Whether or not we are Christians, whether or not we know the story of Pontius Pilate ambivalently handing Jesus over for crucifixion against his own better judgement, we all know the ominous undertones of the phrase ‘to wash your hands’ of something. The phrase has entered everyday language as a way of expressing the intent to turn one’s back on someone or something for good – to say, this situation is no longer my responsibility – no longer my problem – I’ve ceased to care. I wash my hands of it!
In the Bible Pilate asks the crowd if they would rather see Jesus dead or the convicted insurrectionist, Barabbas. They want Jesus. Matthew records , ‘When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
Why did he feel like this? In an encounter earlier that day religious leaders had brought Jesus to Pilate as part of their scheme to get him executed. And, in John, it comes down to a really profound encounter between two men. Pilate asks Jesus searchingly are you the King of the Jews, and Jesus replies that his kingdom is not of this world but everyone who knows him, recognises him, and knows the truth. Then Pilate, trying to see into this man before him – who are you really, he is perhaps thinking – says, and what is truth? Jesus does not reply; he does not need to – Pilate is looking at the answer and everything in this story that has gone on before or will come after testifies to the answer.
This question – what is truth – is I think the three most interesting words in the entire Bible. It is the heart of the story Scripture tells from Genesis through to Revelation, and the heart too of the God it points to. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said that devotion to truth is the sole justification for our existence. It ought at least to be a goodly part of it. And never, I think, has the question been more rarely asked nor the answer more important than in these days that is the first quarter of the twenty first century. What is truth?
All this stuff went around in my head yesterday as I watched open-mouthed as Nigel Farage in the States at the House Judiciary Committee came to discuss free speech in the UK. The irony was almost as incredible as the lack of self-awareness, and he barely flinched as Jamie Raskin outlined the hypocrisy of his position. But you could see nothing was landing – you could feel Raskin’s passion and Farage’s oblivion to the evidence as the latter with a straight face compared the UK to North Korea. And just this afternoon Farage has said that Raynor’s resignation means that this government is no better than the last – just unpack that a bit. We have lost a working class woman in a senior position in parliament because she got her tax stuff wrong while trying to secure a stable and workable home for her disabled child after divorce. Yes she should have done better for sure, and ministerial standards require her to resign, I think rightly, but really is this comparable to the fourteen years of sleaze that went before? Nigel Farage thinks so and his followers will agree with enthusiasm. So often our truths are no more than arguing a position that we cannot evidence but neither can we bear to part with. What is truth indeed? Gandhi may have said devotion to truth is the purpose of life but it was Jon Swift, the nineteenth century author of Gulliver’s Travels, who reminded us that a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes’. And that was before social media!
So just as an aside, and because the words we use matter and need to coalesce, what is truth philosophically speaking? There are a few categories of truth – there are axiomatic or necessary truths which are always foundational and the condition of further truth-values being established. An example of these categories of truth would be mathematical – 2+2 equals 4 for example. You take two bananas and two elephants, you will still have four items. Then there are contingent truths – I look out of my window and see it is raining – and I say, ‘it is raining’. That is true. But it is contingent on the moment. If three hours later the sun is shining brightly, and I am still insisting it is raining, that may be a mistake or a lie. But I am no longer telling the truth. Subjective truths are truths that depend on how I am feeling or on my own limited experience – I feel tired or offended or full of the joys of spring. I am entitled to say so. it is true but it is not so for everyone. There are also poetic truths but I won’t go there now.
Subjective truth – I think that is where we are with social media. We now speak of ‘my truth’ but what we mean is this is how I feel, this is how I have experienced this, this is how it has impacted on me, this is how I have processed what has happened. Valid and subjectively true, but the problem begins when we think such things are objectively so. Social media takes us into a universe where opinions, where ‘my truths’, are allowed to solidify into fact – I believe this to be so, and I don’t care who disagrees with me because it is my truth. So the subjective truth that I have experienced, say, a politician seemingly lying to me, solidifies into some universal truth – all politicians are liars. They are not of course.
There’s a wonderful cartoon out there that shows two people in front a very large brick wall they can’t see over. One person notes a small hole in the wall – he looks through it, sees water and loudly declares it is raining. The one seeking truth finds a ladder, climbs to the top of the wall, looks over, and sees someone using a sprinkler in their garden. It is not raining at all, but the one looking through his peep hole has seen what he has seen and will not be dissuaded. Immigrants are taking our jobs and our houses, (they are not); they are living in four star hotels and being given free ipads (they are not) and America is the bastion of free speech (maybe it was once but no longer) while the UK is turning into North Korea. No wonder, as Yates put it, the centre cannot hold.
Off course people are entitled to their opinions and to express them as forcefully as they want but, separated from any willingness to hold those opinions up to the light of scrutiny, they add nothing to the search for truth that, as Gandhi said, is the purpose of existence. They become just so much sound and fury, signifying nothing. And then add AI into the mix!
What does all this have to do with Jesus, with Pilate and his hand-washing or indeed with the Christian faith? Well, for Christians, Jesus Christ is the source of absolute, axiomatic truth – the reality on which all else is based. He claimed that his actions were of God and those first group of followers were so convicted they lived and died in that reality. To paraphrase C S Lewis in Mere Christianity, you can call Jesus a liar or a madman (though there is not a shred of evidence he was either) or you can own him as Lord. No other options exist. Literally billions of people across space and through history have come to that same conclusion. And that is a fact not an opinion.
The Bible reveals a truth greater than mere honesty – it is about integrity – integrity that comes from wholeness, being the same alone as you are to the world, not because God is watching (that would be silly and itself lack integrity) but because your life is lived connected deeply to that oneness of God which brings integrity, brings wholeness. The psalmist says that God is the God of truth, and Jesus – the one who was neither a liar nor a madman – describes himself as the way and the truth and the life. That existential moment when Pilate looks at Jesus and says what is truth – he asked the ultimate question and was on the edge of the ultimate answer. But he backed away, washed his hands, and that was that.
One last quote – sorry – Thomas Hobbes said hell is ‘truth seen too late’. I don’t believe in hell but he still had a point. So we need to keep on asking – what is truth especially in this age of social media and slick but hollow answers.
Thank you for reading – I look forward to hearing your thoughts!