33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
— John 18:33-37, ESV

Jesus Christ is the King of many things.  Jesus is the King of creation, having spoken the universe into existence.  Jesus is the King of salvation, for no one can be saved apart from Him.  Jesus is the King of the consummation, and all will see Him at His second coming.  

[Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him.
— Colossians 1:15-16

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
— Revelation 1:4

Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews, the King of the church, the King over all the heavens and the earth.  Jesus Christ is King of kings, Lord of lords, Master of everything.  Jesus Christ is King!

Yet all of the realms of which Jesus is King depend upon one very important thing: truth.  An absolute king is dependent upon absolute truth as the basis for his absolute kingdom.  Does such truth exist?  

No, according to Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate was not a man to side with the truth, which is why Jesus Christ found Himself opposed and in mortal danger before this governor.  

Pilate disdained the Jews and did not understand the Christians.  Old Covenant Judaism and New Testament Christianity promote God’s word as God’s truth, but Pilate would have none of it.  He did not govern in accordance with truth, but was well known to rule with corruption and cruelty.  Historians Josephus and Philo underscore Pilate’s unscrupulous record.  

Pilate found himself face to face with Jesus for the second time in this text.  As representative of Rome and governor of Judea, Pilate had sole authority to either grant the Jewish religious leaders’ request to crucify Jesus, or adjudicate Jesus truthfully and fairly and let Him go.  Pilate’s final deliberation is terse and tragic.  He asks five questions, then displays his disdain for the truth. 

“Are you king of the Jews?”

Pilate was not a religious fellow, but he was very intelligent.  He knew enough about the Jews and Jesus Christ to know the Jews prophesied the Christ would come from the tribe of Judah and the lineage of David.  Jesus fit this bill as the long awaited Messiah, the King of the Jews, the Savior of the world, the Lord over all.  In a roundabout way, Pilate asked Jesus if Jesus is the Messiah.

In a roundabout way, Jesus said “yes.”  Indeed He was, is, and always will be.  If Pilate had believed this truth, he would have bowed and bent the knee before Jesus. Instead, He had Jesus bowed, bent, beaten, and sent Him to the cross.

“Am I a Jew?”

Here Pilate shows his disregard for Jews in general and Jesus Christ in particular.  This question drips with sarcasm, antisemitism, and unbelief.  Pilate is Roman, of course, not Jewish, and has no interests in the truths of the Old Testament and burgeoning New Testament.

“What have you done?”

Remember Jesus was on trial at this time along with three insurrectionists, thieves, and murderers.  One, Barabbas, will be given clemency when Pilate tries to trick the crowds into letting Jesus go.  But the trick will turn on Pilate, whose hand will be forced to crucify Jesus.  

Pilate knew what Barabbas and his partners had done.  They deserved death.  He really did not know what Jesus had done, only that he did not deserve capital punishment.  

“So, you are a king?”

At the end of this second trial, Pilate’s tone actually softens.  This question is rhetorical, for Pilate now knows Jesus is someone special, perhaps supernatural, surely “a king” if not the king.  We know where Jesus is going, to the cross, but this question is Pilate’s cross.  

The question is an admission, which Jesus answers by admonishing Pilate to seek out the truth before making a major decision.  The information the Gospel writers collected would have been readily available to Pilate after his three year observation of the person and work of Jesus Christ.  

Jesus was born of a virgin, as Mary and the early Christians confirmed.  Jesus had lived an exemplary, perfect life, to which many could testify.  Jesus was about to fulfill the role envisioned by Isaiah as the suffering servant and substitutionary sacrifice for sinners, ironically with Pilate’s political assistance.  And Pilate would learn, later, of Jesus’ bodily resurrection and promised return.  

Pilate had the facts laid out right before his eyes, Pilate had Jesus right before his eyes.  Pilate was presented with the truth, the absolute truth, of the absolution Jesus Christ offers when one acknowledges Him as King.  But would Pilate accept the truth?  

“What is truth?”

This last question sealed Jesus’ fate, and more so Pilate’s.  This last question reveals, again, Pilate’s sarcasm and cynicism.  It reveals Pilate as devoid of grace and lacking in faith.  It reveals Pilate and others like him have no regard for spiritual and scriptural truth.  

No, there is no gospel truth, according to Pontius Pilate.  The Lord Jesus Christ, however, offers a different answer.  

Yes, according to Jesus Christ

While Pilate’s doubt is defined in five questions, Jesus’ asserts the gospel truth in three truthful testaments.  

“Do you say this on your own accord?”  

In other words, yes, I am a king, said Jesus.  Whether Pilate knew it or believed it would not change the fact that Jesus was, is, and always will be King of kings and Lord of lords.  As such, Jesus knew what Pilate would not, that one day their roles would be reversed, and Jesus would arise as judge over Pilate, and judge all the other unbelievers of gospel truth in world history.

In a way, Jesus was being sarcastic back to the scornful governor.  Jesus was goading him, asking him, have you done your research?  Jesus asks the same of all of us now.  

Have you read the Bible, especially the Gospels?  Have you learned the facts about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?  Have you made your decision as to who Jesus is, and discovered what He demands from your life, namely repentance and faith, in order to live in His kingdom?

“My kingdom is not of this world.” 

Here is a truth that Pilate could not grasp, and I fear many nominal Christians of our age do not get, as well.  For Pilate, this world was everything.  The power he held as governor, the money he made from corrupt tax practices, the luxurious life he lived because of both, these were worldly things and the only things that mattered to Pilate.  To keep them, he would have to reject Jesus, which he did with a cross.

To accept Jesus is to accept the cross, and it’s gospel truth.  To live, you must die.  To be born again into Christ’s kingdom is to pursue service rather than power, gifts more than gains, and worship and service in Christ’s church as the highest honor in this temporary life, until you can worship Him in person in the life to come. 

It is true that a Christian can and must function in this present world.  We must work jobs, run for office, invest a little money every now and then.  But we do not live for these things, we live with these things.  What we live for is best expressed by the Apostle Paul, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (ref. Philippians 1:22). 

“Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”  

Pilate had his test, and failed, because he would not listen to “the truth.”  We end this text with your test, and mine.  Are you and I “of the truth?”  Yes, if we “listen to my voice,” says the Lord Jesus Christ.  

“The truth” is the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
— John 14:6

“The truth” is the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
— John 17:16-17 

“The truth” is a life of active obedience to God’s word and active participation in Christ’s church.  

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
— 3 John 1:4

Soren Kierkegaard wrote, “Think of looking at a painting and discovering that the painting was looking at you. Precisely such is the case with Christian truth. It is looking back at me to see whether I do what it says I should do.”

Jesus is the King of truth, not my truth or your truth but the truth of the gospel.  To this Pilate said, “no.”  Jesus says, “yes.”  What do you say?  “What is truth,” and Who is truth, to you?