Whatever You Desire

This post was adapted from Colin's thesis in Episode 2.

One of the most famous rhetorical questions ever uttered was said when the Lord Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, and Pilate asked “What is truth?”

Now, Pilate has generally been given a bad wrap by church leaders, and history is unclear about what actually happened to him in the decades following the crucifixion. We know when he was relieved of his office, but not much else. Some traditions say he went and killed himself, while the Coptic church says that he actually became a Christian and lived out his days in quiet anonymity following the Lord.

Yet, while we won't take the time to get into all the details, there's actually several things in the gospel texts that cause me to think Pilate may have actually understood far more than he's generally given credit for.

One such example is the title that Pilate wrote to place on the cross. He wrote it personally (which means he wrote in 3 languages), as referenced in John 19:19. You and I might just pass over that in reading and move on. Except, we note how upset the Jewish leadership is with this - as evidenced by the next three verses. They want him to change the way it's worded, but he refuses.

What's this about? Pilate is getting back at them. See, it's well-known that the Jews have a fascination with acrostics. Certain Psalms are acrostic - they're just big time into acrostics. If you look at what Pilate wrote in Hebrew, the acrostics are very revealing. The Hebrew reads: Yeshuah Ha’nazarai We’melek Hay’yehudim - Jesus the Nazarene the King of the Jews - that's what he wrote. But if you take the acrostics, it spells YHWH, or Yahweh, however you wanna pronounce the unpronounceable name of God.

In other words, Pilate is declaring Him Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews - and he's ascribing God’s name to Him! Because he believed it? Not necessarily. He may have just been doing this out of spite because the Jewish leaders had backed him into a corner and he knew this would drive them nuts. And it did! I think that's kind of fun. Yet this is one of a number of clues that suggest to me that Pilate may have had more truth than even he knew when he asked his now-famous question.

And if that's true, it should come as no shock because God is quite generous with the dispensing of truth - revealing it as freely as it is desired. The Lord Jesus is responsive to the seeker of truth. He taught truth, He preached truth, He prophesied truth, He defended truth, He demonstrated truth, He exemplified truth... He was truth.

God has always been generous with truth. Prior to sending His Son to preach truth, His love compelled Him to send prophets to proclaim His words, even though He knew most would reject those life-giving words, knowing His sent-ones would encounter the wrath of the controllers. Much is often made of the commissioning of Isaiah, for instance, in Isaiah 6. Recorded there is this glorious scene with the Seraphim and Isaiah saying, “I have unclean lips!” and the Seraphim cleansing him, and God says “Who will we send?” Isaiah says “send me!” And God does! What a glorious scene!

But we often forget how God sends him. He says:

Go! Say to these people:

Keep listening, but do not understand;

keep looking, but do not perceive.

10 Make the minds of these people dull;

deafen their ears and blind their eyes;

otherwise they might see with their eyes

and hear with their ears,

understand with their minds,

turn back, and be healed. -- Isaiah 6:9-10 (CSB)

In other words, “Isaiah I'm going to send you. You will dispense the truth. But they will not want it. They will not like you. They do not want truth.”

And how accurate this is - that God freely and generously dispenses truth, and anyone can have it if they so desire. But they do not want it. Even those who are Christians, even those who are leaders in church buildings today do not want truth. Yes, they have just enough truth to save them from eternal perdition - the truth about who Jesus is - but frequently that's all they desire.

How often have you heard a person say “Gee, I wish I knew more Bible so I could know more of God's truth,” or, “I want to read the Scriptures more” and yet they don't? That person doesn't truly desire more truth, because it's freely available and they don't take it.

My friend, you and I live at a point in history where we have an advantage over every other generation that came before us. And that is that we carry in our pockets - on our phones - several Bibles. The word of God has never been more available in all of human history. And yet it is still neglected. It is still ignored. That man or that woman who says “I wish I knew more Bible” has every opportunity to read it, and doesn't take it. They could quite easily open their phone and read a chapter, or a Psalm at any time. Instead, they open their phone to post a selfie to Instagram, to share a picture of the mediocre grilled cheese sandwich they made for lunch, to tweet the clever joke they came up with, to watch a funny video or to simply scroll mindlessly through a social media feed until something catches their attention.

Even church leaders will spend their time streaming on Facebook live about some activity, attending a conference about how to implement some new program or practice that emulates successful secular businesses, having team meetings to micromanage those under them, or reading 200 pages from the latest best-selling Christian author in favor of reading and soaking in the life giving truth of the Word of God. In fact, a 2014 survey of 5000 evangelical pastors in the United States found that less than 15% of them read and studied the Bible outside of preparing for their sermons. Less than 15% that were reading the Scriptures daily just to soak in God's truth!

I suppose we should not be surprised that most pew people don't love the Word and desire truth when we realize that most pulpit people don't either.

What this demonstrates is a lack of desire for truth. The Spirit of God is available and eager to impart spiritual truth to all who desire it. But He is limited by our free will. In the words of our friend Khemarak, “a closed mouth don't get fed.” The closed heart gets nothing, the divided heart and the fearful heart get a little, the receptive heart gets some, the hungry heart gets more and the desperate and contrite heart gets much. Which heart do you have?

We each have the exact amount of truth we desire. Precisely.