It was a scene for the ages. The beaten and bloody Jesus of Nazareth stood weakly before the notorious Pontius Pilate. Surprisingly, Jesus—the man about to be tortured to death—exuded confidence, while the Roman prefect of Judea found himself internally conflicted. Warned by his wife of her strange dream regarding the Nazarene’s innocence, Pilate tried to abdicate any responsibility for his fateful decision to have Jesus crucified. The forthcoming dialogue with Jesus unnerved Pilate even further.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?” John 18:36-38 (NASB)

After uttering what appears to be a rhetorical question, Pilate left the room. If he had stayed and waited for an answer, the Roman prefect might have saved himself a lot of grief.

In a scenario not exactly worthy of the ages, the National Football League (NFL) recently announced a four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady for his role in last year’s “Deflategate” scandal. A firestorm quickly erupted over claims that the suspension went too far, didn’t go far enough, or was unfairly applied. The fact that Tom Brady is a polarizing figure only adds to the chaos. Everyone claims to want justice, but justice looks different through each individual set of eyes. Real justice can only be achieved through the lens of unbiased truth.

Truth can, in essence, be defined as “reality revealed,” and it is integrally tied to justice. If you’ve ever tried to officiate a conflict between children—or NFL parties—you understand that every participant in the struggle has his or her own perception of the situation. The goal, then, is to painstakingly investigate the details in order to discover what actually happened. In other words, you are looking for the truth with the goal of bringing about a just result.

I find it interesting that a lot of people in our world want justice, but they don’t want truth, don’t believe that absolute truth exists, or don’t think that we can know truth. The mantra of your typical postmodern human becomes, “Absolute truth is beyond my grasp so I will create my own (reality).

Justice, however, is dependent upon truth, and any attempt to create one’s own reality will ultimately lead to a perversion of justice. In asking, “What is truth?” but not really wanting an answer, Pontius Pilate understood that truth would cost him a price that he was unwilling to pay. Thus, he tried to create his own reality in order to justify the most unjust action ever taken. In the case of the NFL, a strong temptation exists to subjugate truth and the execution of justice to the tide of public opinion.

What is truth? From a biblical context, it is spiritual reality revealed. And it’s entirely possible for us to know truth because Jesus came to reveal it. Certainly, many things written in the Bible are difficult to understand, but the God who inspired the sacred Scriptures is able to open our eyes so that we can better understand His reality.

The problem isn’t that truth is way beyond our reach, but that it doesn’t conform to our human perceptions of reality. Perhaps, Pilate should have asked, “Do I want truth?” Each of us, all parties of the NFL included, would do well to ask ourselves the same question. In the end, I think we’d save ourselves considerable grief.

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