When they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s residence, it was very early morning. They did not go into the governor’s residence so they would not be ceremonially defiled, but could eat the Passover meal. So Pilate came outside to them, where Jesus stood before the governor.
He said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They replied, “If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate told them, “Take him yourselves and pass judgment on him according to your own law!” The Jewish leaders replied, “We cannot legally put anyone to death.”
Then the chief priests and the elders began to accuse Jesus repeatedly, saying, “We found this man subverting our nation, forbidding us to pay the tribute tax to Caesar and claiming that he himself is Christ, a king.” But Jesus did not respond.
Then Pilate said to Jesus, “Don’t you hear how many charges they are bringing against you? Have you nothing to say?” But Jesus made no further reply, not answering even one accusation, so that Pilate the governor was quite amazed.
So Pilate went back into the governor’s residence, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “You say so. Are you saying this on your own initiative, or have others told you about me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own people and your chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”
Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Then Pilate said, “So you are a king!”
Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world—to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked, “What is truth?”
When he had said this he went back outside to the Jewish leaders, the chief priests and the crowds, and announced, “I find no basis for an accusation against this man.”
* * * * *
“For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world—to testify to the truth..”
This stood out to me as I was reading the text this week. If the language experts in the commentaries are correct, Pilate’s answer appears to be dismissive and derogatory: “A Kingdom of Truth? Seriously? Not a kingdom of money, sex and power?” No wonder Pilate didn’t feel the need to push for Jesus’ death. Truth is not part of the furniture of Empires. Truth is usually one of the first things sacrificed in a world order run by the “father of lies.” (John 8:44)
What Pilate didn’t realize was that this Kingdom of Truth, with a King Who Is True, was about to transform the world.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4)
So, let’s talk about what kind of truth Jesus testified to as revealed in his teaching and life.
1. The Truth About Jesus: Jesus is God revealed. If you have ever wondered what God is like, there are fascinating ways to study that theologically and philosophically. There is, however, a simpler and more accurate way to find out what God is like. Jesus answered that for us definitively. God is just like Jesus.
“If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” John 14:9
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His being.” Hebrews 1:3
“He is the image of the invisible God…” Colossians 1:15
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Colossians 2:9
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. “ (John 1: 1-4)
“Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father… No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known. (John 1:14-15, 18)
“‘The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me, and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me.’” (John 12:44-45)
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7)
There is a rule in logic: if A=B, then B=A. If in seeing Jesus we have seen the Father – if Jesus is the fullness of the deity in bodily form - than not only is Jesus just like God, but God is just like Jesus. This has always been true.[1] As I heard one preacher say, “Jesus is perfect theology.” Thinking about Jesus is the foundational starting point for thinking about God.
Any image or concept, or conviction about God that does not map on to the character and person of Jesus Christ is partial at best. The New Testament does not primarily tell us that Jesus is God-like; it primarily tells us that God is Christ-like. We can know what God is like, because God is just like Jesus.
2. The truth about Jesus’ mission/God’s plan: to bring salvation to the world.
““Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw/drag all people to myself.” (John 12:31-32)
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.” (John 3:14-17)
“I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness. If anyonehears my words and does not obey them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not accept my words already has a judge: (the truth in) the word I have spoken will judge him at the last day.” (John 12: 46-50)[2]
3. The truth about the scope of the mission of Jesus/the plan of God: it reaches out to everything and everybody.
“The Father loves the Son and has placed all things under his authority.” (John 3:35)
“Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.”(Romans 5:18)
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you - just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. Now this is eternal life - that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.” (John 17:1-3)
“This is good and acceptable in the sight of our God our savior; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1 Timothy 2:3-6)
“Jesus, was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:9)
“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should gladly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10:11)
“God was pleased to have all fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things on earth or in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians. 1:19)
4. The truth about the impact of the mission of Jesus/the plan of God: it’s transformative and life-changing.[3]
“ I am the door (for the sheep to enter the fold). If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” (John 10:9-10)
“And although you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath…
But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved! — and he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.” (Ephesians 2:1-9)
5. The Truth About What God Is Like. God is love. (1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16) When Jesus reveals God’s love in words and actions, we see what the love of God is like, because God is just like Jesus.
“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love… My commandment is this—to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15: 11-13)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:43-45)
"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". (Romans 5:8)
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him… he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)
Jesus reveals God’s compassionate love, because Jesus is compassionately loving, and God is just like Jesus.
“Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” (Mark 1:41)
“And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’” (Luke 7:12)
“[The younger son] arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
As Jesus was having a meal in Levi’s home, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the experts in the law and the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples,
“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’” (Mark 2; Matthew 9)
Jesus reveals God’s gentle love, because Jesus is patiently loving, and God is just like Jesus.
“Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I take great delight. I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed or extinguish a smoldering wick, until he brings justice to victory.” (Matthew 12:18-21)
Jesus reveals God’s serving/helping love, because Jesus modeled a serving, helpful love, and God is just like Jesus. If it sounds odd to think of God as our helper, David was confident that he was, so we will start in the Old Testament.
“Surely God is my helper; the Lord is the sustainer of my soul" (Psalm 54:4)
“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example - you should do just as I have done for you.” (John 13:14-15)
“Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)
Jesus reveals God’s protective love, because Jesus displayed a protective love, and God is just like Jesus.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
“If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me - to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.'” (Matthew 18:3-6)
Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’” (Matthew 25: 34-36)
Jesus reveals God’s confrontational love concerning wrongdoing and hypocrisy, because Jesus confronted wrongdoing and hypocrisy, and God is just like Jesus.
All the ‘woes’ of the Pharisees. words Jesus uses to describe hypocrites are blind guides, blind fools, and a brood of vipers (Matthew 22).
“Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will devour me.” (John 2:16-18)
“Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)
“When the disciples James and John saw (how the Samaritans responded to Jesus), they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them.” (Luke 9:54-55)
“Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” (Luke 13: 14-17)[4]
Jesus reveals God’s persistent, faithful love, because Jesus described and embodied his own persistent, faithful love, and God is just like Jesus.
“If someone owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray until he finds it? I tell you the truth, he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that one of these little ones be lost.” (Matthew 18; Luke 15)
“My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10: 27-30)
“Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.” (John 13:1)
Jesus reveals God’s relational love, because Jesus entered into personal relationships with humanity, and God is just like Jesus.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 14:1)
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him.” (John 14:23)
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever… (John 14:16)
This list could go on and on.
We know God is not grossed out or pushed away by our sin, because Jesus came to earth and made salvation possible while people were “dead in our trespasses and sins,” and God is just like Jesus.
We know God cares deeply about all who are suffering both spiritually and physically, because Jesus cared about those suffering spiritually and physically, and God is just like Jesus.
We know that God forgives even our worst sins, because Jesus forgave even those who betrayed and killed him, and God is just like Jesus.
We know God understands our grief, because Jesus wept when Lazarus died, and God is just like Jesus.
Maybe this can be a good devotional exercise this week or topic for potluck lunch: add to the list. If Jesus perfectly reveals God, what do we learn about God when we study Jesus?
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[1] Keep in mind what else the Bible tells us about God. "I the Lord do not change."(Malachi 3:6) "…The Father of lights with whom there is no change or variation"(James 1:17) Because Jesus is God, God has always been just like Jesus.
[2] Another place Jesus said, “Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.” (John 5:45)
[3] “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)
[4] Jesus warned his disciples against using their status to dominate others. Rather, they were to be servants to all (Matthew 20:25-28).
In Luke 20:45-47, Jesus warned his listeners to beware of the teachers of the law who prided themselves in their religiosity, yet failed to show hospitality to those in need.
The parable of the Pharisee and tax collector illustrates how God sees spiritual pride (Luke 18:9-14).