What is Truth?
Mitch Albom is one of my favourite authors. He has written many books, both fiction and non fiction, among them several number one New York Times bestsellers. He founded ‘SAY Detroit’, a consortium of nine different charities in his hometown, set up a nonprofit dessert shop and food product line to fund programmes for Detroit’s most underprivileged and, since 2010 has operated an orphanage in Haiti, which he visits every month.
Of Jewish descent, Mitch Albom writes with gentle honesty, uncovering human deception and , at the same time, portraying the unfathomable strength of love, loyalty and faith and hope.
I have just finished reading his latest book, “The Little Liar.” This is a book about the Holocaust, which follows the story of four central characters, tracing the repercussions of the removal from Salonika, the Greek city where the vast majority of its 50,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Historically, Salonika had the largest Jewish majority population in Europe; there had been Jews in Salonika since at least 300 BC (I had no idea!).
Unusually for Holocaust stories, Albom’s story doesn’t end with the liberation of the camps, but continues for several decades, and shows some of the effects on those people caught up in the dreadful events, how their homes, and businesses were given away and never returned, how their dreams were haunted and how there were things they could not talk about.
The overriding theme of the book is Truth and Lies, and it serves as a modern parable. Although fiction, it is based in fact, and even incorporates some recognisable historical figures. Albom has done his research, making the backdrop to his story as factual as possible, which lends an air of authenticity.
The opening sentence of the book is, “It’s a lie.” The book uses the ‘voice’ of ‘Truth’ “You can trust the story you are about to hear. You can trust it because I am telling it to you, and I am the only thing in this world you can trust.”
This got me thinking about Jesus, who is THE Truth (John 14:6) It is so easy, as Albom’s book shows, to be confused by, and even come to believe a lie, often because others believe it, sometimes because we don’t want to stand out from the crowd, occasionally because it seems the easier option, or because the truth seems hard to find, “..a lie once told is easy to expose, but a lie told a thousand times can look like the truth.”
But, how do we KNOW what IS true? This is the question that Pilate asked – I believe he asked it hypothetically and with a weariness with the world -and we have the answer – JESUS.
Albom writes of Truth as a supernatural ‘being’, saying, “I am the shadow you cannot outrun, the mirror that holds your final reflection. You may duck my gaze for all of your days on earth, but let me assure you, I get the last look. I am Truth.”
What does Jesus, THE Truth, say:
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
In other words, walk in My way of truth and you will find rest.
“Where two or three gather in My Name, there I am with them.”
In other words, keep together in fellowship with others of My followers, and I will be there.
“I am willing: Be clean.”
In other words, I want you to know that I will fully forgive you, make you totally clean from your sin.
“In Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.”
In other words, whatever troubles you are experiencing, however terrible the world appears, you can know peace in and with Me. The world is already beaten. Believe it and be encouraged.
“I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
In other words, I have given my life for you, to keep you safe in My flock.
“I know My sheep and My sheep know Me.”
In other words, I know you intimately, every little thing about you that makes you happy, or sad, or thoughtful, or light-hearted, and you can know me in exactly the same way. A deep, loving and safe relationship of trust and trustworthiness.
Why not take your Bible and look for yourself to find the words of Truth written there for you? www.ezbible.org says there are approximately 8,810 promises in the Bible, so you’ve got plenty of scope! The website says, “These are not just words; they are God’s heartfelt assurances to us, spanning the stories of old to the prophecies of what is yet to come.”
A theme running through ‘The Little Liar” is that, ‘A man, to be forgiven, will do anything.”
I want to turn this round to say that Jesus, to forgive you and me, did everything,
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man [Jesus] must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.”
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
