Pentecost 9 The Moment of Truth, Are We Up To It?

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 9 The Moment of Truth, Are We Up to It?

You're at a party and the language grows increasingly raw and nervous laughter begins to affirm the off color jokes being told. There is an embarrassed look on several people's faces but no one speaks up to quell the onslaught. The window is open for someone to say they aren't interested in that kind of atmosphere but no one does. “It's what everyone does these days” is the accepted but silent response. What about the time a group is teasing a timid outsider who is physically incapable of responding? Or the known office 'in' group that has chosen one person to take the brunt of criticism and even sets them up to get reprimands from superiors? How about the gossip and second hand accusations or judgments that take place in a neighborhood, business, school or even a church setting like a small group or the casual chat times? How about being in a secular group that feels political correctness is the weapon of choice to isolate a person carrying biblical values in a discussion?

There are so many occasions that we may find ourselves in, calling for us to stand up and be counted. These my friends, are moments of truth; ones that call us to make a choice to either be silent or to speak up. Truth. What is it? How do we claim it? Who and what is our authority to act for the truth at that moment?

When Jesus proclaimed He was the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) He was saying He has everything to satisfy the deepest longings of the mind and heart in any setting, anywhere, anytime. When Scripture notes that He grew in wisdom and stature with God and man it meant what He already was in perfection enabled Him to develop His humanity perfectly from infancy to manhood. Wherever He was and with whomever He was He always reacted in truth. That was the point of the story describing His visit to the Temple when He was twelve years old impressing the scholars with His wisdom (Luke 2:41 on). When His parents left and didn’t realize He was not with them, they anxiously returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Finding Him in the Temple and expressing their anxiety, He questions their searching and asks simply, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” That was a truthful reaction.

That event is the probable reason no more is recorded about Jesus’ early life. It sums up everything that had to be said about Him prior to His baptism. He was truth in the flesh.

We can speculate all we want about His early life, but John keeps us focused on the purpose of the Scriptures: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (Jn.20:31).”

Jesus was the only person who from birth never had to search for and find the truth. He was conceived and born by the Spirit of Truth. We have already stated He is the only One who never had to be enlightened saying, “Oh, now I see.” Or “It took awhile but I finally got it.” He was and is spontaneous truth. Jesus never had to work at being a person. He was already that perfect person. He never had to work at being peaceful, at being calm, at controlling His emotions or at concentrating. When you are a complete person you don’t have to. You just are. The fact that we have to work at all those things shows the difference between Jesus and all humanity since Adam, between His perfection and our sin.

If Jesus is the truth then He offers four insights that can help shift our focus from a lonely confusing search to a stable and firm footing in Him.

First, truth is the extension of the mind of God, His intellect, reason and order. Jesus said that everything He thought and did was based on His Father’s will. And we, being created in His image, only function correctly when we reason and order our lives based on how He thinks (John 7:16-17). This is why Paul says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind ((Rom.12:2) through Scripture (2Tim.3:16) and why Jesus prays “Father, sanctify them by the truth. Your Word is truth (Jn.17:17).”

Second, truth is personal because God is personal. What is subjective for God is objective for us. Simply put, truth is not relative but absolute because God is absolute. He is the absolute person in whose image we were created. What is personally true for God is personally true for us. Who and what we are, how we are defined as persons, as conscious ‘I am’s’, reflects our being images of God (Genesis 1:26). When Jesus said He was truth (Jn.14:6) He was saying truth is a living reality that can be experienced in more than the mind.

Third, truth is spiritual because God is spiritual. It connects us with the very nature of God and allows us to relate to others as spiritual beings. Just as the Holy Spirit led Jesus so we can only function spiritually when the Spirit of Truth leads us (John 4:24). When we follow the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit and see things as the Spirit leads, then we ourselves as functioning spiritually as He intended. Again, truth is a living extension of God's spiritual nature and we, being made in His image, can relate spiritually to Him through His gifts and fruit of the Spirit. We have only to grasp the tearing of the curtain of the Temple from top to bottom when Jesus was crucified showing that each of us has personal access to God through Jesus (Mt.27:51).

Fourth, truth is relational because God is relational. He showed in Jesus that His deepest desire for us is to have a relationship with Him. Jesus is the perfect picture of what a relationship with God looks like. Jesus’ relationships with others show how we are called to be relational. That is what He wants for us. He died and rose again to prove it (John 3:16). When we are one with Him by faith that is the way we begin to relate to one another. Before there was a physical universe everything was spiritual and the physical universe is an expression of the spiritual nature of God who created it all. To the Lord each of us is a spiritual being designed to live and experience one another relationally based on the relationship that existes between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the perfect relationship.

But now let's move further into Truth. We have seen four basic principles about truth; the extension of the mind of God, its spiritual, personal and relational dimensions. There is the non-verbal expression that truth causes. “You know that you know that you know” “You know in your heart what I mean” “I know in my heart” are expressions that talk about truth in its non-verbal sense. There are so many examples in Scripture. Scripture itself is a verbal presentation of non-verbal reality. How many times haven't we felt a personal tie to a Scripture that touched us in a wordless way as though it was written for me in the circumstance of a specific moment. It may mean nothing to someone else in a similar circumstance but at that moment it hit home.

It's this heart level the Lord wants us to look for, the living truth that is Jesus. This is the importance of every next moment, the moment we look forward and have to react in faith. This is what is known as the “the moment of truth.” It's when the unexpected happens and we are alone having to make a decision. Upon what or whom do we rely? Whether you are in a crowd, among friends, family or alone, what you decide will determine the course of events in your world which is really everyone's world. This is what the Lord was aiming for when He said that little things mean a lot (Lk.16:10). The little things are the 'every next moments' of life. They are the lead in to the big things. When little decisions along the way are handled in faith then when we come to the major decisions of life they are just 'next moments' waiting to be fulfilled. What better illustration than when the Lord blessed a boy's two small fish and five loaves and they produced enough to feed five thousand (Jn.6:9)? Thousands had come to hear Jesus. He had not planned any of what transpired. It was a moment of truth and Jesus responded in faith. Here is God the Son living in the moment, an every next moment.

If you look at the life of Jesus from His birth on, the 'every next moments' were always faced as as moments of faith decision making. His moments were always perfection in motion. His moments were spiritually met because the Holy Spirit was His motivation. Day after day and month after month Jesus lived for every next moment. He knew that was how He was called to act, every next moment to be lived by faith doing His Father's will. That is His call to us. We know that from His commission to His disciples, “As the Father has sent me so I am sending you (Jn.20:21).”

So truth is defined as the action we faithfully undertake in the moment of decision which is always the next one. Truth is facing the moment of decision in faith because the living truth is Jesus who is the Truth walking in the Spirit of Truth (Jn.14:16). A relationship with Jesus means we not only have truth for our minds to think, but a truth that trusts with the heart and a truth that discerns and acts in faith. The first we can put into words as the Lord has done with Scripture but the second and third are spiritually put into action as the Holy Spirit moves within us.

It's our spirit that feels the peace of God, knows the gifts of the Spirit and discerns spirituality in any situation and the spiritual condition of others.

Scripture provides discernment you can trust. When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus what truth was, that was a clear indication he didn't see Truth was standing in front of him. As a Roman official he probably saw truth as only a product of a philosophical mind and had some superficial idea about it.. This is the way people who don't believe in real Truth can be identified. Their view is always to come up with some personal secular conjecture or conclusion. It's the elusive theories that expose where they are. If you are in a conversation with someone like that use it as an opening to ask the question “What is truth anyway?” It's a great way to initiate a conversation about Jesus. “Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you...” And here is the way it is to be handled...“But do this with gentleness and respect...(1Peter 3:15).” Being prepared anticipates what may happen and hopefully what will happen. Stay awake for that every next moment always looking forward to the opportunity. It will happen.