You’ve heard the story even if you’re not a practicing Christian and never braved the marathon-level test of physical stamina and your attention span that is Palm Sunday services’ annual recitation of The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the unlikely even this is all new to you, then here’s the crux of it:
Jesus of Nazareth (an objectively remarkable and good guy regardless of whether you believe his dad happens to be God Almighty) rides into Jerusalem in humble glory, flanked by disciples and acclaimed by the crowds. Had he wanted it, the carpenter from an imperial Roman backwater could’ve led a full-scale revolution to win himself an earthly crown.
Less than one week later? He’s betrayed for a 30 pieces of silver, arrested, betrayed multiple more times, slandered, robbed tortured, and executed without any “due process” rights any citizen of a contemporary, civilized society would recognize. No presumption of innocence, Brady motions, or even a proper jury… just an angry flash mob (at least some of whom where probably bribed) condemning Jesus and demanding the release of a known murder named “Barabbas” in his place.
I’m not a theologian, but I do know a thing or two about government and politics…
Holy Week is your annual vivid reminder that “democracy” sucks. It’s a profoundly crappy way to make decisions especially in the context of administering justice. Ask JC all about it!
Our Framers (who almost without exception hailed from a variety of Protestant traditions) explicitely didn’t want a democracy. We don’t live in a democracy, a fact still lost on the “Hate Has No Home Here Next To My Ukrainian Flag” crowd. Our system – a federal republic with democratic elements – is designed with checks, balances, and the specific intent to prevent mob rule not unlike the chaos that was percolating in France at the time the Constitution came into being. I’d be willing to bet a pound of parchment that more than a few men at the Constitutional Convention were also thinking about the Way of the Cross when they fell in behind the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments.
If you’re noticing parallels between the ancient world and our own modern one then that’s probably not a mistake. We needed a constitution for a reason; the principles and the concepts that flow from them embedded in our founding documents are often at conflict with our baser human impulses. We still need one, and it’s my likely unrealistic hope that that lesson is never lost on any American – Christian or not – this week and every week.
