celebrate good friday. don't repeat it.

It’s only Wednesday. This means there’s still time, to change history. Forever. There isn’t much time, but two days will have to do.

Let me be honest. I’m good at sarcasm. I was once a pro at pessimism. It’s entertaining for me to throw out controversial phrases and thoughts, with a little more bite than necessary, even if I do believe in their core message, just to grab attention. I once made a living, literally, as a pastor (early on), out of being negative about the church.

I left all of that for something more along the lines of “better to light a candle than call out the darkness” way of life which I sometimes succeed at…

Lately though, I’ve been tempted to return to my roots, only because so many Christian leaders are making it way too easy for me by saying things like…

• President Donald Trump should launch military strikes on infectious disease research facilities in China.

• the fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus is “child’s play” and that America is really fighting against socialism.

• vaccines will kill more people than all the viruses put together …

• Dr. Anthony Fauci is limited in his perspective by his “narrow medical interests” and should be fired

• ”We still have faith in America and capitalism. We know God is still by our side. We still have faith in our G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) President Donald J Trump. In Trump we trust. In America we trust. In God we trust.”

And that was all just yesterday. But, again, that’s the easy stuff in our world of extreme polarization and cutting remarks and biases that we now put on patches and wear on our jackets. I think we used to try and get rid of our blinding biases but it seems those days are long gone.

Anyway, my point is this: I actually believe something with every grain of my being. I used to be a pastor. I used to preach these sermons and I used to be friends with these people. Some family members are still part of the tribe. I get it. I really do. That’s why I feel it so strongly.

So, I want to be honest and heartfelt and try to avoid the snide remarks - though I can’t promise anything.

But we don’t have much time on our side so let me get right to it.

I’ve seen President Trump often compared to King Cyrus, the Persian ruler who liberated the Jews from Babylon. I’ve also seen Trump compared to King David. I’ve seen Trump compared to lots of leaders in the Bible. Good leaders, bad leaders, but leaders with a purpose that the writer and speakers of the comparison can rally behind as “God’s chosen leader”.

I mean this with all sincerity. Can I bring up another leader that it’s possible - just entertain the possibility for a second, please - that Trump is more like?

Julius Caesar.

Listen, I was a pastor for about 10 years but I’m not going sit here and pretend to be an expert in Cyrus and or Caesar. But I’ve never believed one needed to be an expert to get the message of the old stories… in fact, that might be one of the messages of the old stories - you don’t need to be an expert. Just a child.

So, if I may.

Caesar reigned over the largest and most powerful empire to ever exist up to that point in history. A booming economy and stock market. A military the world feared. Architecture, infrastructure, marvels, roads, order and peace.

If you’re not following… Rome was the America of the day and Caesar was its ruler.

Now, some will push back here. Whoa, whoa, the Jews were not free to worship their God under Roman rule and we need to be careful of preventing that from happening here. That’s the very thing we’re trying to fight!

Here’s the thing. They were, actually, free to worship. There were some rules, sure, some consolations they had to give up, but they were generally allowed to have their culture, their temple, and their faith… for the most part.

As long as they acknowledged that Caesar was the man, and Rome was their empire.

If you find that repulsive, again, just hear me out for a second: we do both of those things pretty voluntarily in America. No one needs to threaten us with death, we gladly pledge allegiance to our empire and, well… as I’ve already quoted, many Christians think pretty highly enough of Trump, without being forced to call him Lord.

So… if we want comparisons, we should compare Rome to America. (I’m not the first to say this - at all.)

If we need more proof, how about this line from the Jewish religious leaders (read that again - they were Jews and they were allowed to be religious leaders) of the time.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

So, just to be clear. They had a temple and a nation at the time and they were terrified of losing it. In case it’s not obvious, this is the exact same thing as saying we can’t lose the 10 commandments in our schools and god in our courts today. To some, the “Romans” these days are the “liberal Democrats” but let’s be careful with stretching the story where it shouldn’t go because really everything was working fine.

They had a nation. They had a temple and faith. And they had a powerful leader who was allowing them to have it with peace and prosperity. They had everything they wanted until this new guy came along. Not Caesar, not Rome, some new guy. Who was this guy?

Bernie Sanders?
No… it was Jesus.

Yeah he was the one who was performing many signs and the signs he was performing were somehow different enough that the religious leaders were worried that the Romans were going to be mad. Why would the Romans suddenly be mad? Everything was working great.

The only reason the Romans would be upset was if someone was calling out their beautiful empire… their military, their money, their power, their nationalism (group narcissism) and on and on it goes. And there’s a reason we know this is why they were mad.

This is why we get mad today. In fact, some of you (depending on where you’re at with your religion) got mad just reading that list. Please pay attention to that.

It’s all over the news today. It’s the same exact story. Don’t call out our military. Don’t call out our flag. Don’t call out our economic structure. Hell, there may be miracles but you… just… can’t… say… some… things. We might lose our temple and our nation and we can’t risky that.

(Which by the way, just a side note: what kind of shitty temple and nation can be taken by Rome? Or America? Or Bernie Sanders? I mean if that’s the best temple and nation and “kingdom” that your religion gives you, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that not many people are interested anymore. Okay, sorry, I was starting to get sarcastic again.)

Okay, it’s dragging on. Let me wrap this up.

It’s Wednesday.

Friday is two days away. What’s going to happen on Friday? Well, last time, it seems the religious leaders sided with Caesar and they chose to kill Jesus.

Please remember this. Caesar didn’t kill Jesus. Pilate didn’t. The religious people did. The “Christians” in today’s empire.

In case we need a reminder:

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

We have no king but Caesar the religious people answered.
And the crowds chanted to crucify him!

Why the hell would religious leaders kill Jesus?

Jesus threatened to take away their nation and their temple. Jesus did? Would Jesus today? Why not?

So, I’m trying to be really kind here. I love all of the things Jesus stood for: he hung out with women who had abortions, porn stars, addicts, criminals, the LGBTQ community, socialists, and all of the other people that I mostly hear condemnation from our modern religious leaders about. And, this is important… he would have hung out with the religious leaders too but they didn’t want to.

The religious chose not to hang out with Jesus because they didn’t like the other people he hung with.

They preferred Caesar as their king because Caesar gave them the nation and temple they actually wanted - because he had the power to - even though this was not the nation and temple Jesus wanted.

Ok, I’ve got to wrap this up.

I don’t know what I think of many of the stories in the Bible anymore. Cyrus? I don’t know. Men shouldn’t cut their hair? Women shouldn’t wear jewelry? There’s some weird stuff in there. But when I pull way back from these stories, I mean way back, (like myth-way-back) I see the same stories living out toady. Every year.

Ironically, even as we celebrate them.

We would still choose a daily beating every day over freedom if we are guaranteed food. (Exodus story)
We would still choose a glass of merlot and a nice Ikea couch over justice. (Amos)

We would still choose our nation and our temple over Jesus and we’ll kill him all over again, even as we mourn his death, and wait for him to rise again on Sunday… so we can kill him again next year.

I’m using “we” here to try and be with you. But the truth is I don’t include myself in the “we” anymore. See, I’m choosing love and grace and kindness and compassion and, yes, even science this year over Caesar. I’m not chanting out “we have no king but Caesar” with you.

I can’t. I haven’t been able to for a long time. I’ve found much better kings.

And honestly, the more you chant it out, the further away from you I want to be, which makes me sad. And, again, sometimes I react to sadness with satire and sarcasm but this year I want to try something else.

Will you take a look at the Jesus you’re about to kill? I mean seriously take a look at him, compared to America and Trump and Caesar and Rome? I mean, honestly, try to tear off those bias badges and, this Good Friday, actually try not to live the story?

I promise to really think too. I mean it. I’ve got plenty of my own disdain for the past, and bias, and misguided perceptions, and anger, and fear, and sadness that often mask the mystery and life and liberation that (I think) Jesus came to show off - if we could get rid of all that other stuff.

This is my true and sincere hope for America and it’s Christians: Instead of burying Jesus, again, maybe try burying the Good Friday story you keep living every year, instead?

You’ve got two days to think about it.

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