Sermon by Rev. Frank Rose

Lessons: I Kings 21:1-19; Mark 14:53-64; Doctrine of Life 87-89

Sermons: It must be a very challenging experience to be called upon to testify in a court of law. Imagine for example that you were witness to a murder and you were a key person in the prosecution’s case against the murderer. So you find yourself to call upon to go to court. The time comes when you stand up and solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God. You realize that what you say will have a tremendous bearing on the whole case. You look over and see the person accused of murder. You wonder what might happen to you or your family if the murderer is set free or if his family tries to get revenge. You think about the possibility of lying and then you realize that if you did that you would be breaking another commandment - bearing false witness against your neighbor. But since you would be doing it in a court of law and have sworn to God that you would tell the truth, you would also be breaking the commandment against taking the Lord’s name in vain. You have sworn to tell the truth in the name of God. This is a very challenging position especially when someone else’s life hangs on it.

If you had lived back in the days of the Old Testament, you would have found an added factor and that is an ancient law that says: if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against his brother, then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. In Old Testament times if you bore witness in a murder trial knowing that the man was innocent yet giving testimony that led to a guilty verdict and it was found later that you had perjured yourself, you would be put to death. They would do to you as you intended should be done to the other person.

In the stories of the Word we find a number of examples where the motives were a very powerful factor in leading people to bear false witness. Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob, was hated by his brothers, and was sold by them as a slave into Egypt. He found himself with an important position in the house of Potiphar, the chief of the guards. Joseph was young and attractive. One day Potiphar’s wife found herself alone with Joseph. She went to him and asked him to lie with her. He realized that that would be dishonoring his master. He fled, but she had taken hold of his garment and so he fled naked. It was a very easy thing for Potiphar’s wife to bear false witness against him and as a result of that witness, Joseph spent years in prison. It was a case of one person’s word against the other, the one person being the captain’s wife and the other being a slave. Obviously the wife’s testimony was preferred.

But what was her motive in bearing false witness against Joseph? Was it hurt, feeling of rejection, and a desire for revenge? When a person is motivated in that way, they will say anything. They want to say something that will get the other person in trouble and there is no respect for the truth.

In the story of King Ahab who coveted Naboth’s vineyard, many people were involved in the false witness. To begin with the king was pouting because he couldn’t get what he wanted. But then his scheming and evil wife, Jezebel, said “I’ll show you how you can get the vineyard.” She then wrote an edict in the name of her husband. So right away the edict was a lie since it did not really come from the king. It was the work of Jezebel. She sent this edict to the nobles and to the elders. They knew exactly what they were doing because their instructions were to find some scoundrel who would lie for money. They got him to testify against Naboth convincing people that Naboth had blasphemed God and the king. For this he was put to death. The witnesses were paid liars. What about the nobles and the elders? Why were they willing to be part of this deception? Could it have had something to do with their positions of power, their desire to gain favor with the queen. What were the queen’s motives? It’s hard to tell because her husband was the one who gained from this murder. It could have just been a love of power and the abuse of power. But in any case there was some reason behind the false witness.

There’s a story in the book of Samuel about King David and King Saul. Saul was the first of the kings of Israel, but he mismanaged his position to the point where the Lord said He was going to give the kingdom to a better person, and that person was David. So for years Saul was in suspicion of David. They were enemies. On a number of occasions Saul threatened David’s life, but David was unwilling to touch the king. After all Saul was the Lord’s anointed and you do not assassinate the king no matter what the king is like. Later in battle, Saul was about to be killed by the Philistines. He was unwilling to die at the hand of the Philistines, so he fell on his own sword. A young Amalekite soldier saw the event. He tore his clothes, put dust on his head, came running back to King David and he retold the story in his own words. He said Saul was the in battle field, the Philistines were attacking and Saul said: “kill me lest I be killed by these Philistines” so he killed the king. Why did he lie? Clearly he thought he was going to have some great advantage. After all he knew that Saul was David’s enemy. But David immediately gave instructions to have this messenger put to death for bearing false witness, and he asked the man how he dared to lift his hand against the Lord’s anointed.

It is so easy to lie, and there are so many times in life in which there are good reasons to lie. The result is that it is difficult at times to know the truth. I was talking to a man who did carpentry work recently and asked him in his line of business did he find there was much lying. And he said that people lie all the time. People will say anything in order to get the job or to get you to do it for a certain price. They will promise that if you complete this job and do it well, then they will find work for you throughout the whole region, but they never come through. They will say anything they want in order to get the job done. Many salespeople will say anything to make a sale. We live in a society in which we are constantly wondering whether the person is telling us the truth or not.

The spirit of lying comes out of our self-centered nature, out of the desire for personal advantage, out of the desire for revenge, out of self-protection and a variety of other motives. Sometimes people say that most lies don’t hurt anyone. They call lying a victimless crime. But the real victim is the love of truth because people come to the point where they don’t know what’s true any more. How can we be saved without the truth?

How can there be justice without the truth? The truth is the great healer. So what we eventually find is that there is a conflict between our self interests and our love of the truth. We need to observe that lying part of human nature, that deceptive part that is constantly defending itself, trying to escape from trouble, trying to take advantage of others and using lies to achieve its ends. We need to rise above that and strengthen the other part of us which is the love of truth because of the truth itself.

On a spiritual level people will even distort human values and they will say that something is evil that’s really good or something is good that is really evil. They will say that something is true that is really false or make something that is false seem to be really true. Love of truth for the sake of truth is one of the most important spiritual motives we ever have because it is through the truth that we are healed and we grow. But truth by itself is not enough and that’s why there is an ancient law that no one was ever judged on the basis of one witness, there had to be two or three witnesses. This issue came up when Jesus was arrested and put on trial. At first they wanted to get witnesses to agree to the point where Jesus could be executed on their testimony. They even paid people to lie but their witnesses did not agree with one another. And it was only when Jesus said that He was the Son of the blessed and that they would see Him on the right hand of power, they said “Now we don’t need witnesses, we have heard Him ourselves.”

This ancient law that there must be two or three witnesses has a practical base but it also has a spiritual message. On the practical level, of course, two witnesses can reinforce each other to help the jury get clarity about what really happened.

The law also has a spiritual base. What is it spiritually to have two or three witnesses? The first witness is the truth and the second witness is love. Where truth and love agree, then you have something that is confirmed. The third witness is actions. So if you know the truth, if you love the truth, and if you live the truth, then the truth really saves you. It elevates your life to a higher level. We need to cultivate this love of truth for the sake of truth. It is the gateway to our eternal life. It is a way of escaping from the condition that Jeremiah described when he said everyone will deceive his neighbor, and will not speak the truth, they have taught their tongue to speak lies and weary themselves to commit iniquity. Each one of us has to come to the point where we love the truth and are willing to follow it wherever it takes us because it is only through the truth that we can grow spiritually and come into the Lord’s kingdom.

This is the way it is described in Psalm 15: “Lord who may abide in your tabernacle? Who might dwell in your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.”