At different levels, we all have problems handling the truth. I mean, whenever someone starts a conversation by saying he/she will tell us the truth, we usually try to get ready because it is something that is going to hurt. Don’t get me wrong. To be honest in whatever circumstance is good. After all, that is what we teach our children. Honesty is healthy.
The problem is we grow up and often confuse the important principle of honesty with the idea of defending our perspective about something. We tend to put both of them in the same basket that we call the truth. In other words, telling the truth quite often becomes a weapon to defend our point of view.
As part of his progressive revelation, Jesus uses different variations of the expression I tell you the truth or truth (Aletheia) throughout the Gospel of John. Actually, the word truth (Aletheia) appears about twenty one times in the Gospel of John. One of them is found in John 3: 1 – 16 where a religious man named Nicodemus comes to Jesus and is apparently seeking the truth. John 3: 1 – 16
Nicodemus was a prominent person in his time. It is believed he was one of the three richest men during his time in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Nicodemus was a Pharisee and member of the supreme Jewish judicial, ecclesiastical, and administrative council in ancient Jerusalem. In other words, Nicodemus was someone who was financially, intellectually, politically, and theologically prominent. Nicodemus could easily be considered someone who held the truth in different areas of life. Despite all his prestige, Nicodemus leaves in the middle of the night to meet Jesus. Why would a prominent man like Nicodemus walk in the middle of the night to meet someone like Jesus? Someone who, humanly speaking, held an inferior status to Nicodemus and, in many ways, was considered a questionable person?
One of the possibilities was Nicodemus, a prominent man, thought he held the truth and wanted to cause some damage, so to speak. Perhaps, Nicodemus held the truth as a weapon of knowledge to prove his point.
How often do we say we want to tell the truth meaning that we want to hurt someone with our knowledge?
Interestingly enough, Nicodemus risked his reputation and status as a prominent leader by not telling the truth or, should I say, to prove his point. Instead, he risked everything to tell Jesus that he, Nicodemus, didn’t have it all together. He risked everything to say that despite his prominent position, he didn’t hold the truth. He calls Jesus “Rabbi.” That was to say that he, Nicodemus, was and/or wanted to be Jesus’ disciple. Furthermore, Nicodemus recognizes the superior divine status of Jesus by saying that Jesus was the one sent by God. Nicodemus put aside his reputation as a religious leader to whom others looked for guidance and whom they were likely to follow. He put all that aside in the search for the truth that this Rabbi Jesus was revealing.
How often do we think we hold the status in life and the knowledge to tell the truth to someone/situation and put aside (surrender) our knowledge, status, and point of view?
Nicodemus put aside (surrendered) his idea(s) of the truth in order to hear the truth. The story does not say but something moved Nicodemus which caused him to put aside his status and knowledge of the truth and come to Jesus.
The fact is Jesus starts by stating to Nicodemus,
“I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
Being a Pharisee and representing those who were always persecuting Jesus, perhaps, Nicodemus was expecting from Jesus the truth as a weapon. He was probably preparing himself for the first shot to hit and hurt him badly.
The truth of Jesus was not about knowledge. The truth of Jesus was not about defending his point of view. It was not a sweet moment of revenge. Instead, the truth of Jesus was about Kingdom and transformation. The truth of Jesus was about this incomprehensible and unexplainable process called new birth (born again).
The truth of Jesus was about a God who is in the process of transformation and restoration of all creation. It was about new birth (restoration) that neither can be reasoned nor fully explained. But it can only be accepted and experienced. The truth of Jesus was an irrational, incomprehensible, mind blowing truth of a God who, “…loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
