Matthew 27:1-26; Mark 15:1-15; Luke 23:1-25; John 18:28-40;
Matthew 27:27-31; Mark 15:16-20; John 19:1-16
Jesus answered, “… Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”
John 18:37-38
Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
Though coming from a wildly different background, Pilate is just like the Pharisees in that He cannot perceive Truth. The Truth is standing right before him, speaking to him face to face, yet he cynically asks, “What is truth?”
So Pilate turns from Jesus and listens instead to the crowd, that crowd that asks for the release of a criminal, but regarding the Son of God cries, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” (Luke 23:21)
And so I ask the same question I’ve asked several times before this year: To whom do you listen?
Of course, it is easy to look back on this sham trial of Jesus with 20/20 hindsight and to side with the one innocent Man. We know how this turns out, so we know the right answer here. But how about in our own daily lives? It gets a bit more challenging there. Are we of the truth? Do we listen to His voice? Or do we listen to all those other voices clamoring around us — the news media, social media, Hollywood, friends, family, employers, employees, politicians, pundits, preachers, protesters, Big Tech, experts in this, experts in that, advertisers, AI? Or how about that ever-present voice inside our head: Self?
To whom do you listen?
See also: