Truth emerged as a people’s favourite in the recent spring election carnival. Formerly sporting the kind of odds that would keep even the most game punters at bay, it suddenly enjoyed the kind of backing that had it at short odds in every race. It’s quite possible that the word ‘truth’ hasn’t attracted such attention since the Gospel of John, where it also gets quite a look in. But in John’s Gospel it’s no Latham-like call for truth in government, and it’s no Howard-like blundering about truth being dependent upon what you know. In the Gospel, truth is a person. Jesus says, ‘I am the truth’. And so, with truth as the protagonist, the Gospel tells of what happens when truth comes into the world.
What happens, of course, is that truth gets crucified. Well, this is no news to us. Who even remembers the details of the situation that brought about the catch-cry ‘truth overboard’? We might recall a vague and grainy picture of a boat adrift, surrounded by blurry shapes. But, of the people and their destiny (aside from the unenviable place they hold in Australian political history) what do we know?
What also happens in the Gospel is that Pilate the politician comes face-to-face with truth. The issue on the table is whether Jesus is mounting a political challenge by claiming to be King of the Jews. Jesus says he has come to testify to the truth, to which Pilate responds, ‘What is truth?’ Ironically, it’s staring him in the face. The Gospel tells us (and imagine it in Jack Nicholson’s voice if that helps) that Pilate ‘can’t handle the truth’. In fact, it’s in his interests to relativise truth.
Pilate’s words buy into a political strategy. They should give us pause when we wonder at the dwindling interest in questions about the Howard government’s honesty. Perhaps Pilate’s words make us sit up straighter when we see that further evidence of pre-war intelligence about Iraq’s weaponry appears as the fourth or fifth news story, tucked in somewhere behind unfolding sporting dramas.
Despite its new-found popularity, no doubt we are right to continue to be suspicious of an easy use of ‘truth’. Recent political debate has it pegged as one-dimensional; a simple question of lying or telling the truth. Like Pilate, confronted by a bloodied truth, our leadership has diverted our attention in an attempt to trivialise the reality of the truth