THIS EASTER IS CRUCIAL FOR AMERICANS

Easter, Christianity’s “high holiday” is a time when Christians reflect on the deepest meanings of their faith, a time—as it were– to check in on the state of their soul. This year, this Easter, has become an especially important occasion for Americans of all faiths, or of no professed faith, to reflect deeply on the state of our nation’s soul.

First let’s look at how things are going and how we got here. In the last week the stock market went through more huge swings based on announcements from the U. S. President of massive, global tariffs that even usually supportive financial professionals and journalists like those at the Wall Street Journal said didn’t make any sense and were not only reckless but economically dangerous.

Moreover, In the three months since the onset of the new Administration, Americans have witnessed dismantling of federal agencies, mass firings of federal employees, including scientists and technical experts responsible for critical research, infrastructure and security, We have witnessed intimidation by the Administration of universities, law firms and the media and even, yes even, defiance of court orders. Demoralization, anxiety, outrage and dread have become epidemic in American society.

HOW DID WE GET TO THIS PLACE?

How did we get here? Well, the short answer is that a small but sufficient majority of voters in key states voted for someone whom they thought was not only “OK” despite obvious and glaring personal flaws, but actually the preferred choice in a field with essentially two choices. These voters were able to ignore that their chosen candidate was a convicted felon who also had numerous other indictments for even more serious crimes. He had clearly fomented and planned a violent insurrection aimed at reversing an election which over sixty judicial decisions had determined was legitimate, including decisions by judges that he himself had appointed.

These voters chose to believe disinformation and outright fabrications about immigrants as well as false stories about an epidemic of transsexual surgeries being performed on children and on illegal immigrants in prisons. They somehow thought the seemingly strong, successful businessman would protect them and reduce the price of groceries, gasoline and other common goods. Many felt entertained by their chosen leader, liked that he says whatever he feels and liked that he says things regardless of how politically incorrect they might be.

And let’s face it, many of his supporters likes that he promotes racist rhetoric and policies which ordinary people may agree with and feel strongly about but wouldn’t dare express in public for fear of adverse consequences at work, school, church or from society in general. Now, however, after three months of chaos and cuts to programs which many now realize they rely on, many supporters of the current President are experiencing not only buyer’s remorse, but downright anger and a deep sense of betrayal.

THE PERPETRATOR IS NOT THE VICTIM

There is also something deeper and more ominous than any of the above and this also evokes the beginning of the Easter journey. This Administration’s move toward totalitarianism and a nativist, “anti-other” campaign has been expressing itself in targeted capture and disappearance of foreign nationals, many in the U.S. legally. How does this relate to Easter? Think about  the arrest, interrogation, brutal flogging and finally the crucifixion and death of Jesus of Nazareth on a cross. Leaving out any theological considerations for a moment, this whole plan for mass deportation by the current Administration reeks of injustice and immense cruelty.

In the Easter story Jesus is sometimes referred to in this context as a sacrificial lamb, in this case “the lamb of God”. What is truly astounding, however at this point is that the current President actually likes to compare himself to the crucified Jesus! Besides being blasphemous on its face, it is also just plain bizarre: he seems to believe or at least promotes the idea that he is completely innocent and therefore it follows that he is being persecuted unfairly. He also promotes the narrative that he endowed with some sort of divine status though I suspect he probably knows this is just a show. But he certainly loves that some followers actually believe that he is at least sent to us by God.

Of course, the situation is completely opposite of what the current occupant of the White House promotes about himself. He himself is the one doing the the arrests, flogging and –at this point symbolically—the crucifying. When he and his agents arrest people off the street with the flimsiest of reasoning (or by “mistake” in the case of the Maryland husband and father, Kilmar Abrego Garcia) and then incarcerates them and/or deports them to foreign countries, the perpetrators have become like the Roman occupiers of the ancient Palestine of Jesus. This is not about partisan politics or being biased against the current President. It is about being honest about what we are witnessing. And like the road to Calvary upon which Jesus had to walk, carrying the very cross he was to be crucified on, this modern Way of the Cross is painful to witness, what to say of those who are suffering under the current “occupiers”, the President and those carrying out his orders.

APPROPRIATING & TRANSORMING THE CROSS: FROM A SYMBOL OF TORTURE TO ONE OF LIBERATION

But the Easter story only begins with the Way of the Cross; it’s the ending that brings us to the ultimate meaning of Easter. Without trying to address anywhere near the full theological meaning of Easter, I would like to end with an interpretation of one key aspect of Easter which I heard clearly expressed last Easter by Reverend Munther Isaac, Pastor of Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem: Christians have appropriated the cross, which the Roman occupiers used as a means of capital punishment as well as an instrument of humiliation, torture and terrorism and transformed it into a symbol of resistance, triumph and salvation.

Think about that. And then chose which side you identify with: the temporal rulers of this world who believe they have to abuse, torture and deport others to stay in power? Or do you identify with the victims of this abuse? The key is the word “temporal”. Abusing others for short term gain has a very bad ending indeed. Standing up for the oppressed and tormented may be painful in the short term but the goodness that results literally never ends. And we who chose this latter path will be in the middle of it. Amen.