Friday, January 02, 2009

“I want the truth!” – John 1:1-18

“I want the truth!” These words express what I believe is a universal desire. We want truth. We want, not just a truth—but the truth. We want to know. We want what is hidden and concealed to reveal itself. We want to know the secrets, purpose, and meaning of this life. We want to live in the dark no longer. We want to stand in the light of truth.

The Apostle John tells us that here—on Christmas Day—we have received this gift. We have received what we have been yearning for, for thousands of years. We have received the truth: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The truth has come. Jesus of Nazareth, the helpless child lying in a feeding trough, has come. The truth has taken on human form. One of the most abstract concepts in any language—“truth”—has become embodied, has taken on concrete and tangible form.

John wrote in the opening of his first epistle: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). John knew truth better than almost anyone. He had been privileged to be a witness from the beginning. He had been there shortly after Jesus had been baptized—he had been among the first disciples called by Jesus. He was there for the healings, for the teachings, for the miracles. He was there when Jesus boldly claimed: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He was there when Jesus boldly rode into Jerusalem with a joyous reception. John heard Jesus. John saw Jesus. John touched Jesus with his own hands. John heard, saw, and touched the truth. John was able to point and say, “There goes the truth!”

This is what we want, right? We want to hear, see, and touch the truth. But are we aware of the implications of what we desire, when we proclaim, “I want the truth”? Listen to Jesus’ words in John’s gospel: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

This sounds great. We want to be free—and this desire often drives our lives. When people are young and bold, they run after truth idealistically—they fight for the freedom of truth. We see this in almost all youth movements. Activists for change and truth tend to be young, naïve, and inexperienced. But then something usually seems to happen. People age—they get a little older. People experience life—they get their hopes and dreams stepped on and their hearts broken. And through this, something changes. The fire seems to die. What I think most often happens is seen clearly in the most famous scene of the movie “A Few Good Men.” Lt. Kaffee, as played by Tom Cruise, is cross-examining Col. Jessep, as played by Jack Nicholson. Lt. Kaffee pushes Col. Jessep hard for what he thinks he wants, he wants to know what happened: “I want the truth!” And Nicholson’s character famously responds: “You can’t handle the truth!” People dig for truth and then they finally unearth it…and what they find shatters their idealism and leaves them confused and disheartened. They can’t handle the truth.

The journalist Herbert Agar said, “The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” Our desire, our bold proclamation “I want the truth!” we so often abandon because we don’t like what we find. We become discouraged and jaded by what we discover and stop our quest for truth altogether. We find the truth but we can’t handle it.

The Apostle John, as we have seen, was young, brash, and naïve when he started following Jesus. And everything that happened at the beginning fed his zeal and idealism. But as Jesus’ ministry progressed—after Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time—things started to change. John had been there when it looked like Jesus would be accepted and praised by the people and crowned as their king. But now he was there when things began to get controversial and started spinning out of control. He was there for the ominous foot washing and final supper in that upper room when Jesus said: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). He was there in the garden when Jesus started acting very stressed and aloof, praying to God as though he was about to leave the world. He was there when the soldiers suddenly appeared, weapons drawn, and Jesus was betrayed by Judas (one of his own!) and arrested.

It was there in that moment, in the Garden of Gethsemane, that John finally began to see the truth for what it was—and it was difficult to stomach. Here was his master and teacher, being arrested. Here was his good friend Peter striking out with the sword and cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant in defense of Jesus. Here was Jesus going quietly before his captors and ordering Peter to lay down his sword. Here was the one he had hoped would be king, getting treated like a dirty criminal—and he wasn’t even defending himself. This was too much. The truth of what he now saw in the life of Jesus was too much to handle—all his hopes and expectations were crumbling to the ground. And so, with the rest of his fellow disciples, he fled into the darkness.

But something compelled John to continue to watch from a distance. He may have wanted no part of this truth that he now saw, but he had a compulsion to see how this disaster would all end. He was there while Jesus was questioned relentlessly by the high priest. He was there as his friend Peter continually denied knowing Jesus to those who wanted to identify Peter as one of his followers. He was there when Jesus was put on trial by Pilate. And in this moment where any talk of the truth seemed absurd, Jesus boldly asserted to Pilate: “For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37). And who among us could fault Pilate—John certainly couldn’t—for responding, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).

And then John was there as Jesus was hauled off to be mocked, spit on, beaten, and tortured. He was there as Jesus was sentenced to death by the popular demand of his own people crying: “Crucify! Crucify!” (John 19:6). He was there as Jesus carried his own cross down that crowded but lonely path. He was there as the nails were driven through Jesus’ hands and feet, one by one. He was there as Jesus hung from the cross and suffered in agony. He was there as Jesus breathed his last. He was there as the spear pierced through Jesus’ lifeless side. He was there as Jesus’ dead body was taken down and placed all alone in a tomb. He was there as the disciples gathered in mourning to ask the looming question: “What now?”

The truth was too hard to handle—the man John had devoted his life to was dead—Jesus was dead. John’s idealism was finally crushed. In light of all that had just gone down, why would anyone want anything to do with Jesus’ proclamation of the truth? How could this man Jesus—this man who was rejected and abandoned by all, this man who raised no fist of retaliation and no voice of defense, this man who was beaten, mocked, and killed—how could this man claim to have been born in order to testify to the truth?

But then everything changed that morning that Mary Magdalene startled John out of a daze by declaring that the Lord’s body had been taken out of the tomb. John was immediately up and running, heading to explore the empty tomb with Peter, wondering what on earth had happened. And then, he was there when Jesus appeared alive, raised from the dead, with his resurrected body, revealing the healed scars in his hands, feet, and side. And it was here in this moment that John finally saw the truth in it’s all beauty and glory. Before, the truth had been too ugly and hard to handle, but now, all that—including the bloody and shameful death—had been transformed. This changed everything! John had heard Jesus teach. John had seen Jesus die. And now, John had touched the risen Jesus with his own hands. John heard, saw, and touched the truth, and John was now truly free because of it.

So, what about you? Are you bold to declare “I want the truth!”? And if so, can you handle the truth that you will find? What do you do with the truth once you have known it, seen it, heard it, understood it? Are you too intimidated by it to make it govern your whole life? Too scared of what the truth demands from you?

This Christmas, you are being confronted once again with the truth. Jesus of Nazareth was born in a lowly stable 2000 years ago. He came embodying the truth of God. He came to show you what humanity is meant to be—he came to transform you into God’s new creation. Will you turn a deaf ear to Jesus and the truth? Will you keep Jesus and the truth at an arm’s length? Will you stay in your comfortable and safe, middle-class, American existence? Or, are you ready to listen to Jesus? Are you ready to let the truth of Jesus transform and take over your life? Are you ready, like John, to step into the true freedom of the truth?

Jesus tells you that if you hold to his teaching, then you will be in the truth and you will be free. His teaching is this: “Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). This is the truth. It is hard and difficult. Never in my wildest dreams would I have supposed that the truth would require me to give up and lay down my very own life. But through the witness of John and all the apostles about Jesus’ life, you and I are now face to face with this truth.

So, you want the truth? Then, love one another—lay down your life for the sake of those around you, sacrifice your entire life for others. But can you handle this truth? If the baby Jesus who was born this day lies dead in the grave, then no you cannot. But God did indeed raise Jesus from the dead. John witnessed this. John heard, saw, and touched the risen Jesus who will raise your body from the dead on the last day. And John has passed this good news on to you. Therefore, desire the truth—seek after it, live in it, let it rule your life—want the truth because now, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you can handle the truth. Amen.