John 18: 33-38
I thought it’d be fun to start today
with a little bible quiz, whaddaya think?
Pencils out, books away.
Just shout the answer when you know it
From which book of the bible do the following passages come:
1. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
2. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
3. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
(John 1, 14, 8 are the answers)
It’s fair to say, I think,
that John’s gospel is obsessed with the concept of truth.
It comes up dozens of times from beginning to end,
far more than any other text,
and all the other gospels combined.
John is, in essence, our first theologian.
He is not so much attempting to tell an accurate story,
as he is trying to paint us a picture,
of what it might mean,
that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
That eternity entered time and space.
That Wisdom became enfleshed and entombed.
That God could become human.
And the places he lands,
the pictures he paints, above all:
are grace and truth.
But when the question is asked directly,
by Pilate to Jesus:
What is truth?
There is only silence.