Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the WorldSample

Broken Signposts: Truth

Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus frequently repeats the word, ‘truly’. In some translations it appears as, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you…’ Yet, a common contemporary objection says, we can invent our own truth. Like the other broken signposts, we all seem to know that truth matters, but identifying the signals that point genuinely to the human longing for truth and meaning can often be quite complex. 

The responsibility of Jesus’ followers is to be resolute in pursuing and producing truth. Some may argue that opposing claims to ‘the truth’ are simply ‘your truth’ versus ‘my truth’. Yet, if we ought to resist cynicisms of post-modernity, then we must also resist our shallow modern certainties. 

Throughout John’s Gospel, we see Jesus interacting with various people and affirming there is deeper approach to the human quest for truth—one that does not collude with half-truths (or half-lies). When Jesus tells the Samaritan woman to call her husband, she replies that she hasn’t got one (John 4:17). Jesus challenges her to a different kind of truth: one that looks clear-eyed at the reality of sin and the human predicament and responds by worshipping the one true God in spirit and in truth (vv. 23-24).

Another famous conversation records Thomas’ confusion, which prompts him to ask Jesus where he is going and how the disciples can know the way to follow (John 14:5). Jesus responds that he is the way, the truth, and the life (v, 6). Here we see that truth is wrapped up in human flesh: Jesus himself is carrying the reality of divine love—the love of God in person—and making an extraordinary claim about a whole new way of life. It is the living truth of the generous self-giving love of the Son in relation to the Father by the Spirit of truth (v, 17). 

Yet, the truth that Jesus is telling simply does not fit with his opponents’ models of how the world works. In his exchange with Pilate, Jesus asserts that his kingdom is of an entirely different kind, and that he has come to give evidence about this truth. 

‘Truth!’ said Pilate. ‘What’s that?’ (John 18:37-38). 

As followers of Jesus, we are commissioned to be people who can respond to these sorts of objections. Distortions are powerful, which is why we need one another. We must become a prayerful community who knows how to discern what needs to be said when and to whom, from moment to moment, and decade to decade. If we are telling truth in a hostile fashion, or in a brittle and bullying manner, then we are denying by the mode of our speaking the very message that we are supposed to be talking about!  

John’s Gospel affirms that Jesus not only tells the truth—that he is indeed Israel’s Messiah—but he also embodies the way of speaking truth to power. The broken signpost of Jesus’ crucifixion that leads the way through death comes out the other side as an outward-facing and perfect sign of God’s new creation. As people of the truth, the live-giving love of God flows in and through us by the Spirit, so that we might graciously and lovingly signal the resurrection truth in and to God’s world.

Questions to consider: 

What are some of the contemporary objections to knowing the truth? How does John’s Gospel speak powerfully about what truth really is and how it comes into being? 

Living it out: 

Consider the story of the woman at the well. Are there any areas of ‘half-truth’ in your life to confess? How might you worship God in spirit and in truth today?