This year the story of Holy Week resonates clearly with current realities in our nation. Holy Week refers to the Biblical accounts of the last week of Jesus’ life including his death on the cross and resurrection. An essential aspect of the story is that Jesus’ execution was the result of a blatant miscarriage of justice. Religious authorities devised false accusations against Jesus and then pressured the Roman governor Pontus Pilate to crucify him even though the governor proclaimed Jesus’ innocence several times. The religious authorities finally succeeded by inciting a mob and threatening to report the governor as disloyal to his own government. The gospel of John describes it this way (John 19: 12, 14-16)
From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
“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.
Blatant miscarriages of justice and demands for unquestioned loyalty to the government characterize the United States of America during Holy Week 2025. Foreign students who are in our country legally have been arrested off the street and detained in locations away from their families and friends. Several hundred men were arrested and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador despite the fact that three quarters of them have no criminal record in the US. One of them, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was the victim of an “administrative error” meaning that he should never have been among those targeted for arrest and deportation. Despite this admitted mistake, the Trump administration continues to defy a court order to facilitate his return. All these examples of blatant injustice are actions by an administration that supposedly wants to protect and promote “Christian values.”
Amid this tidal wave of injustice, it is easy to lose sight of the humanity of each victim. The video posted below features a moving statement by Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. In calling for her husband’s return, she also expresses her Christian faith and encourages her husband with the words, “God has not forgotten about you.” We cannot forget him and the other victims of a government that defies justice while demanding unquestioned loyalty. Please watch the video and consider making it a part of your Holy Week devotion time. It expresses both the pain and suffering caused by injustice and the hope that God will redeem that suffering. That sounds like Holy Week to me.
