“Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?”

“And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and *said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.’”  And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and *said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.’”  (John 17:38)

With Jesus’s answer in his face from the last question, Pilot has a choice. Can he accept the truth about Jesus, the king of a spiritual realm?

Obviously, he cannot.

Instead, he deflects, just as people do in this current age after they have heard the truth. He shrugs his shoulders, not believing there is an answer to his question, concluding there isn’t such a thing as “truth.”

It’s simpler and less painful to deny the existence of truth than to deal with the truth.

If he had a sincere interest in knowing the truth, Jesus would have embraced his seeking heart like he did others, declaring, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

Instead, Pilate walked out of the room. He didn’t even wait for Jesus to answer.

But he must have believed Jesus was right because, with as much courage as he could muster, he faced the crowd outside and declared, “I find no guilt in Him.”

Jesus was not a threat to Rome or any nation on earth.

What Jesus said was true about the relationship between God and mankind. But Pilate couldn’t believe for himself that Jesus was the truth.

The matter should have been finished. Pilate had announced his decree, but he added a “but”—one that opened the door for compromise. Whenever Satan sees that open door, he seizes the opportunity.

Even though Pilate believed Jesus was innocent, he bargained with Jesus’ life, offering to release him for Barabbas, a notorious robber. And just as he could not decide what was truth, maybe he thought the people could decide right from wrong.

Again, he was wrong. So, to show what a tough guy he was, Pilate had Jesus scourged with special whips the Romans used for torture. The guards also mocked him, making him a crown of thorns and putting a purple royal robe on his bloody, flesh-torn back. Physical and emotional torture.

Jesus came out again before the crowd, humiliated and bloodied. Once again, Pilate declared, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.”

I wonder if Pilate secretly hoped that the crowd would be pacified when they saw Jesus’s suffering?

But they were not. Pilate was trying to deal with the problem, but not with his problem, the problem of sin in his own life, or the problem of the Jewish people, their rejection of their King. He was trying to use every trick in his bag.

He came up short.

Comment: How would you define what truth is? Do you identify with Pilate on how difficult it is to recognize truth? How do you deal with it?