Find simple answers

Jesus, help me focus on what's really important. Amen!

"Are you the king of the Jews?" Governor Pontius Pilate asked Jesus. "You're the one who says I'm a king," Jesus told him, "but I'm not a king of this world. I've come to tell the truth, and anyone who wants to hear the truth will listen to me."

Have you ever heard the expression, "Out of the mouths of babes?" Adults use it often when they're talking with kids. It usually means that the kid has come up with a simple answer to a problem when the grownup was only thinking of complicated ones!

That expression works for Jesus, too. In this week's Gospel, (John 18:33 - 37), Jesus is on trial, and Pilate can't stop asking whether Jesus is a king. But Jesus wants him to put aside that complicated problem and focus on a simpler one!

Adults are often surprised when they talk about a problem -- say, an argument with a friend -- and a kid says, "Why don't you just forgive them?" The adult is probably thinking about who was right and wrong and other stuff, when the kid is thinking about the fastest, easiest way to be friends again.

In a way, that's what the Gospel was about. Pilate wondered if Jesus was really a king, and if that would mean Pilate couldn't be governor any more because Jesus would take over. Jesus kept trying to say that what mattered more than being a king in heaven was what Jesus was doing right then on earth.

Jesus was telling the simple truth about God and how to get close to God (by following Jesus) -- just like you tell the truth "out of the mouths of babes," when you come up with a simple answer to a hard question!