You Want the Truth?
One of my wife’s favorite movies is “A Few Good Men". It is one of the only movies that she will want to watch over and over again, and that is saying a lot. Recently, we sat down together the watch the movie again and I started to think about the most famous line from the movie, “You can’t handle the truth!”
If you haven’t seen the movie, Tom Cruise plays Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a Navy lawyer, who is assigned to defend two marines who carried out an order that led to someone’s death. During a scene where he’s questioning Colonel Nathan Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson, as to whether or not he gave them that order, Colonel Jessup asks him if he wants the truth. Lieutenant Kaffee says that he does, to which Colonel Jessup replies with the famous line, “You can’t handle the truth!” Why did he think he could not handle the truth? Well because he believed if the truth were known the entire system would come into question and it would mess up order and even national security.
The whole point of the movie is that truth is important even if it were to destroy a system. I think about this often. As Christians, we believe Jesus is the truth and I think about how much that destroyed the systems of belief in Jesus’ time on Earth. They were so challenged or threatened by the truth that some decided to stop following him. You can read about this in John 6. Eventually, this would even lead some of them to plot Jesus’ death.
Jesus knew that the truth would be difficult for some, but had this to say in John 6:61-64, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus wants us to know that the truth shouldn’t offend you, but should give you life if you are connected with the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean that the truth won’t be difficult for us but that it will give us true life as we learn to walk in the truth. To walk in the truth is to walk in the divine reality that has been and is being worked into us. We all need to do this; we all need to learn the truth, experience the truth, and speak the truth so that we may bear the responsibility of upholding the truth.
Join us this Sunday, July 24th, at 8:30 and 10:45 AM for worship as we continue the conversation.
In God’s grip,
Pastor Chuck Church
