WHAT IS TRUTH?

Pontius Pilate asked that question (c.f. John 18:37). He had a lot on his mind then: an innocent convict who was just beaten up by his soldiers, pressure from the Jewish Sanhedrin to have this same convict executed by crucifixion, a troubled wife who had dreams about the convict, an unsteady and revolt-prone province full of stiff-necked monotheists who practiced a strange religion with a God who refused to use statues or images, and finally, a battered and bruised man, with dry blood caking his brow from a crown of thorns that pressed on his head; a man who amidst the pain could still look at him with eyes that seemed to pierce Pilate's innermost heart.

33Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

34"Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

35"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

36Jesus said, "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."

37"You are a king, then!" said Pilate. 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."

38"What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him.

(John 18:33-38)

Rhetorically he asked the question, not really expecting an answer. Thus Pilate turned his back on the very personification of the answer of his question, not knowing that he stood just before it. Had Pilate truly asked from his heart, he would have heard the answer:

"I AM...THE TRUTH..." (c.f. John 14:6)

A Roman Governor, with his wealth, power and army: He had it all, and yet he had nothing...