Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?”
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king.
For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
John 18:37-38
It's bad enough that America has one crazy uncle, who happens to be the president. There is second one now, and he gives legal advice to the first one. Rudy Guiliani is one of the bevy of Trump lawyers who is supposed to protect President Trump from himself, but he's a loose cannon in his own right. In a recent interview Guiliani chose to play fast and loose with truth, quite literally:
Guiliani: When you tell me that [Trump] should testify because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, that’s so silly, because it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth.
Chuck Todd: Truth is truth.
Giuliani: No, it isn’t truth. Truth isn’t truth.
Jesus Before Pilate
Truth isn't truth. Holy Pilate! This has happened before, nearly two thousand years ago. Peasant Jesus stands before Roman Procurator Pilate in what is really a sham trial. Jesus says that he has come to testify to the truth and the world-weary Pilate says, eh, what is truth? It is a rhetorical question he really doesn't want answered.
Jesus isn't trying to lure Pilate into a philosophical exchange on the relativity or objectivity of truth. In his simple statement he does cut through the temptation in every age to claim that truth is the invention of those who hold power and who want to avoid the consequences of their actions. Jesus bears witness to God in both word and action.
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