Is Easter Political?

As we enter Maundy Thursday, witness Good Friday, and wait through Holy Saturday for Resurrection Sunday this year, I find myself reflecting on an early impression of Easter.

When I was in high school I was in a Passion Play on Maundy Thursday.  Depicting Jesus’ last week, a small cast of players shared all parts, first welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem with waving palms, and later enacting the mob that had turned against Jesus, cursing him and repeatedly yelling,  “Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!” to Pontius Pilate.

I always found it mystifying how a crowd whom welcomed Jesus with ‘Hosannas’ one week earlier would turn into a bloodthirsty mob calling for his painful and humiliating death.  It was my first, vivid, look at the darkest side of humanity: mobthink.  Mobthink is alive and well in our politics today.

Jon Stewart interviews crowds for and against the AffordableCare Act.

While the crowds cry ‘tyranny’ outside the courthouse, interested parties could listen to the Supreme Court Justices weigh the nuance and economic principles behind the market failure that is our health care system, and whether we as a people have a responsibility to correct that market failure.

In a different scenario, I marched with ‘A Million Hoodies’ recently to mourn to the unnecessary and unjust death of Trayvon Martin, and mobthink felt dangerously close to the surface. While I will never have to deal with being black in this racist country, I want justice for Trayvon and all the other young black men shot, harassed, profiled, or caught in the deadly cycle of crime that is prevalent in our impoverished neighborhoods.

Walking with the hoodies, however, chanting ‘what do we want?’ “Justice!” ‘When do we want it?’ “Now!” felt disingenuous, and too aimed for blood. Like the Rodney King beating, Trayvon’s murder has provided that spark to ignite the coals that have been red-hot below the surface. But we shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming that an eye for an eye is enough for this situation, or let mobthink cloud our judgment. 

Mobthink lies in each of us.  For me, Jesus’ death was always a manifestation of the worst traits of humankind; fear and suspicion, manipulation and greed, kneejerk thinking and mobthink.  Jesus’ death appeals to the need to engage our better selves in times of crisis.  The most difficult part of life is the nuance and responsibility of decision-making. 

George Zimmerman is not the only one at fault in this Travyon tragedy.  As I mourn for the Martin family, I also mourn for an entire nation where all young black teens are worthy of suspicion, and those in power (note: whites) have passed laws deeming murder ‘no fault’, and all but one state has passed laws allowing Conceal and Carry.  Zimmerman needs to be charged, if nothing else than to acknowledge with remorse that he took precious life, precious potential, and precious dreams from another person.  Trayvon was a son, a friend, a boyfriend, and those people were robbed of a future with their loved one.  To not acknowledge his death as wrongful is a criminal indictment of our legal system as one that still values the lives of black people as only 'two-thirds' worth.  But we need not publish the home address of the Zimmerman family, as Spike Lee attempted to do late last week, to fuel mobthink.  

“Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34).  When you are operating in mobthink, too often, this is true.  We need leadership focused on how we as people can relate to each other, and how communities can relate to other communities, with responsibility towards each other's well being.