What is Truth? Easter and Controversy

Following the Passover meal, Jesus was arrested.  He was sent to Pontius Pilot for judgement as he had the authority under Roman law to order Jesus to be crucified.  Jesus was charged with sedition against Rome, opposing the payment of taxes to Cesar, and calling himself a king. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate)

37 Pilate then said to him: Art thou not then a king? Jesus answered: Thou sayest, for I am a king. To this end was I born, and to this end have I come into the world, that I might testify to the truth: every one that is of the truth hears my voice.

38 Pilate says to him: What is truth? (http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=36&chapter=18&lid=en&side=r&verse=37&zoomSlider=0)

"What is truth?" Aren't we faced with this obstacle all the time?  How can you know what is true?  My husband just said to me this morning that the idea that studying history will reveal fact is a misconception.  Every account of history was written from a specific viewpoint and every viewpoint has it's biases.

Getting even muddier, we can think about any controversial or political hot topic and struggle again with what the truth of the matter really is - the budget, welfare, abortion, education - the list is endless.  The viewpoints are many.  Is there even a truth to be found is this mire?  If we could find the truth, what would we do anyway?

Humanity is faced with endless numbers of complex issues.  When we are lost in the complexity, we forget that the truth is simple.  The truth is clear.  Here are some sayings about truth:

The truth is more important than the facts.
- Frank Lloyd Wright
You never find yourself until you face the truth.
- Pearl Bailey
The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
- Herbert Agar
If you wish to astonish the whole world, tell the simple truth.
- Rahel
There is no god higher than truth.
- Mahatma Gandhi  (http://www.coolnsmart.com/truth_quotes/)

Getting back to the Gospels.  As I was reading the accounts of Jesus's last days on earth this week, I kept wondering, "how can this be happening?"  When reading the gospels, it was difficult for me to fathom standing in the face of God in the flesh and not seeing the truth, that enough people could not see the truth in order to stop the torture and crucifixion.

Stay with me now, I promise to bring this thread back to Jesus, our risen Lord, with a splash of empathy.

I felt the same way when I heard about the movie "October Baby" this week.  The movie, in theaters now, is about the journey of a young woman that learns as an adult that she was adopted.  Her birth mother attempted to abort her unsuccessfully and instead gave her up for adoption.

I had no idea there was such a thing as an failed abortion attempt, but it does happen.  No one wants to hear this, but if we can't be courageous enough to face difficult truths, humanity will continue to falter and fall further and further away from the light and truth of God and our salvation. Here is the most disheartening story I read.

In 1999, a nurse from Christ Hospital, yes, the name was Christ Hospital of all things, testified that "infants that survived induced labor abortions were abandoned to die in a utility room."  In 2008, she also questioned Obama's voting record and floor testimony while he was state senator stating that he prevented the passage of Illinois' Born Alive Infants Protection Act.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Stanek)  President George W. Bush signed the Born-Alive Infant's Protection Act of 2002 which "extends legal protection to an infant after a failed attempt at induced abortion." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born-Alive_Infants_Protection_Act)

Why on earth am I writing about abortion on Easter? That stuff about live or partial birth abortions was 10 years ago, isn't that old news? Well, I see a connection between the torture and crucifixion of Jesus thousands of years ago and the death of our nation's children that continues today.  All manner of injustices against our children continue to go on - besides abortion, the failure of our educational systems, poverty, hunger, abuse, the list goes on.

The anguish I feel in my heart is the same for both (Jesus and our children), it's the same pain, it's the same truth.  The citizens that could not see the truth of God in the flesh, that could not stop the wrong of his torture and death, are no different than our society today.  We don't want to see the injustices around us, and without seeing the truth, we are powerless to stop the wrongs against humanity.  As he was suffering on the cross Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (http://bible.cc/luke/23-34.htm)

As we celebrate Easter tomorrow, as we celebrate our risen Lord, as we celebrate Christ's death so that we may have eternal life, let us be reminded of the sanctity of life.  God cared so much for our lives that he allowed his only son to be tortured and killed so that we may live.  That is how important our life is to God, and that is how perfect and limitless his empathy is for us.  Even knowing that 'we know not what we do,' and knowing that we would be party to the death of his son, God still wanted us to live!

"For God so loved (egapesen*) the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (http://bible.cc/john/3-16.htm)  

Let us be the one that fell at Christ's feet, let us be the "one that is of the truth" that "hears my voice," let us be one that cried out for His life to be spared so that we may also cry out for the sanctity of all life.



*"egapesen" related to "agapan," one of the Greek words for love, is a love of preciousness.  See also Words for Love: Empathy in the Bible and Words for Love in the Greek New Testament.