1.5. But the picture is incomplete.
In the era in which we live, God’s plan is for sinners to ask, to be answered, and to come to Christ. Those who have come to Christ for salvation, complete and free are to be then baptized, thereby becoming a member of the Church congregation. Within the context of the Church congregation, gifted men are given to equip you for ministry in the Church, addressing the questions necessary to you following your conversion with answers found in the Bible.
But what if you don’t ask? You don’t ask, “What is truth?” Don’t ask, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Don’t ask, “What must I do to be saved?” My experience has been that most people do not receive the answer to a question they have not asked. This is especially true of spiritual matters. Therefore, even if you hear the correct answer to the question you have refused to ask, you will not listen to it or respond to it. It will fall on deaf ears. To unplug your ears, ask.
Finally, YOU MUST RECEIVE THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION MEEKLY
The answer you need in your quest for truth must come from God’s Word since we do not have access to truth-tellers like Abram, Pilate, the Day of Pentecost audience, or the Philippian jailor did. There is no other source of truth, John 17.17, said the One Who is truth, John 14.6.
But is there an additional requirement for receiving the answer to your quest for truth? Yes. You must receive the truth of God’s Word meekly. James 1.21 declares,
“receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Listen to what one resource wrote about the Greek word for meekness, prautas:
“Meekness, mildness, gentleness. It is the humble and gentle attitude expressing itself in a patient submissiveness to offense, free from malice and desire for revenge. The word stands in contrast to the term á½€rgá½µ.”[10]
This, the opposite of being angry and yelling, seems to fit the pattern referred to in James 4.6 and First Peter 5.5, both of which assert that
“God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
And if you humbly, meekly, receive the answer to your question? The answer to your question will always, eventually, inevitably be the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s answer to Abram was the prospect of Jesus. The answer to the Pentecost audience was the Savior. The answer to the thief on the cross was the Savior. The answer to the Philippian jailor was the Savior. He is the Answer! And the Lord Jesus Christ’s answer to Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” would have been, had he waited for the answer, “Me. I am truth.”
More than 2,000 years ago, a man asked a question. He was not known for his profundity, but there you have it. His question was profound, nevertheless. We are not sure what prompted him to ask the question, “What is truth?” It could have been any number of things.
But we do know that he asked, “What is truth?” to the Lord Jesus Christ, who about twelve hours earlier had declared to His eleven apostles,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
So, it was a perfect question asked to the Perfect Person who could accurately answer it. The tragedy, of course, was that Pilate was too impatient to wait for an answer to his question. That impatience likely cost him an eternity in the lake of fire, where the fire is not quenched and the worm dieth not. Throughout eternity, Pilate will cry out to himself, “Why did I not wait for His answer?”
You and I are not patriarchs, so we can ask God without expecting Him to respond audibly. And since the Savior is glorified and exalted to God’s right hand, we can ask Him without expecting Him to respond audibly. Because the Word of God is completed, the apostles of Jesus Christ are no longer among us.
That leaves us with the Bible. Ask God directly, but expect Him to answer through the Bible somehow. Cry out to the Savior but expect Him to answer through the Bible. You can even ask the apostles and prophets, by reading those portions of the Bible they wrote.
It boils down to this. If you are not a Christian and do not know the Truth in a personal way, you are a liar, you are living a lie, and it will cost you a great deal. I know that sounds harsh but hear me out.
First John 2.22:
“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”
If you deny that Jesus is the Christ, and you deny Him by not trusting Him, you are labeled a liar by the Apostle John. Further, you are antichrist. That, my friend, is serious.
In modern parlance, someone who has heard the Gospel, who accepts the Bible as true, who does not deny the existence of God or the reality of Who Jesus Christ is, yet does not come to Christ by faith, is experiencing cognitive dissonance.
You may not get mad and yell like some do like the chief priests and elders did, but it is cognitive dissonance still. Like Pilate, you don’t want to hear the answer you do not want to face. Your response guarantees your damnation.
That is why I urge you to come to Christ.
__________
[1] Luke 23.22
[2] Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996), page 614.
[3] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary On The Whole Bible, (Bronson, MI: Online Publishing, Inc., 2002), bible@mail.com
[4] Adam Clarke, Clarke’s Commentary, Vol V, (New York: Abingdon Press), page 646.
[5] Kostenberger, page 529.
[6] Genesis 15.2
[7] Acts 2.37
[8] Acts 16.30
[9] Luke 23.42
[10] Rogers, Jr., Cleon L. and Rogers III, Cleon L., The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998), page 555.
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