What is Truth?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus proclaims, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Great. This is good news for any human ears. Freedom through truth appeals to just about everybody. We like to believe in truth. After all, truth is what keeps our world in order.

You and I are hard-wired to believe in truth. It is much more difficult to understand the idea of a lie than the truth. From the time of birth, children are automatically programmed to believe what they hear. This is why advertising on children's television is so successful. Tell a child that he needs this robot, and he will believe it. How many parents have been manipulated into buying ridiculous things for Christmas and birthdays, because the people on TV convinced their children that whatever it was was vitally necessary to their continued health and well-being?

Perhaps this is why the discovery that Santa Claus is not real is so traumatic for many children. When your parents tell you something over and over again, you believe it to be so. You have no evidence to the contrary, and everything that your parents tell you is true, just because your parents would not lie to you. So when you come to the age where that shattering news is broken upon you, it suddenly hits you that your parents are capable of, and have been, executing a grand deceit upon you. If all this about Santa really is not true, then what else that they have been telling you all along is also untrue?

Now, the matter of Santa Claus is a rather minor ordeal in the scheme of things, but so many children experience far worse betrayals by parents and loved ones. When the very people who gave you your flesh and blood turn away from you, or turn against you, the anchor of existence seems to slip. Whether it is Daddy habitually forsaking Little League because of work, or Mom forgetting to pick you up from school, or whether it is the more serious betrayal of abuse, neglect, or abandonment, these rip off the mask of truth and expose the deceit that lies in the heart of each of us, and that rip leaves the victimized child scarred, often nearly incapable of trusting again for a long time.

Likewise, when the truth is brought out of hiding after having been obscured for a long period of time, it is distressing, even anger-provoking. This is perhaps what fueled so much of Martin Luther's vitriol against the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. For centuries, the Church had been hiding from the world the truth of the Scriptures and the joy of the Gospel. The forgiveness of sins had become a commodity, to be bought and sold on the open market to pay for new bishoprics and basilicas. The Christian life had been denigrated from a life of joy in Christ to the drudgery of penance and earning pennies of merit. The popes and councils had intentionally obscured the truth by a cloud of falsehood.

Early in Luther's career, after he rediscovered the Gospel in the Scriptures, Luther thought that an appeal to the magnanimity of the pope would put an end to the abuses of the indulgence-hawkers. After all, the Vicar of Christ, the Supreme Head of Christendom, would have nothing to do with this abomination. Then came the shock and ire of Luther's discovery that indeed, the pope had been complicit in such abominations, and the Gospel had been traded away with his blessing. It shook Luther to the core to find out that he had been lied to.

However, throughout all the ages, there has been the angel flying in mid-heavens which John saw, with the eternal Gospel to proclaim. Luther discovered this, and it is still there today, being proclaimed over your heads and in your hearing. But what is your reaction? Will you hear and believe? Will you “fear God and give Him glory”, as is His due?

The angel flies overhead, proclaiming the eternal Gospel, but you would rather hide from it. You would rather continue to be the kid who believes the nonsense on the TV commercials. You would rather believe in the political candidates and armchair sociologists who point fingers at each other and scream that the sky is falling. You would rather hear from the sages of this age than the messenger of the Lord. The truth has been revealed to you “from faith to faith”, but you would rather stick your head in the sand and not deal with what that means for you.

What is truth? This world is fond of repeating Pilate's question. And so often nowadays the answer is, there is no truth. The world would have you believe that truth is what you make of it. Each of you is free to make up your own existence and meaning and morality. What is true for you may not, and probably ought not be true for your neighbor.

Or, on the other hand, you may fall in with the high priest, considering what is expedient to be better than what is true and right. Whatever creates the most happiness for the most people must be alright. The ends justify the means. True is what the majority say it is. Let's take a vote and see how we would like it to be.

In all this, one theme continues. You want to hide from the angel with the eternal Gospel because you do not want to believe that you need what is offered. You do not want to hear the Word of God because it tells you that you are a poor, miserable sinner. The Law does more than hurt and cause unhappiness. The Law kills. The sword of the Spirit pierces through your best armor and strikes right to your heart of stone. That sword, in all its holiness and righteousness, destroys you, and you cannot hide from it. You cannot pacify it, either by ignoring it or by attempting to stroke it and soften its edges. The Law is holy, and it kills all who are not.

However, thanks be to God for the message of the angel in mid-heavens, the eternal Gospel. In the midst of your darkness, in the throes of your death to sin by the power of the Law, that Gospel comes to you. From age to age, in every land and every tongue, to Gospel remains, ringing out into the ears and hearts of sinful men. That eternal Gospel is the cross of Christ, whereupon He handed over His life as a ransom for many, for you. That eternal Gospel is the grace of God, who has passed over your sins, according to His divine forbearance and mercy.

Jesus says, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” You know the truth, because the messengers of God have proclaimed it to you from age to age, from day to day. From the pages of Holy Writ, from the mouth of the immortal angel, from the tongue of feeble preachers, the eternal Gospel has shone forth into your darkness.

What is the truth? The truth is the eternal message of salvation, as preached by St. Paul, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3:23-25a) You, O sinful man, have been justified by the grace of Jesus Christ, which you apprehend through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the sword is removed from your heart and placed into your hand.

“If the son sets you free, then you are free indeed.” The Son has set you free from the bondage of sin and its deception. You are free from the pain of the Law. You are free to wield the Word of God as a weapon, to divide the light from the darkness, the truth from the lies, the good from the evil.

Therefore, “Fear God and give Him glory... and worship Him who made heaven and earth.” Take up the song of the martyrs now in faith, and march with those who do battle on earth. And all the while look forward eagerly to when the angel proclaiming the eternal Gospel will herald your ascent into the multitude of the saints and martyrs surrounding the throne of God.

See the angel ranks rejoicing

As they see the poor repent;

See our God reveal His glory

In His Word and Sacrament;

See the souls once bound by Satan?

They are freed, their chains are rent.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah!*

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

*Hymn stanza v. 2 of “See the Angel in the Heavens” by Pr. Mark A. Preus. Used by permission. http://revivelutheranhymns.blogspot.com/2009/10/happy-reformation-day.html