This blog post is part of a series that I began for telling our story. You can read the first post here.

Previous post

Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” ³⁵ Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” ³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” ³⁷ Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” ³⁸ Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

When Pilate asks this question, I can hear the Latin. Now, mind you, I don’t know Latin. I never studied it. But in the infamous movie The Passion of the Christ, the question is spoken in Latin: Quid est veritas?

I really like looking at other languages and root words. It helps me to see patterns in language and in meaning. That “veritas” makes me think of words like “verify,” “veritably,” and even maybe “vertical.” Ok, that last one might be a stretch. Any language scholars out there want to help me out?

The word “verify” ties in well. We talk about verifying results of tests, or the truth of a statement. When we verify something, we are ascertaining the truth behind it. That’s a tough one to do today. When’s the last time you questioned something you read online? Or saw on the news? Or heard from a friend? Even when the intentions behind the words are good, the information itself might not be true.

Now, I’m not saying that the news station or website or even your friend is deliberately lying to you. They may be misinformed, too. And unfortunately, once information has been skewed, it often continues to change and evolve (especially when it’s juicy, gossipy stuff).

The worst of these is when a rumor gets started about someone in leadership being untruthful. Think about it – when is the last time you took a politician’s word for it? Especially when that person is connected to the political party you oppose – do you assume they are truthful, or do you assume they are lying? Once that seed of doubt is sown, it can be hard to trust their words.

I think it’s important to trust the words we speak to each other, and when in doubt, to go and verify them. It means doing research, or asking questions, or talking to the person directly. So often, we don’t want to do the hard work, and instead just believe the things we hear without question. I think trust and verification need to go hand in hand.

When we took our daughter home on hospice, we had a few people reach out, urging us to seek second opinions. Perhaps if she had been diagnosed and treated by only one or two doctors, we would have done so. But she had dozens of doctors working on her case, reviewing her scans, looking at her records and her progress. We knew we could trust the medical team caring for our daughter. Honestly, if we couldn’t trust them, why would we have her at that hospital in the first place?

I hope that you find a place for seeking truth in your heart. It’s hard, but so worth it.

Next post coming tomorrow.