Inconvenient truths:

1.    
Our energy consumption fuels environmental
destruction and global unrest, but we really like driving big cars and, well,
driving cars in general.

2.    
Brownies, bacon, and nachos are not good for my
body.

3.    
Paying for things on credit can lead to
bankruptcy.

4.    
Watching football does nothing for physical
fitness, while running a few miles hurts and makes me healthier.

Our lives are filled with inconvenient truths.

So when I approached this final question in this “Questions
for Jesus” series–“What is truth?” it struck me that the truth about Jesus is
inconvenient too. 

Pilate utters the question in John 18, after the Jewish authorities bring Jesus to him. Pilate
wants to be rid of Jesus. He doesn’t want to sentence Jesus to death, and yet
he is unwilling to make a fuss with the Jewish leaders and the throngs of
people who are calling for Jesus’ execution.

Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?” In context, it seems Pilate is asking
a cynical question. But even if he was serious, Pilate couldn’t hear the
answer. Truth is inconvenient. Power is Pilate’s goal, and to retain his power
he needs to please the people. Execution by crucifixion it is. Cynical or
sincere, the question echoes out through the ages. What is truth?

The truth about Jesus is inconvenient. Most of us like to keep Jesus in our minds as a benign teacher who did lots of nice things for people and then had an unfortunate run in with the authorities and died. But the Scriptural account of Jesus’ life doesn’t leave room for this portrait. The New Testament insists that Jesus was controversial, dynamic, courageous, and of universal significant. C.S. Lewis called it the “trilemma.” In Lewis’ thinking, Jesus was either a lunatic, making delusional claims about himself, a liar, deliberately leading his followers astray, or the Lord, telling the truth about himself.

“I am the way and the truth and the life,” Jesus tells Thomas. Truth, according to Jesus, is embodied. Truth is a living human being, not a set of rules or laws. Either Jesus was God in the flesh, or he wasn’t. And if he was, then he has a claim on my life, whether I like it or not. Inconveniently enough.

I happen to believe it. I believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, and that he does have a claim on my life. I believe that I need to reorient my life so that Jesus is my standard of truth. It’s inconvenient to admit that I am selfish. It’s inconvenient to recognize that I’m needy. It’s inconvenient to let go of my own desires and ask Jesus to change me. And yet Jesus is also the one who is “full of grace and truth,” the one who says, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

Let me conclude with just one personal example. In high school, I had a pretty severe eating disorder. And the truth was, much as I wanted to control my life, I was very sick and stuck in a pattern of thinking and living that was literally self-destructive. I needed help. I needed Jesus’ help. I didn’t like the truth, and yet as I gradually came to admit my need (it took years), I also saw more and more of God’s grace and freedom in my life. I came out on the other side free from the set of expectations I imposed on myself that said I had to live up to some arbitrary and unhealthy standard of beauty and physical perfection. I came out on the other side believing in God’s love for me. I came out on the other side able to see and serve other people instead of paying attention only to myself. I didn’t like the truth about myself. But I came to love the truth about who Jesus is: stern and compassionate, unrelenting and patient, full of grace and truth.

Truth is often inconvenient. And yet, with Jesus, it is good, freeing, and full of grace.