A Holy Week reminder: Pete Hegseth’s Jesus won’t save us | Opinion
There is a particularly cruel moment during Holy Week where it seems as if Jesus might escape death. The Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate questions Jesus and does not find sufficient evidence to justify capital punishment. Pilate is a savvy politician, as one had to be to gain and maintain a power position in the Roman Empire. He perceives that the justice system is being manipulated by sectarian factions, and he wants no part of condemning an innocent man to death. Leveraging the custom of releasing a prisoner during the Passover, he offers the crowd a choice. Would they like him to release Jesus of Nazareth, the itinerant preacher who has been wandering the hills feeding the hungry, healing the sick, casting out demons and performing wondrous signs? Or would they prefer another prisoner, who also happens to be named Jesus. This Jesus Barrabas is a political zealot who was charged with murder, robbery and plotting an insurrection against Rome.
Which Jesus will the crowd choose? The one who preaches peace, justice and love of enemies. Or Jesus Barrabas the violent rebel willing to murder and steal for his cause? Offered the choice, the crowd cries out with one voice for Jesus Barrabas.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt began her press briefing by asking the assembled journalists if they heard “our amen in there,” explaining that her team had just concluded a loud Holy Week prayer and that the President and first Lady would be celebrating by hosting an Easter lunch. With her next breath, she described the continued success of Operation Epic Fury over the “terrorist Iranian regime,” “more than 11,000 enemy targets have been struck, crippling the regime’s offensive and defensive capabilities and creating more leverage for the United States.” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth held a prayer service of his own in the Pentagon, where he prayed “let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation” and asked God to give US soldiers “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” During his prayer he also called on God to “break the teeth of the ungodly.” Hegseth has declared that America is “winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.”
President Trump has not been caught praying on camera, but he told the Financial Times that he will “take the oil in Iran” and has vowed to destroy electricity plants and desalination facilities, which would leave civilians without power and water. The war in Iran has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands of civilians at the cost of over a billion dollars a day.
The Trump administration claims to be “bringing God back” into public life. They publish their prayers and laud the volume of their songs and Amens. The question, for those who take the Bible seriously, is which God? Which Jesus are they worshipping? Jesus Barabbas who used his power to steal and kill his enemies, or Jesus of Nazareth who famously said, whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me? This Holy Week, Christians would do well to wonder which Jesus this government is worshipping and which Jesus they are crucifying.
Christians observing Holy Week need to decide once again which Jesus we will put our hope and trust in: the Jesus who promises to save us by killing our enemies or the Jesus who interrupts the cycle of violence by interposing his own sacred flesh, uses his last breath to cry out to God to show mercy to his enemies and in his resurrection overcomes death and frees his followers to be peacemakers. Both men are named Jesus, but the gospels are clear, only one of them can save us.
Kate Murphy is pastor of The Grove Presbyterian Church in Charlotte.