There it was in big red letters: 'Is truth dead?' An unusual question for the front cover of one of the world's best-selling magazines. It paid homage to another famous Time magazine cover printed 51 years earlier, which in the same typeface and colours asked a similar question: 'Is God dead?' Both of these questions seem relevant as we consider the significance of Good Friday.
The event that sparked Time's 'truth' front cover was a mismatch between tweets President Donald Trump made claiming that President Obama had a wiretap operation targeting him during the election campaign and a stern refutation of this from FBI Director James Comey. Political commentators labelled the bizarre events from Capitol Hill as yet another instance of 'fake news' and 'alternative facts'. The White House seemed to suggest the incident was an instance of media dishonesty and the liberal elites taking against the administration.
Molly Ball of the Atlantic magazine explains that fake news is a phenomenon not restricted to the incumbent administration. News stories about voting machines hacked by the Russians spread just as quickly through Democrat circles as Obama wiretapping stories spread through Republican channels. Ball argues the reason we have fake news is that 'when people are strongly motivated to believe something they will grab on to anything that helps them with that gut belief. They want to believe what they want to believe so much more strongly than they want to be presented with contradictory evidence.'
What we are seeing is the latest example of the echo chamber effect. We hear what we want to hear, we listen to whom we want to listen to, we believe what we want to believe. Despite being better connected and having more news outlets within reach than ever before in human history, we seem to be losing the ability to discern lies from truth and spin from reality.
This problem is nothing new. In the early hours of the first Good Friday, a similar dilemma was in play. A young, bearded radical was challenging the authority of the ruling elites by making some controversial claims. He was breaking down the walls of division in a segregated culture. He was challenging corruption at the highest levels of government. He had been treated as a terror suspect and kidnapped in the night by armed guards and faced both trumped-up charges and enhanced interrogation techniques to get him to make a confession. Now he was in front of the highest official in Israel, who would make the final call on his sentence. Was this man really guilty of treason, or was he being charged with it to silence him before he revealed any more of the hypocrisy?
When Pontius Pilate is put in the position of passing final judgment, he calls Jesus before him and asks him outright if he was the King of the Jews. In response Jesus has a question of his own – has Pilate come to this conclusion by himself or has he just been fed second-hand information? It is a bold, perhaps insolent response. Despite all of Pilate's apparent power, Jesus shows him little respect. But it is a legitimate challenge. Jesus recognises that too many political leaders run the risk of being puppets for others. Too many individuals run the risk of dismissing Jesus based on other people's conclusions.
Pilate is clearly rattled by the pluck of Jesus, this criminal upstart pushing back on him. He tries to distance himself from the responsibility of the challenge by distancing himself from Judaism and by changing the topic to focus on the charges brought against Jesus. Jesus replies: 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.'
Jesus doesn't need to defend himself against the spurious charges that have been brought against him. Instead of explaining them, he explains the nature of his kingdom. This is another bold move. With all the power seemingly in Pilate's hands, Jesus shows what true power is. His kingdom is not based on the power of the sword. Its norms and values are different from earthly kingdoms. Perhaps Pilate doesn't notice the critique of his position, because Jesus has used the trigger word 'kingdom'. So Jesus is a king, then. Has he caught Jesus out? Jesus deftly answers: 'You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.'
Jesus was not looking for power when he came to earth, his time on earth was not an election campaign or a kickstarter pitch for a populist uprising or a conspiracy to usurp power through a coup d'état. No, Jesus claims to simply be a messenger of truth. Is there an invitation here? Certainly, there is an opportunity for Pilate to seize the truth and follow Jesus. But Pilate does not seize the truth. Instead he utters the fatal line for which he is remembered: 'What is truth?'
Pilate would rather debate the nature of truth than find truth and act on it. Truth is less important than expediency. It does not matter at the end of the day to him whether Jesus is or is not the true king of a heavenly kingdom, nor whether he is guilty or innocent. Jesus is a bargaining chip. He is the means to win favour with the local citizens. He is an opportunity to assert and protect his power. He offers them a little Passover present: the life of their 'king' or the life of an insurrectionist Barabbas. Jesus fails the public referendum and is voted to death by the fickle favour of the crowds.
But Jesus understands that his future is not ultimately in the hands of Pilate or the popular vote but in the hands of the God who has granted Pilate all of the power that he has.
Jesus models to us how to live in our so called post-truth society. He lived with courage and integrity. He was not cowed by public authorities or public opinion. He was not ashamed to speak the truth of God to those in power. He calls his listeners to consider the evidence for themselves and not rely on second-hand opinions. He was willing to suffer for the sake of truth worth speaking out.
On this Good Friday, it may seem that God is dead and that truth is dead. But we know that Sunday is coming. We long for resurrection and that hope helps us contend for both God and truth in both our private and public lives. In the meantime we heed Jesus' Good Friday invitation to Pontius Pilate: 'Everyone on the side of truth listens to me'.
Dr Krish Kandiah is the author of 'Paradoxology: Why Christianity was never meant to be simple' (IVP USA). His latest book, 'God is Stranger', has just been published by Hodder.
