Bold Truth is Hard Truth
Truth is not relative. Truth does not change. There is no such thing as ‘your truth’ and ‘my truth’ ever. We either accept the truth or we do not. How we hear the truth is what matters for our salvation. If we hear the truth with joy, we rejoice. If not, we turn away from God.
The Lord said to the Jews who came to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.”
John 5.24-30
Today’s Gospel Reading, also read at funerals, is an example of hard truth. According to Christ, whoever hears the voice of God will live. That means we will all live. Some will enjoy eternal life while others won’t, maybe even hate it.
God desires that we all hear His voice and rejoice. So, why is that some hear the Gospel and not only reject it as true, but fight against it? I can’t pretend to know the hearts of anyone, let alone those who reject God, but the Gospel does shed some light on this question.
There were many who departed from Christ after He spoke Truth to them, “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12.43) The Prophet Jeremiah is another example of what happens when people don’t like bold hard truth.
Despite the prophet’s commitment to remain with the people in their struggle against persecution, they could not stand the bold hard truth he spoke from God. They killed him like so many other prophets. Some people just don’t like to hear the truth about God.
As the Gospel lesson today reminds us, how we understand the Word of God will determine if we experience eternal life as joy or judgment. Our nature since the Fall is inclined toward evil. Without self-control, we will choose the praise of men over the praise of God. That’s the truth.
A central part of our Pascha experience should be to change the way we respond to the Truth of God. It isn’t enough that we fasted for fifty-seven days. It isn’t enough that we stayed up all night at the Cross and celebrated the Resurrection for hours. None of it matters if we return to evil.
This is why the Church, in the Greek tradition, returns to a regular fasting routine. Too much feasting and we will forget how to fast. Too much celebration and we might forget how to pray. We rejoice in the Good News of the Resurrection, but now we are called to Live A New Life In Christ.
As we learned during Great Lent and Holy Week, all our fasting won’t ‘earn our way’ into heaven. It shapes the way we hear the Truth of God. All the services we attended were not to gain priority in heaven, but to reorient our lives toward heaven.
God is worshipped continuously in heaven the same way we worship Him in the Church. (See Isaiah 6 and Revelation 1) The Old Testament ‘period’ was meant to shape our lives to imitate God. For some, it was successful. For others, the Old Testament wasn’t enough, so God gave us a New Testament to help us.
In the Old Testament, God gave us prophets and kings to lead us to Him. In the New Testament, God gave us the Church to lead us to Him. This is the bold and hard truth. We can either accept it and experience eternal life with joy, or we can reject it. The choice is ours to make.
