The Gospel of Matthew & MAGA: Part 1

From the Gospel of Matthew, a two-part series

I will be writing from the book of Matthew as part of a two-part essay. Today, I will focus on what is happening in American history and how that parallels with Jesus and the crucifixion, and the following Sunday, I will focus on what Jesus tells us to do about it.

Matthew 26:3, 47, and 55 tell us:

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”....

47 While Jesus was still speaking [in the garden of Gethsemane], Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people…

55 [and] Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me.

Jesus as protestor

From these passages and the stories leading up to it, we know that what Jesus had been teaching, preaching, and performing had resonated with thousands. We know that Jesus was born Jewish and was raised in the temple where He studied the texts and traditions of His faith and the faiths of thousands and that in his studying and praying, He spoke and acted against the religious legalism of Sadducees, whom He recognized were not acting in accordance with the words and texts that they preached. The Sadducees were the Jewish aristocracy that was friendly with the Roman Senate, they were the ones who called the shots, along with the Pharisees, another Jewish sect. Let us be clear that Jesus didn’t have a problem with the Jewish faith, He took issue with how the faith was used to marginalize and divide by the elite bureaucracy within the faith.

We know He had spoken out against the tyrannical and deified politicians and rulers of the Roman elite and oppressors of the marginalized. He denied that any Roman senator or god was the true king and instead uplifted God as the king of all. He did not preach on anarchy or the riddance of law or government, he preached on the abuses of the law and government by those in power.

What Jesus said and did resonated with thousands who felt their religious faith leaders were lacking, who felt their political leadership was corrupt, and who felt their earthly sufferings were hopeless and inevitable. Jesus wasn’t a proponent of anarchy or anti-Semitism or anti-religion. By going out into the world to heal and preach to those in need and to speak out against tyranny, Jesus was in fact, an unarmed rebel of the abuses and corruption of the State and religious institutions.

And he would be mocked and killed for it.

The mockery and crucifixion of Jesus

Matthew 27:27-44 tells us,

As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.

Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

We should expect this response and pushback

When we live a life of service and place ourselves amongst the marginalized people in the capitalist, white supremacist, evangelical world, it will upset those who are either benefitting from that world or are striving for status or success in that world. If we advocate, defend, or spend time with those who don’t fit the status quo, we will be called ‘snowflakes’ and ‘crazy liberals.’ When we speak out against tyrannical faiths or politics, we are called ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘heretics.’

These modern approaches and insults are not that different from what Jesus and His followers endured. As the message of Jesus spread, as the power of truth gained traction, those who had more to lose pushed back on Jesus and his people.

American History

The United States, as a secular, democratic country, is the world’s greatest experiment. Nowhere else was this form of government even a concept. The right to vote and the prevention of a religious ruler were all considered under our Founding Fathers, who fought wars in the face of religious and royal tyranny. Since its founding, America has had to reckon with the women, queer, and people of color who also wanted a democratic, secular state, and in 1919 and 1965, two legislative acts passed that would give women and people of color the right to participate as full citizens in America. That was expanded to Natives in the 1970s and to queer marriage in 2015. Since 1919, and again in the 60s and 70s, and another wave in the late 2010s and teens, America took history’s greatest experiment and held it to its own vision. You wanna be a democratic, secular state? Then that better apply to women and the marginalized. And we did! We made huge, sweeping social progress that world history has never seen before.

Pushback as Response

We became icons for other nations, we became ‘the defenders of democracy’, the nation of religious pluralism. We even had a Southern Baptist president reject prayers and Bibles in public schools, RIP Jimmy Carter. Who were we to think we could achieve these wins without stepping on the toes of those who held power and status? Who were we to think our own Roman elite, our own Christian evangelical Pharisees, wouldn’t fight back?

While we look to this presidency and Project 2025 as a leadership of horror, let me remind you that they would not have pushed back this hard if we hadn’t been successful. They wouldn’t have yelled and hollered this loudly if we didn’t get under their skin. They wouldn’t have organized so diligently if what we were doing wasn’t working. They wouldn’t mock us if we weren’t something real to be mocked. We wouldn’t upset them if our mission lacked real substance. They wouldn’t defend if there wasn’t so much to be lost. And they wouldn’t turn violent unless they were really scared.

The Death of Jesus

Matthew 27:45 and 65 tells us:

45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” And when Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit…

65 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Let us push back

So they will try to kill our movement. but you cannot kill the truth. You cannot erase what is righteous, what is just, and what is true. You can only end lives, but you cannot kill what is eternal. And what is more eternal than the truth?

Since the 1960s and 1970s, the Religious Rights Movement has been hard at work in organizing and strategizing its allies to push back on the loss of power they have experienced in our pluralistic society. But isn’t that what our Founders intended? For there to be no singular power, only the power of the people? Isn’t the loss of a Christian-ruled nation a hedge against the violence of the Crusades, British colonialism, Native genocide, women witch hunts, and queer and black lynchings? Was it not the Vietnam draft that called up all Americans – women, queer, people of color – to defend democracy and the aim of winning a war? If these diverse folks were called upon to die for our nation, they should be able to exist in its borders peacefully and democratically.

Let us speak out

And here, this week, on the same day we celebrate the work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, we will watch his anti-thesis swear-in on the Bible. We should not see this as a slight to Rev. Dr. King, but as a testament to how deeply his words have influenced our nation. If his words didn’t matter, if they didn’t actually advance our society, those who elected this president would not have been so upset. Someone’s legacy isn’t restricted to those they helped, but to those who would push back.

If we want to honor our Constitution, let us push back against those who would defile it. If we want to honor Jesus, then let us follow Him and speak out against religious oppression and legalism.

Critiquing Christian religious rule and American political leaders is not unpatriotic, nor is it heretical. It’s what Jesus and our Founding Fathers did and intended.

It will be dark

This presidency will be dark, dark like both the afternoon of Jesus on the cross and in the tomb of Jesus. But let us not forget that His crucifixion made Jesus into a legend, and His resurrection, witnessed and spread by women, gave His story more power than ever before.

Weep, my people. Be enraged. Share these stories. Rest from the fatigue. But do not surrender.

Final thoughts

The truth will always be resurrected. The darkness will always be overcome. The light of truth, the hope of Jesus, is eternal.