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NASB | John 18:38 Pilate *said to Him, "What is truth?" ¶ And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and *said to them, "I find no guilt in Him. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 18:38 Pilate said to Him [scornfully], "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, "I find no guilt in Him [no crime, no cause for an accusation]. |
Subject: The "awful" Truth? |
Bible Note: Joe, Part I of II "Divine success — a success, that is, that is larger than man’s intellect, larger even than man’s whole being — that must always appear paradoxical. It must, that is to say, be continual failure — a failure so complete that it ought to be the end of the enterprise, and yet not be the end of the enterprise. Its success must be expressed in terms of failure; as a sunlit sea, or lovelit eyes, must sometimes be expressed in terms of a black lead pencil. The Divine Cause must simultaneously appear to have failed, and yet not to have done so. It must just survive, always, in spite of any possible argument and demonstration to the contrary. "May I state that once more in other terms? "Any truly divine scheme — any scheme — that is to say, that is not human and finite — must always overlap any human criterion that can be applied to it. It must, that is, judged by purely human standards, be an apparent failure. But it must never be such a failure that it ceases to exist. You must be able to say of it: It has failed intellectually and emotionally; it does not correspond with the demand. And yet it survives. That is, it has not really failed at all. . . . "There must be a sense, in fact, in which the Church must not only be a failing cause, but a cause that has actually failed — a cause that is both dead and buried. It must continually, according to these standards, be completely discredited. As one who has promised to accomplish much, but has accomplished nothing; one who has claimed to be King, but has only earned a mock crown of thorns; one who has professed to save others, but cannot save even Himself. "Again and again, that taunt must go up, ‘Come down from the cross and we will believe. . . . Relinquish that failure, and make it a success. Cease to claim to be divine — for you see how hopelessly you fail to justify it. See what happens to one who makes Himself divine — and be human instead. Come down to our level, and be a man among men; and we will believe, and accept you as at least our Master.’ "But that taunt cannot be accepted. The failure must be entire. The last spark of life must die out, obedient unto death — that one irremediable disaster. ‘And Jesus cried out: It is finished’." After a chapter on "the Sepulture [Sepulcher]," Benson insists in the chapter "The Resurrection" that the Church will find its "Second Spring," that despite all the obituaries the literati and elites are writing for the Church, "we see that she lives with an impulse and vitality that are simply unique in human history; that at the very moment when the ‘wise and prudent’ declare her dead, the wise and prudent return to her as the source of all life and knowledge; that at the very moment when the masses are alienated from her, the masses turn again to her... " |