From the Daily Lectionary for Friday in the Second Week of Lent
John 5:30-4720
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
What is Truth? Pilate will ask cynically that question of Jesus at his mock trial at the end of this Gospel. It is an important question. We live in a time when truth seems provisional, relative, debatable; that truth is a mere matter of opinion. We now seem to support facts inasmuch as they support our version of the truth. You say tomato and I say tomahto. And then in our cultural discourse there is the odious presence of willful ignorance and false equivalency.
This passage takes place in the midst of a contentious debate between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees accuse Jesus of coining his own version of the truth up and against conventional wisdom, institutional knowledge. Jesus is very careful to explain that the truth he teaches is not of his making, but of God. God is truth, and we as humans made in God’s image have the innate ability to apprehend the truth. But again, what is truth?
The Pharisees cite scripture as the only source of truth, but as we know, scripture can be selectively read and referenced to suit our own purposes. Jesus, ironically, refers to scripture as well, saying that Moses spoke prophetically of him. It was believed in ancient Judaism that Moses wrote the Hebrew Law, the Torah. Moses was speaking of the way of love, which is the way of Jesus… then, as it is now. Jesus reminds the Pharisees that the whole of the Law is to love one’s neighbor. Love is the means and the ends of Torah. It is the means and ends of the Gospels. It informs our actions, forms our understanding of the world and our place in it. Love is the truth. We know love when we see it; we know love when we are in the midst of it.
In our twenty-first-century public life, things have not changed. We know the truth because we follow Jesus. We follow the way of inclusion and compassion, the ways of justice, the way of sharing wealth for the good of the whole. We follow the way of love. Anything that opposes love is not of God. That is not to say that there are issues worthy of debate and opinion. Some of our decisions languish in ambiguity… but the bottom line is that our lives belong under the auspicious imagination and possibilities of Love. Love will not fail us. Love will not fail, now or ever. That is the essence of our faith.
A Prayer for those we Love (BCP p. 831)
O God, we entrust all who are dear to us to your never failing-care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that you are doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
