Hello my friends,

I hope this finds you well today.

Today is Palm Sunday. As you read this, I'll probably be gathering our palm branches for Sunday service as we prepare to reflect on who we believe Jesus to be compared to who Jesus actually came to be. It is one of the most convicting days of Holy Week for me. It always humbles me and compels me to discern how I have misunderstood who Jesus is and rediscover who he came to be in and for our world.

So, today I want to look at one of the areas is in desperate need of Christian repentance. That is the area of political idolatry and Christian nationalism. Specifically, I want to look at why Christians are drawn to it through the lens of the crowd who traded Jesus in for Barabbas.

After all, we Christians are invited to see ourselves as "the crowd" and "the disciples" through Holy Week. So, I want to do that together with you right now.

But, as always, here are some resources that have me thinking this week.

RESOURCES TO CONSIDER

-The Notes From America podcast recently interviewed Pastor Doug Pagitt. He is the executive director of Vote Common Good, and he walks listeners through how he and other faith leaders are finding ways to combat the effects of Christian nationalism in their own faith communities. You can listen by clicking here: Church, State, and the Soul of Our Nation.

-My good friend Meghan Tschanz hosted a wonderful interview with Katherine Stewart on her Faith and Feminism podcast. Katherine is an investigative reporter and author who has covered religious liberty, politics, policy, and education for over a decade. She is also the author of one of the most insightful books written on the Christian Nationalist movement: "The Power Worshipers." You can listen to that interview by clicking here Episode 181: The Power Worshipers​

-Diana Butler Bass recently interviewed Professor Julie Ingersoll, who is the author of "Building God's Kingdom." She is a scholar on the inner workings of the Christian homeschooling movement and the origins of the Christian Reconstructionism movement that has influenced it and Christian Nationalism. As one who was homeschooled and raised in that world, hence my urgency over this topic, I have found her work both truthful and insightful. You can listen to their conversation by clicking here: The Threat of Christian Nationalism.​

-After writing on this topic, I will always get questions about Luke 22:36-38, where Jesus is heard telling his disciples, "if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." This is a passage that has been used to for a host of things from justifying the Christian use of deadly force to being the Biblical foundation for the 2nd Amendment. I wrote a short commentary on this passage of scripture in a recent newsletter called, "Did Jesus really tell his disciples to sell their cloaks to buy swords? It's really important to untangle this passage from the ways it has been used and hear the point of what Jesus was trying to convey, which is, in his own words, "the fulfillment of prophecy."

-Finally, I am currently reading the book "The Global Politics of Jesus: A Christian Case for Church-State Separation" by the author Nilay Saiya. I was randomly sent a free copy of this book by his publishing company, but was compelled enough to begin reading. It is very good so far and worth reading if you are looking for ways to both combat the theology of Christian Nationalism and still faithfully engage politics as a Christian from a biblical standpoint. I have linked the kindle version to the title above.

Okay, now on with today's topic:

What can the crowd who traded Jesus in for Barabbas teach us about Christian political idolatry?

Every time the church moves through Holy Week, especially Palm Sunday and Good Friday, I always get deeply convicted when I read about the crowd trading Jesus in for Barabbas. I feel like it has so much relevance for us Christians, especially in the western world today. If we are willing to listen, that is.

"Pilate said, "It is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover.

Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

The crowd shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising."

-John 18:39-40

Little is known about Barabbas, but we can gain a pretty good picture of what is happening in this trade initiated by Pontius Pilate by what we do know.

Matthew tells us that Barabbas is a “notorious prisoner.” (Matthew 27:16), meaning he was well known among the people for what made him a prisoner. Yet, both Mark and Luke highlight that Barabbas had been involved in "στάσις" (stasis: which means riot) in which he committed murder. The riot he was involved in was most likely one of the many insurrections against Roman power that took place within that time period.

The scholar Robert Eisenman pointed out that John 18:40 refers to Barabbas as a "λῃστής" (lēstēs, which means "bandit"), which is the same word the ancient historian Josephus always used when talking about “Revolutionaries.”

What first struck me personally about Barabbas was his name. In Aramaic, his name means “son of the father.” Some scriptural manuscripts and translations even call him “Jesus Barabbas.” When I first learned that, it gave me chills. The crowd traded in Jesus, the true Son of God for the Jesus, son of god, they preferred.

So, why did they prefer Barabbas over Jesus?

As I've said before, we know that there were constant Jewish uprisings against Rome in that time period, like the early and rather successful Maccabean revolt (167-160 BC). The Roman Empire saw these as nothing more than a nuisance though and used brutal crucifixions at the outskirts of the empire to deter them. We even see Pilate trying to avoid this kind of riot in the prisoner exchange: (Matthew 27:20-24; Mark 15:6-15).

Overthrowing Rome was a priority for many in the Jewish community, especially the nationalist group called the Zealots, one of whom we know was a disciple of Jesus and later an apostle (Simon).

Yet, just as with every movement, there were those within Israel who wanted a different way. It is so crucial to remember that Jesus was a Jewish rabbi. He represented a very particular theological tradition from many of the prophets. One that emphasized the liberation of Moses more than the dominion of Kings. As we can see epically in 1 Samuel 8, there has always been differing schools of thought within Judaism (and subsequently Christianity) about its relation to earthly kingdoms.

So, imagine how many of the religious and political elites were convinced that overthrowing and defeating Rome was the only way to “take our nation back for God.” Then, in that context, you have this peasant from a backwater town gaining incredible popularity among the people, especially the poor and the marginalized, preaching a message of nonviolence, forgiveness of sins, loving your enemies, and bringing compassion to the most vulnerable.

Instead of building a militia, armed to the teeth, this "Messiah" called fishermen, Roman tax collectors, women, and even children to follow him. Instead of riding into Jerusalem on a warhorse leading a brigade, with his sword soaked with Roman blood, Jesus road into Jerusalem on a donkey with his disciples, hailed by palm branches.

Not only that, Jesus predicted that he would be handed over and crucified many times during his ministry and everyone knows you can’t lead a military overthrow when your leader is dead. This is probably the primary reason why Peter rebuked Jesus so sternly when he predicted his death (Matthew 16:22; Mark 8:33). The disciple who would later cut off the ear of the the servant Malchus in an attempt to prevent Jesus from being arrested, only to have Jesus immediately reattach and heal the ear (John 18:10) and tell Peter to put his sword away rather than to keep swinging it towards his enemies.

This is the profound contrast between followers of Jesus who are willing kill for Jesus, yet unwilling to die with Jesus. Jesus shows what he would have his followers as he chose to die for his enemies rather than kill them. This was not the kind of "leader" many of his disciples or "the crowd" was looking for. Something needed to be done.

So when it came to the prisoner exchange, the choice was obvious. The crowd (us) needed someone who was actually willing to lead the violent overthrow so many of them wanted. They (we) needed someone who was going to take their nation back for God by any means necessary. They (we) needed a display of brute strength, not of self sacrificial love.

They needed a “strong man,” not a carpenter from Nazareth who hangs around with people on the margins of society, preaching about mercy, forgiveness, and love. They needed someone who would prioritize their religious agenda, rather than prioritizing the needs of the poor, the prisoners, the captives, the sick, the vulnerable, and a generous economy (Luke 4:18-19). They needed someone who was solely concerned with saving their earthy nation in the way they wanted it to be "saved," not someone who was concerned with saving the whole world. They needed Barabbas.

I think this speaks so loudly to me right now because when it comes to political power in America, I think we've seen American Christianity so often be just like the crowd, trading in the Jesus we see in the gospels for the Barabbas we prefer. A Barabbas who justifies our attempts to "take our country back for God" by any means necessary, no matter how people from other religions, non religious, oppressed, and minority groups are impacted or harmed. When we do this, the nature of our politics and theology start to look more like Barabbas than they do Jesus. Politics of exclusion, brute strength, and control, rather than politics of inclusion, compassion, and generosity. We just start looking like the kingdoms of this world rather than the kingdom of heaven.

No, when it comes to ensuring that our nation is and remains “Christian,” the nonviolent preaching, turn the other cheek teaching, foot washing, donkey riding Jesus just isn’t going to cut it. He simply isn’t patriotic, forceful, or “man enough” for that task. The compassion of Jesus is simply not as effective in our minds that have been so shaped by the empires of this world as the brutal strength of Barabbas.

So, we trade Jesus in for our “strong man” politicians and religious leaders, who will do whatever it takes to maintain and enforce our “Christian values,” within our nation and we bless them in the name of the Jesus we've created in our own image. This is what political idolatry looks like. This is what Christian nationalism looks like.

In the face of this kind of Christian idolatry, there is an urgent need for American Christians to learn from the crowd of holy week how capable we Christians are of choosing Barabbas while believing we are doing so in obedience to God. We are just as capable of claiming to follow Jesus, while demanding that he function in the ways of Barabbas. This is an area that requires deep humility and repentance.

History shows us how devastating the consequences can be when we Christians choose “strong man” leaders like Barabbas to lead us instead of Jesus in order to "take our country back for God." Leaders who promised to do whatever it takes to conquer imagined enemies for the sake of Christianity. Enemies who Christians were convinced by such leaders to fear and hate rather than to love. It should break our hearts to see this same trend in our world today.

I’ll leave you with a quote from one such democratically elected leader who gained the support of Christians in his nation for promising to do just that. Be sure to remember this quote as you listen to the politicians and religious leaders in our culture right now who promise to do the same for us, especially with the coming elections in 2024.

“The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in entertainment, and in the press - in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years.” -This is a quote from a radio address that Adolf Hitler gave to Germany on July 22, 1933. (From “My New Order, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939”, Vol. 1, pp. 871-872, Oxford University Press, London, 1942)

My continued prayer is that we Christians become so skilled in being able to distinguish between the voice of Jesus Christ and the voice of Barabbas, no matter where we land on the political spectrum. My continued hope is that we Christians refuse to heed the call of those who are only seeking to stoke fear, hate, and violence in our hearts towards others and instead seek out those who are stoking hope, love, and compassion towards others. My deepest desire is that we see collective repentance within Christianity from the ways of Barabbas and turn back to the ways of Jesus.

May we always choose the way of Jesus over the way of Barabbas.

Now I want to hear from you. Does this resonate with you? Was there something I missed? Send me a response and let me know what you think. Talking with you about these things is why I do what I do. We are in this together.

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I pray you have a blessed, inspired, and grace-filled Holy Week.

Remember, no matter how dark the world may seem, we follow the One who has conquered death. We have reason to hope for a better future and a better world. We are holding onto this hope together.

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Thank you all for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every week.

-Ben

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