My friend got pulled over for speeding. He was doing 88 in a 55.

While still at the scene he called his lawyer – he was going to fight it. On his day in court his lawyer produced evidence that the police car that tracked my friend’s speed did not have proper air pressure in one of its tires. The speed my friend was driving, then, was deemed inaccurate. The ticket was dismissed.

The guilty go free – don’t you hate that?

We hate it because it happens so often. We live in a world where crooked dictators walk and well-heeled drug dealers get off scot free. We’re not happy about this. And neither is God.

In Sunday’s gospel we hear Jesus call on the carpet the kind of wiggling and wrangling that not only infuriates us, but is so much a part of our modern legal and political worlds. Jesus tells us it’s not enough to obey human laws that can never fully capture the essence of it all, but that we have a higher obligation to truth.

And it is a truth that you and I are scared of – which is why we are constantly trying to wriggle our way out of it. ‘I don’t deserve a ticket!’ said my friend, ‘I’m a good driver,’ and he really believes it. Do we think this deceit will have a detrimental effect on him – or at least the greater motoring public?  Maybe. Probably.

Jesus wants you and me to look at the ways we rationalize, diminish, sweep away, and refuse to fully consider the truths around us. God is trying to tell you the truth right now. What is it? How will you find out?

Jesus doesn’t want to do this to make us feel guilty (we do that rather well on our own), rather Jesus is out to liberate us and make us truly free, giving us a more abundant life, which always begins with honesty and truth.

So what are the lies we’re living behind? What are we trying to wiggle our way out of? Do we know? Can we trust someone to tell us? Can we pray that dangerous prayer: ‘Lord, show me your truth?’ Do it for yourself, and for those you love.

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Reading

Do the Work! – Steven Pressfield

Matthew for Everyone – NT Wright

Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow