The Challenge to Stand Up for Truth… Musings on Holy Week. This Sunday we begin what is called “Holy Week” for those in the Christian faith. There are many traditions and church services throughout this week that “walk us to the cross” and ultimately to the empty grave on the next Sunday called Easter. Much can be said about this week, and no matter how you involve yourself in it, the reminders of God’s love in his Son, Jesus Christ stand at the forefront.

For me, I always think of two verses in Holy Week that, for some reason, are imprinted in my mind like chiseled stone. The first is Palm Sunday, where the crowds are singing Hosanna to the Lord as Jesus processed into Jerusalem. One group, the Pharisees, didn’t like it and asked Jesus to quiet the throng. His response still echoes through the ages “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”  (Luke 19:40 NLT) To me, I just cannot fathom rocks singing our praise, and it humbles me that they would should I be silent.

The second onE is from Pontius Pilate’s audience with Jesus as recorded in John 18:36-39, using The Message Bible: “My kingdom,” said Jesus, “doesn’t consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king.” Then Pilate said, “So, are you a king or not?” Jesus answered, “You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice.” Pilate said, “What is truth?” It also reminds me of the ‘political pawn’ that Pilate was; he saw no wrong in Jesus, he knew the truth but he could not stand up for it.

Both of these remind me of an engineer, Allan McDonald. Remember the Challenger’s fatal launch on January 28, 1986? Well, McDonald worked for the manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters that were essential to straddle the shuttle and get it lifted off safely. His research proved that the O-rings sealing the sections of each booster will be more likely to leak in the unusual freezing temperatures that had occurred. And even more foreboding to him was the fact that they had NEVER even tested these rings below 51 degrees!

Sadly, McDonald stood alone for the truth and was over-ridden and that winter morning in January proved that truth. 73 seconds after launch six brave astronauts and one school teacher lost their lives because the O-rings failed. McDonald wasn’t stomping the ground with arrogance, he wasn’t intolerant, he just knew the truth and he was unwilling to see innocent people die just because both NASA and the manufacturer wanted the glory of another lift-off and space “wonder hurrah’s.”

Jesus knew the truth and stood up for it. Pilate knew the truth and didn’t. Such a contrast is it not? Yet, this “walk of truth” is something we all have to maneuver daily. Sadly, many of us choose Pilate’s response because we don’t want to be singled out, we don’t want to take the chance of ruining our “good name” or worse yet, we are fearful of standing up for the truth. After all, in our society today, it’s much easier to fade into the acceptance of what we now call “irrelevant truth.”

How many “Challenger people” have been led into such tragedy because we won’t stand for God’s truth? I shudder at the times I have quietly stepped back for reasons that have no meaning except to cover my own butt. The Apostle Paul’s 2nd letter to the Thessalonians (2:15 GNT) gives us a mandate—not a suggestion: “So then, our friends, stand firm and hold on to those truths which we taught you, both in our preaching and in our letter.”

If the people of faith do not stand up for the truth, what does this say about our faith? What kind of “testimony” are we giving to others who are searching and God has given us the answers to share with them? Far too often we shy from sharing truth for reasons God does not accept. We have forgotten that even if the truth is difficult, we do NOT stand alone, we stand firm on the solid ground of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

In our social media bombardments of lies instead of truth, we need to ask God for help, for wisdom in discerning what is truth and what is not. It is only in the wisdom of God that our eyes will be opened to see the truth, and it is only in the strength of God that we can stand firm on that truth—even if it will cost us. Today, more than ever before, we need to see through the fog of society’s lies and stand for the truth—it is indeed, for many, a matter of life and death. And, if you’re like me, I’m not comfortable letting the rocks sing out the praises to God because I have decided to stay silent, nope—not gonna’ happen. AMEN.