The Daily Reid: Good Friday

Today is a day when Christians celebrate sacrifice, but too often, they forget what the sacrifice was for.

Jesus of Nazareth, the Palestinian Jewish carpenter and street preacher, was not a fan of rich people. Or of religious chicanery that robbed the poor and the faithful to enrich religious leaders. It was the kind of stuff that made him flip tables. And while he was poor, Jesus knew how to throw a memorable party, whether by whipping up miracle loaves and fishes for the masses, or by gathering his closest aides to eat, drink, and maybe get told off…

The Last Supper by African-American artist Cornell Barnes features a Black Jesus surrounded by famous African and African-Americans sitting at the table instead of the twelve disciples: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Mary McLeod Bethune, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Paul Robeson, Nat Turner, Noble Drew Ali, Kwame Nkrumah, Elijah Muhammad, and Judas.

On the day older school Christians call “Maundy Thursday,” which I used to find kind of funny when my mother would say it, we commemorate the Last Supper, when Jesus, the prophet who knew he was in his last days, stripped down to a waist cloth and washed the feet of his disciples, after which he got dressed and presided over supper, where he identified those among them who would soon betray him. “Maundy” refers to “a Middle English derivation taken from a Latin anthem sung in Roman Catholic churches on that day: “Mandatum novum do vobis” (“a new commandment I give to you”; John 13:34).” And the New Commandment reads as follows:

³³ “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus loved people who weren’t rich: poor people, sick and crippled people, women who were maligned and despised, children, hungry people, and of course his mama. And his final command before giving up the ghost for was for his disciples to spread love; to love each other, and to put more love into the world.

Maga Christians don’t have much use for Jesus. Their pastors are actually having to forego quoting him so their congregations don’t revolt:

Russell Moore, former top official for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) who is now the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, said during an interview aired on NPR's All Things Considered this week that Christianity is in a "crisis" due to the current state of right-wing politics.

Moore has found himself at odds with other evangelical leaders due to his frequent criticism of former President Donald Trump. He resigned his position with the SBC in 2021 following friction over his views on Trump and a sex abuse crisis among Southern Baptist clergy.

In his NPR interview, Moore suggested that Trump had transformed the political landscape in the U.S. to the point where some Christian conservatives are openly denouncing a central doctrine of their religion as being too "weak" and "liberal" for their liking.

"Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching—'turn the other cheek'—[and] to have someone come up after to say, 'Where did you get those liberal talking points?'" Moore said.

"When the pastor would say, 'I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ' ... The response would be, 'Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak," he added. "When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis."

“Give Us Barabbas!” Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

It’s not hard to picture today’s Jan 6 insurrectionist-loving, immigrant-loathing magas in the raving crowd on “Good Friday,” cheering and screaming for weak, poor people-feeding, immigrant-loving, sick people-healing, woke-ass Jesus to be crucified and the convicted criminal who better fits their model of citizenship set free. From the Book of Matthew, on the events of they day we Christians ironically call Good Friday:

¹⁵ Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. ¹⁶ And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. ¹⁷ So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” ¹⁸ For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. ¹⁹ Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” ²⁰ Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. ²¹ The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” ²² Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” ²³ And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

²⁴ So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man's blood;^[a] see to it yourselves.” ²⁵ And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” ²⁶ Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged^[b] Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

According to the Biblical account, Jesus was whipped, clothed in a purple robe with a crown of thorns forced down onto his bleeding scalp as Roman soldiers mocked him as the “King of the Jews.” They lashed him to a heavy wooden beam he was forced to carry through town in humiliation and up a hill to Golgotha (or Calvary) to the place where he would die. One soldier, Symon of Cyrene, is said to have taken pity on him and helped him carry it. Up on mount Calvary, he was stripped to a loin cloth, his hands were nailed to the beam and he was hoisted up on a tree between two fellow condemned men; thieves whose hands were merely strapped to their crosses. The sign “King of the Jews” was nailed above his head, and like in any good lynching, onlookers were encouraged to mock and spit on him. He was fed a bitter mixture of sour wine and myrrh — one of the elements present at his birth in Bethlehem, Palestine — and he left there to dehydrate and bleed to death. To make sure he was dead, a Roman soldier gored him in his side. His body was then tossed into a cave and a giant stone rolled across the opening.

There are conflicting accounts in the New Testament from the various prophets of Jesus’ final words.

1. Luke 23:34: And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments.

2. Luke 23:43: And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

3. John 19:26-27: When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

4. Matthew 27:45-46: Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Mark 15:33-34: And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

5. John 19:28: After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst."

6. John 19:30a: When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

7. Luke 23:45b-46: And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.

The purpose of Crucifixion was to terrify the people of the colonial province of Jerusalem so they wouldn’t even think about rebelling against the Roman emperor and his corrupt regime. From Britannica:

Crucifixion was most frequently used to punish political or religious agitators, pirates, slaves, or those who had no civil rights. In 519 bce Darius I, king of Persia, crucified 3,000 political opponents in Babylon; in 88 bce Alexander Jannaeus, the Judaean king and high priest, crucified 800 Pharisaic opponents; and about 32 ce Pontius Pilate had Jesus of Nazareth put to death by crucifixion.

A little over 300 years later, the Roman empire would fall, beset by economic troubles fueled by military overspending, rampant corruption, and an over-reliance on slaves.

Proof of life

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen was finally able to see Maryland construction worker and married father of three Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the Salvadoran gulag the regime sent him too. Thankfully, he didn’t have to do a creepy, Abu-Ghraib-style selfie in order to be admitted after an inexplicable delay.

And while it was a relief to discover that Mr. Abrego Garcia is alive, not much else about this situation is, to put it mildly, good. The regime continues to refuse to bring him home. And El Salvador’s asshole of a dictator, Nayib Bukele, took to X-Twitter to mock the detained man, with allusions to rampant social media speculation about his notorious CECOT prison being an extermination camp. And then the White House official account X-vomited this:

There was evil in the world during Jesus’ time. It came in the form of greedy, religious charlatans and cruel Romans, led by their dictator. And there is evil overlaying our country, today, as unvarnished fascism takes hold. Today, Good Friday, is the deadline the regime demanded for Christian Afghans to self-deport.

And then they cried out for Barabbas.

More than 230 immigrants who were safely in the U.S. when Trump became president are locked in that hellhole — and it will be a true Easter miracle if any of them ever make it home alive.

That’s not to say people aren’t fighting.

The LDF has taken up the battle against Trump’s tyranny.

Anti-regime protests are planned all across the country this weekend.

AOC and Bernie Sanders’ roadshow is only getting bigger.

Trump is the most unpopular U.S. president since World War II.

International tourists are abandoning the U.S.

Even David Brooks has joined the anti-Trump / pro-protest brigade.

Let’s keep fighting.