Scourging the Truth (Jn. 18-19; Heb. 12)

I just spent two weeks looking at the nuances of the English language as it concerns not only literature but also the language used to create it. Shadows and nuances exist everywhere and create tension that readers try to interpret, yet it is the interpretation that becomes the rub. As I quickly remembered this past week, few of us have the same lens to look through, which results in various interpretations of the same words or event. The thing all of us have in common is that everyone looks through lenses colored by our own worlds. 

Thinking about this past week made me think of Pilate. “What is truth?” he asks Jesus, clearly expecting no answer in return as he immediately turns and leaves Him (Jn. 18:38-39). This relativism follows Jesus’ clear statement that He "came into the world to bear witness to the truth” (v. 37). Pilate clearly didn’t “hear” His voice which was the truth, or if he did hear it, he resisted it because receiving it placed him in an untenable political position. After trying one more time to convince the Jews there was no guilt in Jesus (which by the way Pilate declares three times in 18:38, 19:4 & 6), Pilate scourges Jesus (19:1). Scourging is punishment by the means of a lash with small objects attached to the end with the sole purpose of both inflicting pain and cutting deeply. 

The Truth (which Jesus embodies) is scourged.

Pilate questions Truth, declares there is no guilt in Truth, scourges Truth, declares once again Truth is innocent, mocks Truth, heckles Truth, sentences Truth to death by a cross while simultaneously declaring Truth innocent of guilt again. It is mind boggling to read.

Today, truth varies from media outlet to media outlet, from country to country, from denomination to denomination, from church to church within a denomination, from one friend to another, from one teacher to another . . . the list is endless. This week we were given a tool to use that classifies media outlets for our students so they know which “side” an outlet leans—what the people who publish their particular truth believe. But does truth really vary or is it our perception which varies?

As Jesus declares, He brought the truth to light. By definition, truth is exact. My favorite dictionary ever is the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language by Webster, and here is its first definition of the word truth: “Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be. The truth of history constitutes its whole value.”

“Aye, there’s the rub”—what came before must give us “pause” in choosing the actions we take today—the conformity TO fact or reality Shakespeare has Hamlet speak must be our own. The Jews of Jesus’ own time refused to conform to God come to earth because it did not look like they wanted it to look. They rejected Jesus as Truth. 

Pilate refused Truth because embracing it involved the uncomfortable reality that accepting it bore a price he was not willing to pay. 

People today reject Truth because it is still uncomfortable and change is hard and they are unwilling to conform. Conformity vs comfort. It is a choice. 

As I read in Luke 20 today, I see in Jesus’ actions the call to accept God’s Truth. It is no less a hard truth today than it was 2,000-plus years ago. If we belong to Him, we must conform to His truth, yielding everything we are to God and trusting Him with the results. This week made it clear to me that the world is once again becoming as intolerant of those who embrace the Truth and follow Him as it was to the first followers of Christ. Instead of embracing truth, this world in which we live calls us to embrace everyone’s else’s truth. This world in which I find myself today looks much like the Roman world that crucified the ones who clung to the Truth, refusing to bow to Caesar’s image, refusing to pay homage to him as a god, paying the required price eagerly. 

As Jesus persevered for the joy set before Him, giving us a powerful example of enduring the crosses set before us in this world, we too are not to grow weary and lose heart (Heb. 12:1-3). Jesus endured the rejection by His own, the mocking, the scourging, the burden of the carrying His cross, the crucifixion and death on the cross for the joy set before Him, knowing any affliction He suffered, His Father in righteousness had ordained it, Christ’s wounds meant for others’ healing (Heb. 12:6, Ps. 119:75). Jesus embodies the laying down of self AND the truth. It is beyond difficult to comprehend but it is vital to understand.

Scourging shows up again in Rev. 3:19 in the message to Laodicea. This church is addressed by “the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God” and speaks to them of their behavior—lukewarm, rich, wealthy and self-sufficient—which reflects their condition—blind, naked, dirty, shameful. Those whom the Father loves, He disciplines, and Jesus exhorts these (and us likewise) to “be zealous, therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:19). This follows:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Rev. 3:20-21

The problem with rejecting Truth for very long is that one becomes blind and deaf to its appeal. When there is a knock at the door, the peal is not heard. If the door is opened, there is no ability to see. When the meal is served, the invitation is either not accepted or an attempt is made to accept it on different terms than the host offered. When the meal is served, there is no appetite for it; instead, there is a craving for the things the world serves, which appeals to the senses instead of the soul. 

Jesus stands at the door knocking. Truth is available right now. The question is for how long and whether or not hearing and opening take place?