I confess going in. This post is not just about verses 19 to 27 but the rest of John chapter 18 beginning with verse 37. Here, Pilate asks Christ, “What is the truth?” So, in this last post we are going to use these last verses to answer his question.
In these final events preceding Christ’s execution, there are two distinctly different groups. Both groups claimed to serve the Living God. Christ identified both groups in verse 36. Here it is made clear that both do not serve the Living God. Earlier, in verses 19 through 24, this Truth Is made clear. The high priest questioned Christ (the Living God). When Christ answered, “Why are you asking Me? Ask those who heard My message,” an officer of the high priest struck Christ (the Living God) asking, “Is this how You answer the high priest?” Basically saying, “Don’t you know who he is?” The Truth Is, it wasn’t Christ who had forgotten who he was, but the high priest. Which brings us to the second group.
The high priest declared his right to arrest, question, convict, and finally execute Christ as coming “under oath by the living God.” But Christ (the Living God) said, “My servants would fight to prevent My arrest…” You see, the high priest and his followers forgot they were called as “servants” to the Living God. Caught up in their own importance, power, and wealth as the descendants of Jacob, the Living God’s chosen, they did not recognize Him as they tore His clothes, spat in His face, and hung Him on a cross. The Truth Is, they forgot something His True servants knew… the rest of Christ’s (the Living God) answer in verse 36, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.”
Tomorrow, churches will be filled (well, probably not) with people claiming an “oath to the Living God,” but not living a life of a “servant.” They will leave the church and return to a world where they are the authority, where they are important, they have power, their “love of wealth” reigns supreme. Tomorrow, churches will be filled with two distinctly different groups, those who claim the Living God for their own ends and the servants who take the Living God (Christ) at His word,
“You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”
Which will you be?
© Scott A Caughel 4/03/2021