Truth or Consequences

Learning to speak the truth and avoid lies

04/10/2023

Mt 28:8-15 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day.

One of the easiest things in the world to do is tell a lie. But I would submit to you that one of the hardest things in the world to do is tell a lie, too. Why is that? Well, because a lie is a sin, and like all sin, it appears enticing and easy in the beginning but in the end it is the worst thing and the hardest thing. That is why Mark Twain once quipped: “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

In other words, it is when we lie that we have to remember the falsehood we said and work very hard not to contradict ourselves later. But of course, one lie, even a small one, begets larger lies, and like a snowball rolling downhill, eventually rolls out of control and crushes everything. Lies are the easiest things and the hardest things.

In the gospel today, we see the chief priests and the elders starting that snowball of lies after the Resurrection of Jesus. Matthew records: “The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep”.’” That was clear a lie because the soldiers knew exactly what happened to Jesus’ body.

But notice what else they say, “And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” In other words, we will tell another lie to cover that original lie, and thus the snowball of lies grows larger and larger. And that is how seemingly easy lies get harder and harder. If they had just told the truth from the beginning, they would not have had to remember anything.

My friends, one of the signs that you are growing and maturing in the Christian life is an abhorrence of falsehood and a love of the truth. Why is that? Well, because Jesus told Thomas in Jn 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus is truth incarnate; truth on two legs. And this statement stands in stark contrast to Jesus’ point in Jn 8:44, where he describes Satan’s M.O. (modus operandi): “When Satan tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” It is a question of whose children we are. Who’s your daddy: the Father of Truth or the father of lies? And that is why lies seem so easy in the beginning but end up being so hard: we are adopted into the family of Satan, the father of lies.

We all know the old cliché that honest is the best policy. Now that sounds good in theory, but sometimes it can be very hard to put into practice. If a woman asks you how she looks in a new dress that she loves but is too tight-fitting and not very flattering, you better pick your words carefully or you may be eating them for lunch. Sometimes people ask me confidential information that I am privy to as pastor. And I jokingly answer: “I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.” There is a town in New Mexico called “Truth or Consequences” and perhaps they know how to balance truth and charity.

The classic conundrum of not lying is the scenario in World War II Nazi Germany. You are hiding Jews in your attic and the Gestapo knock on your door and ask if you have any Jews in your home. We studied that scenario in seminary, but I don’t remember learning any satisfactory answer. If you would like to read a real-life case of hiding Jews and answering the authorities, I highly recommend Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place. She lied twice to the Gestapo and still ended up in the concentration camp. But she alone from her family survived and wrote this book.

Folks, I know I did not give you a simple and straight-forward formula for how to tell the truth and avoid telling lies. And I am not sure there is one. Nonetheless, I did want to emphasize and explain that there are consequences for either path we choose. And we should think carefully about these consequences, not only the earthly ones, but also the eternal ones.

Praised be Jesus Christ!