It was very early in the morning when the councillors appeared with Jesus before the Hall of Judgment. But Pilate was there. The Jews themselves did not go into the Judgment Hall, lest they should be defiled, so they might eat the Passover, or the meals connected with the sacrifices at the Passover. Pilate then went out to them and said: "What accusation do you bring against this man?" They answered insolently: "If He were not a criminal, we would not have delivered Him to you." Then Pilate said to them: "Take Him, and judge Him according to your law." The Jews said to him: "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." For the saying of Jesus needed to be fulfilled that He would be delivered to the Gentiles and crucified. So the Jews began to accuse Him, saying: "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King." Then Pilate entered the Judgment Hall again, and called for Jesus, and said to Him: "Are You the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered him: "Do you say this of yourself, or did others tell it to you of me?" Pilate answered: "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me: what have You done?" Jesus answered: "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." Pilate therefore said to Him: "Are You a King then?" Jesus answered: "You say that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness of the truth. Every one that is of the truth hears My voice." Pilate said, disdainfully: "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them: "I find no fault in this man." He took Jesus to be a religious fanatic, but not a rebel.
          Indeed, Jesus is a King. But His kingdom is not of this world, is not of the nature of the kingdoms of this world. He founds, sustains, and spreads His kingdom only through His Word, the Word of Truth, the truth of grace, which was conceived in God's eternal counsel, revealed and made manifest in Christ, and is proclaimed through His Word: the truth that He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And every one that is of the truth, every one that is born of God, drawn by God to receive this Word of Truth, hears the voice and Word of Jesus with a spiritual ear, and enters His kingdom and remains in it, here in time and thereafter in eternity. Are you of the truth?