Truth (and freedom)—"forever on the scaffold….”
“Truth forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future. Behind the dim unknown stands God, Within the shadow keeping watch above his own.” ― James Russell Lowell
Truth—hand in hand with freedom—were center stage this week in a crisis of confidence. Three news agencies were denied access to the Whitehouse, only to be reinstated by the courts. However, the tug of war between the executive branch and the fourth estate is not over. At the heart of crisis is the future of a fundamental tenant of the founding of the nation: freedom of the press. Truth, freedom and crisis, the three are never far apart and under attack.
When James Russell Lowell penned the words “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne” in his poem THE PRESENT CRISIS, the context is freedom—the abolition of slavery in America. The overarching imperative Lowell posed is this: citizens should take a moral stand against owning another person as property. Slavery makes the truth of “We the people…” of the Constitution a lie if the country continues in this evil institution.
Knowing the truth sets you free according to Jesus in John. But the defense of truth is not free. It brings with a scaffold, the persecution employed by the powerful to muzzle moral righteousness. Without the watchmen of truth, lies can be the ruination of a people, a nation, a church. Jesus says in John 8:32 that truth makes you free. If truth, in fact, makes you free, then the opposite is true—lies enslave.
We see the danger of lies in the enslavement of a man and wife in Acts, chapter five.
Acts 5:4b-5 You have not lied to men, but to God." 5 And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came upon all who heard of it.
The “You” is Ananias. He promised to give the proceeds of a land sale to the common treasury of the church to help his needy brothers and sisters of the faith. Instead, he held back a portion. Peter called him out on this for what it was—a lie on God through the Holy Spirit. The next we see of Ananias was him being carried out of the church, feet first, struck down by God. His wife, Sapphira, didn’t learn from her husband’s actions, and she too, was rolled out. If lies can have such deadly consequences, then what can we learn from truth to make us free:
Truth—a manifestation of God, the Holy Spirit—frees. Peter told Ananias that his lie was an affront against the Holy Spirit (5:3) who is God. This relationship of truth and God is affirmed by Jesus in John 8:26: “…He who sent me (God the Father) is true.” Jesus continues in John 8 to teach that true disciples of God believe in the Son who seeks to please (29) the One who sent Him. When you know (believe, follow) the Son, you seek to be in accord with Christ’s, and his Word taught to him by his Father. This way of life is freeing… from sin.
Lies—sinning against God—is enslavement. Jesus, in John 8:32, teaches that anyone who acts in discord with the Son and His Word, is displeasing to God, commits sin and thus, is enslaved to sin. Withholding benevolence as Ananias did and lying about it, and to be complicit in that lie as his wife did, shackled them to the wages of their sins—death.
The truth is God did not need Ananias and Sapphira benevolence as much as He requires His people to “…To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God"—in a word, moral integrity. That humble walk of integrity is found in the example of His Son who “emptied Himself”, according to Philippians 2:7,8 who:
(he) humbled Himself… and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:7-8
Church, be humble and obedient and serve the truth. Serve the truth of others like orphaned children, sleeping under tarps and tents in ancient biblical lands, dodging bombs and bulldozers—children of genocide. Serve unwed mothers as if they were your daughters, mothers whose options for a better life have been legislated away. Serve the alien seeking survival like the baby Jesus whose parents carried him across Egyptian borders to escape government oppression to accomplish his purpose of God to bless the world.
Today, more than ever, truth requires watchmen, the press in the oversight of government, for sure. But in the higher moral governance of the kingdom of God , we need the humble and obedient Church to listen to the Holy Spirit, to examine your life for lies of nationalism, racism, and partisanship, and turn toward truth, and be vanguards of freedom for all.
Lowell said it well, “Behind the dim unknown stands God, Within the shadow keeping watch above his own.” God is watching the watchmen of truth.
Christ said it best. Know and live the truth and the truth will set things right.
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