“What is Truth?”

John 8:31-36

 

Scripture:

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." 33 They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, "You will be made free'?" 34 Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Introduction:

          For those of you who listen to Pop radio or pay attention to the R&B charts, you may have heard of the 21 year old artist Tinashe. Her debut album Aquarius has proven to be a bit of an oddity within this year’s R&B releases. In an interlude entitled, “What is there to lose” she asks the question, “What is reality? What is truth, if truth is subjective?” As the Brooklyn critic Meaghan Garvey suggested, this question can sound like a “dorm-room stoner koan.”[1]

          Pundits of all genres have notched countless publications, if not whole careers, to their resumes in the critique of such seemingly foolish questions. Many might believe that such thoughts are best left to the late-night haze of the dorm rooms of yesteryear. Yet, this question has plagued many. Philosophers like Edmund Husserl and Mathematicians like Kürt Gödel have changed the way academics think about the question. Likewise, in the 1950’s and 60’s we saw an outpouring of these sorts of ideas and questions beyond the doors of the ivory tower. First came the beatniks and then the hippies. For many, society seemed to be unraveling.

          At the heart of all of this was a fundamental question. “What is truth?” Many may believe that the answer is obvious. Many others have dedicated their lives to the study of this one question. When Pastor Mayra assigned me today’s text and topic, she gave something akin to both a blessing and a curse. I could not ask for a topic that intrigues me more. Yet, I also have to be honest with you. Humanity has been wrestling with the details of this issue for thousands of years. My efforts, here this morning, will be but a modest attempt to bring the significance and application of John’s thoughts on these issues into your hearts and minds.

          This sort of question is not something to be easily answered. Rather, like Jacob’s wrestling with God, this is a question to be tried and journeyed.[2] So it is with a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation that I approach you with today’s sermon. The topic before us is both lofty and academic, but also immensely practical. It is perhaps the question at the heart of all questions. So let us journey together with John this morning and see where the Spirit might be leading us.

What is Truth?:

 

          In the text we encounter this morning Jesus is speaking to “the Jews who had believed in him” (8:31). What follows is a progressive unraveling of what these followers believed. Rather than providing some smooth messages of assurance, Jesus rattles the perceptions and sensibilities of his listeners. He suggests that they are enslaved (8:32) – something they wholeheartedly want to reject (8:33). Christ’s point was that the whole world is enslaved to sin (8:34). Luckily, Jesus also adds a message of hope. Through the Son, who is Christ, we can find freedom from our entrapment, from our slavery (8:35-36).

          We also find that Jesus is making a big claim. "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (8:32). This phrase, “continue in my word” is more than the belief his audience had based upon his words. Jesus is now asking those who believe to ‘follow’ him (8:12) or ‘walk with him’ (6:60) in the sense of giving him their allegiance.

          So when we look at this passage, we find that Jesus is telling us some very important things. For one thing, humanity is being held captive. But that captivity is not the end of the story. Instead, God has sent a person who can break us out of that captivity. God has sent us the Truth.

          The fundamental issue at hand, when we look at this passage of scripture, is that God has sent Godself – in the form of the Son Jesus Christ – to liberate us from our captivity. And it is this captivity that limits us, chains us, and isolates us. When we ask, “What is truth?” in relation to this passage of scripture, we are also asking what is not truth?

          We find that sin and darkness are the opponents of Truth in this passage, but their meaning extends well beyond the lists of “You shall not’s” we find elsewhere. Instead, sin is “a state of alienation from God […] that precedes all human acts.”[3] Sin is the category in which the world exists apart from God – it is separation. People are naturally centered upon themselves and what they can perceive about their own worlds.

          It is this separation from God that enslaves us. It confines us to what we can see and makes us blind to the “signs” of God’s work that the Gospel of John makes such a big deal out of. But just as importantly, our separation of God is a separation from the Truth.

          If you remember, I quoted Tinashe’s question earlier. She asked, “What is truth, if truth is subjective?” In response I ask, “but what if Truth is not subjective?” By that I don’t mean to be snarky or critical of her question. I embrace it! Instead, I concede that OUR truths are subjective. Each of us is limited by our context, our limited range of experiences and knowledge. But God is not.

          God is all-knowing, and only God exists apart from the created order. So ‘absolute truth,’ beyond the boundaries of subjectivity, (beyond our human capacities) can only exist with God. Since God is the only one who exists outside of context, only He can be called Truth. This is what John means when we read words describing Christ as the “Word.” Christ is God’s plan of deliverance. Jesus came to bring us back into a relationship with God the Father.

 

Truth as Relational – God:

          So when we ask, “what is truth?” and reply that it is God, we are acknowledging that it is only through our relationship to God that we encounter ‘Truth’ beyond context, beyond subjectivity, beyond us. God’s truth can break through the confines of our limited perspective and bring us into the Kingdom of God, where new things are possible.

          In other words, when we lose track of our relationship to God, we limit ourselves and the work God can do through us. We frequently here lists about the problems of society from our musicians, artists, and poets. At points we all experience humanity as cold, hurtful, and selfish. Yet, amidst all the problems that face our human race, perhaps what we really need is a change of focus!

          We need focus less upon who we are, and more upon WHO GOD IS! We all know that we are limited and finite. We are each subject to the contexts of culture, ethnicity, health, family, language, and psychology. But God takes us beyond all of that. And that is Good News! I believe that the Truth, is to be found in one’s relationship to God. Only God can claim to be absolute truth, and as a consequence our relationship to truth comes through our relationship to God.

Truth as Relational – Humanity:

          When we lose track of our relationship to God, we begin to focus more upon what we can perceive – what we think. We start places people into the boxes we make with our heads. When we categorize people we often fail to grasp the significance of their experiences and context. In other words, we fail to be empathetic because we fail to get beyond ourselves.

          All the categorizes that make us different from one-another begin to pile up until we have completely dehumanized another person. This is often done unintentionally, but is often done all the same. When we let our differences pile up so much that we stop trying to even attempt to put ourselves in each other’s shoes, we have forgotten what is most important.

          We don’t have a grip on the Truth. It is not something we can control or mold to our will. Instead, when we place ourselves into discipleship, the Truth can take hold of us. God is the Truth, and through his help we can begin to see a bigger universe. The categorizes that confine us to our little dominions begin to disappear and we begin to see a whole human race crying out for help – longing for a savior, longing for something that can release us from our slavery.

           Some of you may remember the Five Man Electrical Band song, “Signs.” In it, the lyricist famously sings, “Long Haired Freaky People Need Not Apply.” The artists are referencing a hippies attempt to get a job. But as you can guess the long-hair and look the hippy carries make this difficult because they brought about an immediate judgment. Even little things like hair or clothing inhibit us from being able to walk a mile in another person’s shoes. These categories let us place people here or there, all the while diminishing from who those people might really be.

          We do this because we are small and we do not understand. But we have Good News. God is big! And God knows each and every one of us intimately. God has been there with you through every pain and trial. While other people may not always get it, God does. And it is perhaps from this empathy that God shows us, that we can begin to show empathy towards one another. We may not always understand what another person may be going through, but we can have faith in our God – who is the way, the truth, and the life. Through Him we can find our liberation.

Conclusion:

 

          Before I wrap up, I just want to summarize a few things. We are limited, but God is not. Instead, God is the absolute Truth. In God’s son Jesus, humanity is brought back into relationship with God and reborn. In earnest supplication we need to go to God each day with a prayer for empathy. We need to be reminded that although we often fail to relate to other people’s situations, God knows everything. Through His strength and guidance we can begin to go beyond the things that separate us from one another, and show the love that God has shown us to others.

 

Let us pray before we sing:

          “Lord, send out your light and truth among us. Let it lead us and bring us into a deeper commitment to you and to others. Let it soothe our souls and give us peace. In the name of you son, our Lord, Amen.”

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[1] See: Meaghan Garvey, “Tinashe, Aquarius” on Pitchfork Reviews, www.pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19910-tinashe-aquarius/

[2] Jean-François Lyotard’s incredulity toward metanarratives is something to be embraced, rather than feared. It pushes us to recover the narrative character of the Christian faith, rather than understanding it a collection of propositions or ideas. Lyotard reminds us the confessional nature of our faith narrative. See: Jean-François Lyotard, trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984).

[3] Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, vol. ii (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991-1998), 262-263.