John 18:37,38

‘Pilate therefore said to him, “Are you a king then?” Jesus answered, “It is you who says I am a king. This is why I have been born and this is why I have come into the world, so that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Pilate says to him, “What is truth?” '

Pilate was even more puzzled. The man was claiming to be a king and yet not a king. So he put a further question, ‘Are you a king, then?'

Jesus' reply was enigmatic. Pilate could decide how he took it for himself. It could be a ‘yes', or it could be a ‘that is the way you put it' or a ‘what do you think?'

Then He informed Pilate that the reason that He was born and the reason that He had come into the world was in order to bear witness to what was true and to reveal the truth. Yes, He was a king, the king of truth. He emphasised that those who were of the truth, those who responded to truth, listened to what He had to say and accepted His kingship. So Jesus even sought to convert His judge.

This conversation was the bright star against a dark background. He, the light Who lights all men, had come as a light into the world. He had shone forth revealing the truth as never before, and those who were of the truth had heard His voice. And they had found truth and had been delivered from darkness. And now He was offering that truth to Pilate. But most men loved darkness rather than light and that is why Jesus was where He was.

So a cynical Pilate replied, “What is truth?” Pilate was not open to truth. He had no interest in religion and philosophy. Had he been interested the conversation could have continued, but he was not interested in truth. He and his friends had no doubt discussed the question of truth and had dismissed it. All religions were the same and you picked the one you preferred. The impression John gives is of a man to whom truth was not important. What mattered was expediency.

But the reply made Pilate recognise that this was all to do with the Jewish religion which he had never understood anyway. They did not think like others thought. So he went back to the Jewish leaders.