"The Moment of Truth"

Mark 5.33-34 NAS

“But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.’”

“The Moment of Truth” was a new reality show following Fox network’s most popular television series “American Idol” on Wednesday nights in January, 2008. Hopefully your kids were in bed and your entire family missed an opportunity to see people go down in a blaze of widescreen, high def humiliation. Game participants were wired to polygraphs and given questions that began as probing and escalated to damning.

The show was a throwback to olden days when townsfolk gathered for a public lynching. And gather they did. “More than 23 million viewers sat through ‘Truth’s’ first episode on Jan. 23”[1]. I did not watch, barely overcoming the temptation to satisfy my morbid curiosity.

It’s mentally healthy and spiritually cleansing to spill all, but not in public. Be selective. Find trustworthy friends, then “confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed” (James 5.16). Given the right set of questions, no one alive could leave “The Moment of Truth’s” hot seat unscathed. 

Ultimately, there’s one person with enough compassion to safely hold your dark secrets. With great “fearing and trembling” a very sick woman fell at the feet of this one and “told Him the whole truth.” The result?

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; 
go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

I doubt anyone finished watching an episode of “The Moment of Truth” as a whole person. I assume both contestants and audience left a piece of themselves behind. Like most sensationalist endeavors, ratings spiked and then dropped. “A very impressive start but viewership declined quickly, reaching a low of 8.6 million.”[2] Fox network made a little money. The cost? Everyone walked away from what may have been the cruelest ‘reality TV’ program ever, a little more raw, exposed, and broken than they expected. Something inside of all of us died.

Tell Jesus and trusted confidants the “whole truth” and that’s exactly how you will leave your encounter with Him… whole.

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[1] “‘Truth’ hits contestants with utter destruction; no wonder you love it,” Peter Ames Carlin, Living, section B-1, The Oregonian, Wednesday, February 13, 2008.

[2] "The Moment of Truth: FOX Losing Confidence in Lie Detector Show?" by TV Series Finale, August 7, 2008 (http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-moment-of-truth-fox-losing-confidence-in-lie-detector-show/). This television program, hosted by Emmy nominated, television personality Mark L. Walberg, premiered on January 23, 2008 and ended on August 8, 2009.