TRUTH FROM THE SPIDER’S PERSPECTIVE

 

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

 

November 23, 2003

 

Text: “Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’” (John 18:36)

 

First Reading: 2 Samuel 23:1-7

Second Reading: Revelation 1:4b-8

 

            The whole encounter between Pilate and Jesus must have been very frustrating for Pilate.  He was, after all, the Roman prefect of the province of Judea from 26-36 A.D.  We have proof of his existence not only from the Gospel accounts, but also the historians of that time, Josephus, Tacitus and Philo.  In the Roman government the office of prefect combined military, financial and judicial authority over the subjugated region.  That meant Pilate would have every right to question Jesus if, indeed as some were saying, Jesus was preaching the approach of a kingdom.  Pilate would want to know if that were true and what the nature of such a kingdom would be, especially if it could somehow be a threat to Pilate’s rule in Judea. 

 

            So, Pilate asks Jesus point blank if he is the king of the Jews.  It probably would have been more relevant if Pilate were to have asked him if he was claiming to be the king of Judea, because that would then put Jesus squarely in competition with Pilate.  Instead of answering Pilate, however, Jesus questions his source of information, which only enhances Pilate’s frustration.  Pilate quite honestly replies that he’s only acting on information that’s been given to him and then asks Jesus another point blank question,  what has he done?

 

            This leads Jesus again to dodge any direct answer by going down the circuitous path of the source of his authority and the growing movement swirling around him.  Pilate again confronts, only this time it’s more forceful than what we hear in the text.  The Greek has Pilate confronting Jesus with the fact, “So you’re not a king.”  What we read is “So you are a king.”  It would be clearer to go with the Greek, which would imply that Pilate is no longer worried over the sovereignty of his region, since Jesus’ authority and ministry seems other-worldly. 

 

            But, again, Jesus doesn’t leave it there.  Rather he again goes down the diversionary route of proclaiming that he’s come into the world to testify to the truth and how, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” which leads Pilate to end the discussion with the question, “What is truth?”

 

            Approach an answer to that question, what is truth, through the use of three very familiar songs.  The first is probably the first song we heard sung to us as a child.  It’s called the itsy-bitsy spider song.  You all know the words, how an itsy-bitsy spider goes up the water spout, only to have the rain come and wash the spider out.  Out comes the sun and dries up all the rain and the itsy-bitsy spider goes up the spout again.  We even know the hand signs that accompany the words.  Truth from the spider’s perspective is that he’s getting nowhere.  Truth from the spider’s perspective is life is pretty futile.

 

            Have you heard of the tale of Sisyphus?  Sisyphus, according to Greek legend, was the greedy king of Corinth who was doomed forever in Hades to roll uphill a heavy stone.  But every time he reaches the top and it looks like his task is finally accomplished, the stone rolls all the way back down to the bottom.  So each day Sisyphus begins his task, knowing full well that he will never get the stone over the top.

 

            Many people feel their life is doomed to such a Sisyphean task.  They never get anywhere.  The housewife who feels every day is the same and sees no hope that it will ever be different.  The office worker who gets to the bottom of the paperwork only to have it pile up again.  The young adult who’s caught in the web of credit and lives from check to check without any hope of getting it paid off.  The married couple who continue to hurt each other without seeking the guidance that could help them change their ways.  The truth for all of them is the water just keeps washing the spider out and the stone keeps rolling all the way back down to the bottom.  What is truth?  They would answer that truth is the futility of life.

 

            Another song that we heard at an early age was “Rock a bye baby.”  I never thought about the words when I used to sing it to the kids, but they’re pretty devastating!  It doesn’t say “if the bough breaks;” it says “when the bough breaks.” In other words, the cradle will fall and down will come cradle baby and all.  This is what we were trying to say last Sunday.  Truth for many people is that their cradle is going to fall and they will suffer.

 

            Another way of saying that for many people is “Murphy’s Law.”  Murphy’s Law as you know is the dictum that if anything can go wrong it will.  Some friends of mine in Seminary read Calvin that way.  They interpreted Calvin as living by the dictum that anytime anyone got too comfortable with life something would doom them.  I’ve never been able to find that in Calvin, but throughout seminary they always had a sense of fatalism about them.  And, matter of fact, each one of them is already dead!

 

            Jesus himself felt betrayed by life.  The Garden scene was not just play acting on his part.  When on the cross he cries out to God why God has betrayed him he is as close to our anguish as he can get.  And that’s just the point.  “There is no more pain in the world than one person can bear.  But all the world’s pain can be contained in that one cry.” (I’m helped in these thoughts by HomileticsOnline.com. November 23, 1997.)  Which again offers comfort to those whose cradle keeps falling out of the tree; God in Christ has been there in Jesus’ suffering and God in Christ will be there in our suffering as well.

 

            The third song is the one we’re going to sing in a moment and that is “Joyful, Joyful we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love; Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away.  Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day.”  (Hymn 464, The Presbyterian Hymnal.)  What is truth?  Truth is to get beyond the futility of the water spout and the pain of our cradle always falling out of the tree and to be filled with the light of day lived in the splendor of God’s all-embracing love.

 

            This Thursday we’ll gather the family around a table probably laden with more food than we could even think of eating.  It will be a time when we remember those whose places are now empty because of death or filled with a new birth in the family.  It will be a time to reflect on the past year, with all of its pains and frustrations and to know that God walked each day with us.  It will be a time to give thanks for all of the blessings, large and small that we received, both those blessings we dearly yearned for and those that smacked us in the face as total surprises.  It will a time to look around and know how much we need one another, not just to comfort and console us, but also to challenge and chastise us.  It will be a time to remember those who’ve gone before us and on whose shoulders we stand, those who’ve taught us what it means to follow the Christ and tried to keep us from our own foolish desires down the wrong path.  It will be a time when our hearts unfold like flowers before Thee and we will be filled with the light of day.

 

            Remember that we’re all cracked pots!  “The ode-to-joy truth we all can affirm when we sit down at our Thanksgiving table is this: God’s love is continually in our midst, God’s forgiveness is eternally available, God’s peace pours out in an unending stream, and God’s joy can fill up all the cracked and imperfect corners of our lives.” (Ibid.)

 

Thanks be to God,

Amen

 

           

 

           

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