A Few Good Lies

A few months back, right before the release of Iron Man 2 some creative folks with way too much time on their hands posted some funny mashups on YouTube.  They inserted Iron Man into a few classic film scenes, including Titanic and Dirty Dancing, where Iron Man dances with Patrick Swayze in the finale of the movie.  These mashups got a lot of press as well as hits.  So, being the creative type (with apparently too much time on my hands) I came up with the brilliant idea of creating my own mashups.  Only these would involve classic film scenes inserted into equally classic stories from the Bible.  Now, since we are dealing with two different media, film and written text, this will require some use of your imagination, but I am confident that the effort will be worth it.  So, without further ado, let the mashing begin.
All four gospels contain stories of Jesus being arrested and brought before Pilot, the Roman governor in charge of Judea.  The book of John has an interesting exchange between Jesus and Pilot, in which the governor asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews.  Jesus refuse to play this game and tells Pilot
"You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."  Pilot responds by asking Jesus what is the truth. 
John does not tell us what Jesus said next.  But I have a idea of what might have gone down and it involves Jesus channeling his inner Jack Nicholson.  Click on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo&feature=related

Can't you just see it, Jesus screaming back at Pilot, "You want the truth!  You can't handle the truth!"  Brilliant, absolutely, dead on brilliant.  Pilot could not have handled the truth even if he really wanted it.  It would have turned everything he knew on its head.  Pilot was looking for a political leader, a king like himself when the truth of who Jesus was (and is) was beyond anything Pilot could comprehend.
I have another mashup version of this scene.  It still involves Jesus as Jack Nicholson, but I am standing in the place of Pilot.  I want the truth, I demand the truth, I think I am entitled to the truth.  Make no mistake, I have put Jesus on trial a number of times in my life.  Each time I have asked for the truth.  But could I really handle the truth?
I do not believe that Jesus has ever withheld the truth from me.  Jesus came to bear witness to the truth.  The problem is that too often I want Jesus to tell me what I want to hear and call it the truth.  I want Jesus to justify me, to affirm everything I say and do.  And when my life does not go the way I wish it to I want Jesus to break down in the witness stand and say, "Roger, your right and I am wrong." What I want is not the truth but a few good lies that sound like the truth.
The truth is I am a child of God, created in the image and likeness of God.  I am not God.  Nor am I the only child of God.  My life is intertwined with billions of other lives.  As a follower of Jesus I am called to care about all these other people as much as I care about myself.  That is a truth I don't always want to hear.  It is a truth I don't always think I can handle.  But it is the truth that can set me free to live life in all of its fullness.