‘Hosanna!’

This being Holy Week, it might be good to reflect on how those ancient events echo in our own time and how the powerful always seek to crush those who challenge autocracy.

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Jesus was crucified not because of religion, but because he was seen as a threat to the ruling class of Roman overlords and their local vassals.

Passover is the festival of freedom for Jews, a celebration of the Exodus when Jews were liberated from Egyptian slavery. It was not lost on Roman rulers that such an event could become the nexus of a rebellion against their own domination over the land of Judea. Romans were nothing if not quick to stamp out any kind of dissent.

It was, of course, the Sanhedrin council of Jewish elders who demanded that Rome put Jesus to death. They feared he might usurp their religious authority and they convinced the Romans he threatened their power, too.

From that calamitous week 2,000 years ago, a new religion was born. It also set into motion tides of history that are with us still.

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It’s notable that around the time of Jesus’ birth, the Roman Republic, a representative democracy, fell apart and became a dictatorship. Ceaser’s control of a Roman military faction led him to victory on the battlefield against other Roman generals. After he crossed the Rubican and marched into Rome, he became “dictator for life.”

That didn’t last too long, but even after Ceaser was assassinated, his nephew claimed power. The Republic — Roman democracy — was no more.

It was in the early days of the autocratic Roman Empire that Jesus was born and lived. Potential usurpers in Roman territories were seen as a real threat because the Empire itself was based on a tyrant’s rule.

Tyrants are always paranoid, fearful of being replaced or overthrown. That fear drives autocrats to enforce political and cultural orthodoxy. Those who dare disobey face certain retribution.

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A lot has happened in the 2,000 years since the Romans crucified Jesus. In 70 A.D., the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and Jews were expelled from the area we know today as Israel, leading to a 2,000-year diaspora.

With that, the exiled Jewish people scattered all over the world. Often, they were treated horribly, the target of paranoid rumors that led to many Jews being killed.

Much of that happened in Europe where Christians blamed Jews for Jesus’ death. Antisemitism became endemic and epidemic in Western societies, leading to pogroms, the massacre of Jews.

That hatred against Jews led directly to Germany in the 1930s where Hitler and his Nazi regime whipped up a public frenzy against Jews, eventually rounding them up into concentration camps. Millions were systemically murdered.

When the world found out what Hitler and his henchmen had done, there was a groundswell of support for Jews to return to the land of their beginning, and in 1947, Israel was created.

But it wasn’t without bloodshed and controversy. Jewish soldiers pushed out much of the native population from what is today Israel. Now, we call those displaced people Palestinians. Many of the descendants of those forced to leave their homes in 1947 abide a deep hatred toward Israel. From that hatred, Hamas and other terrorist groups have risen.

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In our own country today, we see many threads from these events. On both the far left and far right, antisemitism lives. The left has allied with the Palestinian cause and often fails to distinguish between its hatred of Israeli policies and a hatred of Jews as a people.

But it’s on the right that antisemitism has become a complex monster. The right often gives voice to supporting the state of Israel, while at the same time hating Jews as a people. Right wing Holocaust deniers and their political associates see Jews as an enemy. While not as overt as in the past, this anti-Jewish sentiment is one of the foundations of the modern far right movement in the U.S. and Europe. It lives just beneath the surface.

Also arising from the far-right has been the growth of Christian Nationalism, a movement that seeks to make America a theocracy run only by Christians. That movement threatens Jews, too. The marginalization of other people is a slippery slope which often leads back to a hatred of Jews.

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Now, the new administration says it wants to stamp out antisemitism in the country, especially on college campuses where students have protested the Israeli assault on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

But in the name of fighting antisemitism — a worthy goal — the federal government has crossed the line of both the Constitution and human decency. It has rounded up many legal foreign students who have protested the Gaza conflict. Washington now seeks to deport them, not because of any criminal action, but because they dare challenge authority. The government uses the cover of “antisemitism” as the reasoning for the forced deportations.

But it is not antisemitism to challenge Israeli policy. The truth is, the Israel government and many Israeli settlers have treated the Palestinians horribly, especially in the West Bank. I know, I’ve been there and see it for myself.

That does not justify antisemitism, but it also doesn’t mean that opposing Israeli policy is antisemitic.

While some dismiss these actions as just being against non-citizens, they, too, have a right of free speech, even speech we might disagree with.

One has to wonder when Washington will begin rounding up regular citizens who dare challenge it. What might have seemed inconceivable a few years ago now seems very possible.

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Which brings us back to that first Holy Week 2,000 years ago.

One small man, an unknown at that time, dared to challenge the orthodoxy of his era. After entering the city, Jesus reportedly went to the temple where he found a market. Angry, he ran out the money-changers, flipping tables. In short, he protested.

For that and a fear he might lead a popular uprising, he was rounded up by authorities and executed.

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When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the people shouted “Hosanna!”

Today, the word is a Christian praise.

2,000 years ago, it meant “Save us!”