In October 2005, Stephen Colbert premiered a satirical news show, The Colbert Report. On this show, Colbert has a segment, called "the Word." In this feature Colbert takes a word or phrase (made-up or real) and gives his own definition. The first word featured was, "truthiness."

Colbert defined this word as, "truth that comes from the gut, not books." In 2006, Merriam-Webster selected "truthiness" as its word of the year. They attributed its origin to Colbert but offered the better descriptive definition of, "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true." So "truthiness" is believing whatever you want to be true even when every evidence exists to point in the other direction.

In contrast to Colbert’s "truthiness," truth is defined as "that which is in accordance with fact or reality." So truth is rooted in reality while truthiness is rooted in what one wants to be reality, but is not. So, for example, the truth is that there are fewer than 50 people here in this room. We could go around the room and count the number of people. We could even have more than one person count to make sure we got the number right. A truthiness would be that there are hundreds of people who have come to this church today. Even though the facts and reality point to the fact that there are fewer than 50 here, one who thought more about truthiness and less about truth could say that there are hundreds of people here.

Pontus Pilate finds himself in a rather difficult situation. Jesus has been brought to him by the followers of the high priest. And, in so many words, they told Pilate that he was to kill him. They didn’t much care about the trial or the crime of which Jesus was or was not guilty, they only told Pilate what the result should be – death for Jesus.

Pilate had been put in power by the Roman authorities. Much of his power depended upon not upsetting the local population too much. The high priests were very powerful people and if they wanted to cause a disturbance in Pilate’s jurisdiction they could. A disturbance would not reflect well on Pilate if word were to reach Rome. So Pilate is stuck. If he doesn’t kill Jesus there might be a rebellion and he might lose power. If he does kill Jesus, he would be responsible for the death of an innocent man.

So with these two options on his mind, Pilate questions Jesus. He is looking for some crime or law-breaking that Jesus has done so that he can sentence him to death with a clear conscious. Pilate is searching for any truth on which to hang Jesus. As Pilate questioned Jesus he was probably full of the fear of the consequences of his actions – rebellion or innocent blood on his hands. Pilate is trapped by his fear.

Jesus, however, has a different set of expectations going in to this time of questioning before Pilate. Jesus is looking for a true encounter with Pilate. When Pilate asks Jesus, "Are you king of the Jews?" Pilate hopes to get a simple yes so that he could find him guilty of trying to usurp the Roman authority and put him to death. But Jesus isn’t looking for a way either to defend himself or condemn himself. Jesus is looking for a way to encounter who Pilate really is. He’s looking for a way to break through Pilate’s fear in order to have a real encounter.

Rather than answering Pilate’s question, "Yes, I’m king of the Jews." Jesus seeks to get to who Pilate is. Jesus questions if asking about Jesus’ kingship is what Pilate really wants to know. "Someone else told you to ask that question, Pilate. Why don’t you ask one of your own?" Fear continues to dominate Pilate’s response and subsequent questions.

But how many times has fear gotten in the way of you having a real encounter? How many times have you stared straight ahead in the elevator when someone else got in because you were afraid of what might happen if your greeted that person? How many times have your shoes and the placement of you feet along the sidewalk all of a sudden become so engrossing just as another person passed you by? How many times have you ended up reading the headlines of the National Enquirer in the checkout line, rather than risk saying hello to the obviously frazzled woman in front of you trying to wrestle groceries as well as two rambunctious kids?

What are we afraid of? Are we afraid of going against some socially acceptable norm that says that under no circumstances are you to interact with people you don’t know? Do the instructions from childhood about not talking to strangers still keep us from interacting with the others around us?

Jesus sought with Pilate what he sought with every other human being he encountered – an authentic, real human-to-human interaction. Jesus wanted to know where Pilate was coming from and what was on his mind. Jesus wanted to talk with Pilate, not the fear that was dominating him.

One of the last things Jesus says before being sentenced to crucifixion was, "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Jesus is looking for a relationship with others that is based upon truth. Truth: that which is based upon reality. Truth – an encounter with what is real.

But Pilate seems satisfied to be ruled by his fear. He seems satisfied to go with the truthiness that Jesus is guilty. Pilate is so lost and caught up in his fear that he says his final question in this scene of the passion story, "What is truth?"

How many times are we satisfied with the "truthiness-es" this world offers? Are we satisfied with the truthiness that those with the most money have been blessed by God to do whatever they want? Are we satisfied with the truthiness that church and faith are one-hour a week commitments? Are we satisfied with the truthiness that looking at, speaking to, or acknowledging the presence of others around us is not acceptable?

Perhaps we need to be reminded more of what is truth. Perhaps we have for so long accepted truthiness for truth. Perhaps we have relied more upon what we want to be true rather than what really is true.

Truth is: For God so loved the world – not just America, not just Presbyterians, not just Christians, not just humans. God loved the world. Truth is: that God is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end – not Wall Street’s bottom line or statistics on the latest rise of the Dow Jones. God is where we all begin. God is where we all end.

Pilate was so caught up in fear for his own position that he accepted truthiness for truth. Because of fear, Pilate missed the opportunity to encounter God. Will we be so caught up in fear that we miss the opportunity to encounter Christ in every person we meet? Can we see past the truthiness of those things we so want to be true but aren’t in order to see what really is true?

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he invited his disciples to join him around a table where they encountered each other. Some of those at the table took Jesus up on the offer of true encounter. Others accepted the truthiness of a quick pay-off for the truth of eternal life.

When you are served from this table, come looking for a real encounter with the resurrected Lord. Come and meet the one who testifies to the truth of God’s enduring love for every one of us. May God’s truth guide us in our encounters with the world God loves. Truth, that is the Word.