The Truth

From the Series—Jesus
October 11, 2002

In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The word “truth” conjures up lots of different images. This evotional focuses on two dimensions of truth. The word “truth” comes from the Greek word aletheia which means “real” and “ideal”. Jesus is both/and. No one was more real. No one was more ideal.

Down-to-Earth

Every time Pat Williams, the Vice President of the Orlando Magic, rides in a limousine, he asks the driver who their most memorable passengers have been. He cites several examples in his book, The Magic of Teamwork. A driver named Jerry said, “My most memorable passengers were Dustin Hoffman and Joan Rivers. They were down-to-earth. Just regular, real people.” A driver named Joe said, “My most memorable passengers were Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell. They were genuinely humble--no airs about them. They didn’t act like big shots or make unreasonable demands or expect special treatment. Dr. Kissinger actually insisted on sitting up in the front seat with me.” A driver named Thomas said his most memorable passengers were Richard Simmons and Nell Carter. He said, “They’re real people, real down-to-earth. The way they were in public is exactly the way they were in my limo.”

We’ve all met people who try to be impressive, but their attempts to impress are really unimpressive. What’s impressive is someone who doesn’t try to impress--they’re just down-to-earth.

That’s what impresses me about Jesus. He is the Son of God--no one is holier. Yet no one is more down-to-earth! Philippians 2:6-8 says, “He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing; taking the very nature of a servant…he humbled himself.”

Jesus was holy, but he wasn’t “holier-than-thou.” He didn’t put on airs. There was no hidden agenda. There was no pretense. He was the same in private as he was in public. What you see is what you get. One of the words that best describes Jesus is “real.” And that’s exactly what the word “truth” means--"conforming to reality.” No one was more real than Jesus.

The Real Deal

We live in a culture that craves reality. Millions of Americans tune into dozens of “Reality TV” shows each week. Why? People crave reality. Jesus lived in a very different culture, but the people craved the same thing.

In Luke 19, a distinguished tax collector climbs a tree just to catch a glimpse of Jesus. In Luke 8, a terminally ill woman fights her way through the crowds just to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. In Matthew 15, a crowd of thousands go without food for three days just to listen to Jesus talk. In Mark 2, four men go to all the trouble of lowering a paralytic friend through a hole in the roof to get to Jesus. And in Luke 7, a prostitute crashes a party, at a Pharisee’s house no less, to wash Jesus’ feet.

You couldn’t keep people away from Jesus! Why? Because they craved reality! Bruce Barton says, “The essential element in personal magnetism is a consuming sincerity.” People were not threatened by Jesus’ righteousness. They were attracted to it. His authenticity was irresistible.

Joseph Girzone says Jesus accepted people’s “humanness.” Girzone says that’s what allowed people “to feel relaxed in his presence.” Jesus didn’t condone sin, but he didn’t expect perfection either. His twelve disciples--handpicked by Jesus himself--had plenty of imperfections. I think sometimes we have a double standard: we publicly preach imperfection--"all have sinned"--but we privately expect perfection. It’s not easy, but we need to accept “humanness” without condoning sin.

Here’s the bottom line when it comes to truth. We aren’t called to be “faultfinders” (Jude 16). We’re called to consuming sincerity. The word “truth” means “free from pretense.” Psalm 51:6 says it this way. “You desire truth in the inner parts.”

The Burden of Pretense

In I Kings 14, King Jeroboam needs to consult the prophet Ahijah, but he wants to do so secretly so he concocts a plan. He says to his wife, “Go disguise yourself so you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there.” This is funny stuff. She spends all this time disguising herself and the prophet Ahijah is blind to begin with! I Kings 14:4 says, “Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age, but the Lord had told Ahijah, Jeroboam’s wife is coming. When she arrives she will pretend to be someone else’.”

I think all of us are guilty of this to one degree or another. A.W. Tozer said, “There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression.” There is nothing wrong with putting our best foot forward, but there is a fine line between making a good first impression and trying to be who we aren’t. If we try to be who we aren’t, the end result is what Tozer calls “the burden of pretense.” You can’t be yourself.

Meg Greenfield has written an insightful book titled Washington. Greenfield spent thirty years as a journalist with the Washington Post and she shares her observations in this book. She compares Washington to High School. She says, “High School is a preeminently nervous place.” What a great description! And she says that Washington is even worse. You’re always in danger of political extinction. And you can’t rest on your laurels because there is always someone who has better laurels.

Meg Greenfield goes on to say, “High school is the time when people first contrive to have an image…It is an attempt to fabricate a whole second persona for public consumption…Life inside the image requires continuous care, feeding and, above all, protection. That is the worst of it. It’s like never being able to get undressed. We are, most of us, much of the time, in disguise. We present ourselves as we think we are meant to be. In Washington this is greatly in excess of the ordinary hypocrisies that exist everywhere else.”

Transparency doesn’t come easy in a place like Washington in the 21st century. There is a lot of pretending. But it didn’t come easy in 1st century Jerusalem either. Listen to what Jesus says to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:5. “Everything they do is done for men to see.” I can summarize the religiosity of the Pharisees in three words--image is everything. That’s all they cared about.

You can’t read the gospels without discovering that Jesus’ hot button was hypocrisy. Bruce Barton says, “For one sin he had no mercy. He denounced the insincerity of the Pharisees.” Jesus didn’t have the time of day for anything that smacked of insincerity.

Back in I Kings 14, the wife of Jeroboam arrives. She’s checking her disguise and rehearsing her lines, but before she even knocks on the door it says, “When Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam.” Busted! Then the prophet Ahijah asks the $64,000 question in I Kings 14:6, “Why this pretense?”

A.W. Tozer said, “The rest God offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend.” The good news of the gospel is that we can quit pretending to be perfect. I John 1:8-9 says, “If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In the words of Don Everts, “Repentance is the alternative to pretending.”

Ideal

Theologically speaking, Jesus lived a sinless life. But let me come at “the Truth” from a slightly different angle. The word truth means “model of imitation.” In other words, Jesus is the ideal.

Everybody is somebody’s disciple. There are no exceptions! Consciously or unconsciously we all pattern our lives after someone. Psychologists call it “the chameleon effect.” We tend to imitate the people around us--everything from facial expressions to voice inflections. We are imitators--we need someone or something to live up to.

Several centuries ago, the 19th century English author, Thomas Carlyle, wrote a book titled Heroes and Hero-Worship. He said that Christianity is the highest instance of hero worship. That may sound sacrilegious in a sense because Jesus is more than a mere hero. But isn’t imitation the highest form of flattery? I want to lead and love and serve and pray just like Jesus. Discipleship is making a conscious decision to pattern one’s life after Christ. We need to not only accept Christ as “Lord” and “Savior,” but also as “Hero.”

You Can’t Handle the Truth

Scripture outlines lots of different options when it comes to truth. Here are ten of them. We can suppress the truth--Romans 1:18. We can exchange the truth for a lie--Romans 1:25. We can reject the truth--Romans 2:8. We can distort the truth--Acts 20:30. We can deny the truth--James 3:14. We can wander from the truth--James 5:19. And we can ignore the truth--II Timothy 4:4. Or we can believe the truth--II Thessalonians 2:13. We can obey the truth--I Peter 1:22. And we can walk in the truth--II John 4. One way or another, the truth is still the truth!

II Timothy 3:7 speaks of those who are “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” The most important decisions need to be the most informed decisions. But there comes a point when we need to quit learning and start acknowledging “the Truth.”

Psalm 119:30 says, “I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD; do not let me be put to shame.
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”