“‘You are a king then!’ said Pilate.
“Jesus said, ‘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’.”
~John 18:37 (NIV).
Like just about every conversation Jesus had, particularly the ones he had with those who were against him, this one also has the other person perfectly confused. All Pilate can say is, “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
The spiritually-divined truth is hidden to those who lord themselves over life.
Everyone who hears truth, on the other hand, hears Jesus; everyone.
So, the question is—quite simply—do we listen to Jesus? If we answer “yes” we’ll be on the side of truth, but if we say, “No, I don’t listen to a man who’s ‘supposed’ to be God who died nearly two thousand years ago,” we will not have the truth in us—we are not on the side of truth.
And we will not, therefore, hear the truth that’s calling itself into us with relevance to our own lives.
What do we hear?
Do We Believe – Are We Listening?
Jesus is making a stark identification here between those who do and those who don’t. Not unlike his nature extolled everywhere else, there’s always a dividing line; the grey in the middle is non-existent.
And the real spiritual difference lies always in the present; it doesn’t matter that we listened to the truth five minutes ago. It’s what we’re listening to now that makes the real spiritual difference. We’re but a moment away from a prideful and arrogant ignorance. Yet, we don’t fear for that; we’re just well aware of the contingency, by our natures, that we place God in.
We are, in a very real sense, then, identified as true believers of Jesus Christ by momentary virtue of our listening to, and our agreeance with, truth.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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