Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free—John 8:32. 

“What is truth?” Pilate once asked (John 18a:38). 

Whether sarcastically or out of ignorance, the Governor of Palestine asked Jesus as He stood trial before him. He struggled with what to do with Jesus. The accusations the Jewish leaders brought against Jesus did not warrant the sentence they sought. The accused mesmerized him by the authority in his affirmative responses (Mark 15:2), silence (3-5), statements, and claims (John 18:33-36). Pilate’s wife had warned him not to have anything to do with Jesus. She had suffered in her dream about the innocence of Jesus (Matthew 26:19). But the chants of “Crucify Him” were deafening. Poor Pilate! These things tormented him in his judgment seat and in his courtroom where Jesus stood trial. It makes you wonder who was in charge. 

In exasperation, he asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).  

Pilate needed the truth to set him free from his tormented soul. The irony was that the Truth stood right before him, yet he did not know. Every statement, claim, or argument that is contrary to the word of Jesus is false and poisonous, packaged from hell. 

“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life,” Jesus said (Jn. 14:6).  

He who finds this Him finds life (1:4). 

The story of the atheist Pindaro attests to this. Pindaro told his son, Pietro, that their dog, Figaro, was God. Pietro bonded with the dog and shared life with it everywhere. The father waited for Figaro to die, so he would drive home his point that nobody needs God to live. Pindaro, however, suddenly fell sick and, lying on his deathbed, called his son for a shocking confession.  

“My little Pietro, I had hoped to outlive Figaro,” he said. 

“But Papa, nobody outlives God,” said the boy. 

“Ah, but Pietro, Figaro was never God,” said the dying father. 

“I know,” said Pietro. “God is greater than all the animals. He is greater than you, Papa. You had hoped to make me an atheist like you, but once when I passed by the great cathedral, I looked in and over the altar. I saw Jesus hanging on the cross. Then I knew, Papa, that if Jesus loved the world enough to die for it, His love must be greater than His condemnation. I love Jesus, Papa, and you must love Him, too. For it is never wise to live all your life and doubt the only love there is.” 

“Pietro, run for the priest. Tell him your father has sinned against your innocence. Tell him I cast myself upon the bosom of truth and lay aside my lies.” 

The epitaph the village stonecutter could chisel for Pindaro’s gravestone reads: “Brought to Jesus by the child he would have deceived.”  

What is truth? 

Jesus is the Truth. Know Him and live. He will set you free from your sin bondage and give you everlasting life (John. 3:16).