Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl: Wednesday of Judica (Lent V)
Wednesday of Judica (Lent V)
Daily Lectionary Readings: Exodus 4:1-18; Mark 15:1-15; (Sirach 29)
Mark 15:1-5 [1] And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. [2] And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” [3] And the chief priests accused him of many things. [4] And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” [5] But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
In St. John’s account of the trial before Pilate, the governor of Judea famously says, “‘What is truth?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him.’”1 Our Lord Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”2 and “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.”3 But: “Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”4 As it turns out, Pontius Pilate was asking Jesus the wrong question. Not “what is truth?” but “Who is truth?” The Truth is the One who called His people to return to Him by the words of the prophets. The Truth is He who wants you to admit your sinful nature so that you may approach He who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”5 Truth is Christ hanging on the cross, bearing the sins of the world, and offering salvation and new life to the repentant believer.
A popular saying these past few years is “you need to find your truth." The world wants us to believe that your truth and my truth are not necessarily the same truth, yet both beliefs must be acknowledged as valid. Look how masterfully adept we are in creating and believing our own truth. And Satan would undoubtedly love to assist you if you have trouble.
Having been deceived by Satan to believe that the truth told to them by God was not the whole truth, Adam and Eve discarded the Word of the Lord for their own. The truth is now the knowledge and experience of evil have entered the world. Now our first parents will know fear, shame, want, and every other anxiety and hardship. Now they will know death.
God’s truth is unrelenting. He taught Adam and Eve that the cost of sin is the shedding of blood and death when He tore the skins from animals to fashion clothes to cover their shame. No matter the trespass, the bill always comes due.
Ever since the fall into sin, the true nature of all men has been rebellion. Estrangement from God is all that men on their own can expect. Because sinners hate God. God’s law is insulting to their freedom to live as they want. Their trust is in their own truth. We set up our own false idols to worship in the shrine of “me.”
"When I have what I want and get things my way, I'm happy. And God must be happy with me, too, because, if He wasn’t, I wouldn’t have what I want, or get things my way, would I?!" Gone is righteous anger for the violence perpetrated in plain sight against those least able to protect themselves, especially the treatment of our elderly and the blatant genocide of the unborn; all with the government’s blessing and encouragement!
Is it any wonder at all that we prefer the gods of our own making, a Jesus from our imaginations rather than the One True God revealed to us in the Scriptures who demands that we be holy as He is holy? It has become second nature to try remaking God in our image, shrouding Him in gauzy veils of self-deception. But when we peel back that curtain, we find not God but Antichrist.
It is effortless to fall in love with worshiping ourselves. After all, who do I trust best? My opinions, my desires, my will be done. Everything is evaluated through the filter of me, and we depersonalize those whose position differs, no matter how trivial.
But this god of my imagination cannot save me. We do not need a spiritual life coach to tell us if we only believe stronger and pray harder, we will hear God's voice. We do not need a heavenly referee to say, “It’s okay, take a do-over! Have a trophy!” We do not need a metaphysical motivational speaker to tell us to try, try again; surely, it will get better.
We need an advocate to plead our case. We need to trust in the truth revealed to us in the Bible – that we have a God who takes up our cause, bears our flesh and blood, and does in our place what we cannot ever hope to do. We need a holy God who will impart to us His holiness as a free gift. We need the God-man Jesus Christ to live His human life perfectly sinlessly, keeping the law perfectly. Then we need Him to die to pay the price of our sins and rise again from the dead to conquer death for us. And that's the truth!
Jesus comes that you may have peace, joy, life, and salvation now, and the sure hope you will join His feast, which has no end, in a resurrection that will heal every problem of your flesh and spirit. He brings healing and comfort to your suffering. Certainty replaces your doubt. Release from self-inflicted enslavement to our own greed and arrogance and exorcises all our fear. Here He brings absolute peace and rest for weary souls now and in the world to come.
His holiness is a gift He gives, not to those who deserve it but to those least deserving. He has borne all of man's hatred of God, and worse, all the Father's punishment for man's rebellion, and He has answered for them with His life for you. This is God’s truth. Treasure it as your truth!
1John 18:38 (ESV).
2John 14:6 (ESV)
3John 18:37 (ESV)
4John 18:38 (ESV)
5Joel 2:13 (ESV)