DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
ON THE SIDE OF TRUTH
John 18:33-40
33 Pilate 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?" 36 Jesus 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. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one
prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of
the Jews'?" 40 They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us
Barabbas!" Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.
NIV
This is an incredible conversation between Jesus and Pilate. What we
have to remember is that although the army of Rome is an occupying force in
Israel, if the local governor wants to keep his job, enjoying all the benefits
of leadership, living in the best of places, eating the best foods, having
servants, etc., he must be able to keep the Jews in line, keep the peace, so to
speak. He now has a mob of Pharisees, chief priests, and teachers of the law
and, who knows who else they incited to follow their plot, demanding Jesus is
a criminal that needs to be executed. Pilate was attempting to defuse the
matter, having Jesus brought into the palace and began this conversation with a
question about Jesus being the king of the Jews. Luke records for us that the
Jews who brought Jesus to Pilate said that Jesus claims to be their king, but
he is nothing but a rebel against Caesar. Jesus makes it clear to Pilate that
he is in fact a king, but not one of this world, that his kingdom is not of this
world. This should give us a clue as to how we should be living as citizens of
the kingdom of heaven. If we live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, the
kingdom of light, then we are do not belong to this world and should not live
as though we do. Jesus tells Pilate the only reason he left his kingdom and
came into the world was to testify to the truth and that everyone who is on the
side of truth listens to him. So then what side are we on? The truth, of
course, and therefore we listen to Jesus, he is our king, our Lord, and Savior.
Why would we want to listen to any words spoken by men, who we can be pretty
sure they do not speak the truth when we have Jesus to listen to? Of course,
there are men, who we should be one of, that do speak the truth because they
speak the regarding the words of Jesus. Pilate asks that very question, “What
is truth?” which is an age-old question that is created within every person by
God. He, being the creator of man who he
made in his own image, has this internal inbreed need for truth. When the truth is
missing within, man has this void they cannot explain. Once exposed to the
truth, who is Jesus, for he is the truth, the way, and the life, then we no
longer are incomplete, no longer missing the truth and we understand we too are
no longer of this world, for we have been moved from the darkness into his
light. We have been relocated from being a citizen of this world to being a
citizen of the kingdom of God. The world no longer wanted anything to do with
Jesus, they wanted a true rebel, Barabbas instead. Again, this is just another
reason we should not be of this world, even if we are still living in it for
the present time, for we are on the side of truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment