Truth is a funny thing in the eyes of men. It works well when it goes in favor of one or another, and gets twisted sometimes when it doesn’t work in someone’s favor. It certainly didn’t work out for Jesus when He was arrested did it? (But that was the plan anyway)

²⁰ “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. ²¹ Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”

²² When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.

²³ “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”²⁴ Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. (John 18:20-24)

Funny isn’t it. Jesus spoke the truth and got slapped in the face for it. Jesus challenged the priest and got tied up and sent up to the high priest. If we as disciples of Christ speak the truth, then we can get slapped in the face too and sent “up the river” by those who think they are more godly than they are. But that’s the way of the world. For the priests of old had embraced the world and its ways. Just as they do today.

But we as disciples of Christ must be careful not to embrace the ways of the world and justify ourselves. We are to speak the Gospel, knowing we are but sinners saved by God’s Grace through Christ. If we yearn to justify our wrong actions and think of ourselves as special holy people set apart from the world then we run the risk of separating ourselves from Christ. Let me speak from a different angle. I know that through Christ’s shed blood that I am saved. But it isn’t by or through my own righteous act. It is by Christ’s alone. He alone atoned for my sins. Not to continue in them but to come away from a life lived for myself but to serve Him. It’s really that simple.

Let us continue in the simplicity of faith in Christ. In a life poured out in Him. Not just this weekend of celebration of His death and resurrection, but everyday of our lives.