A Good Friday Reflection
Image of prisoners in Izalco Prison in El Salvador via AP.
Art is “Christ Crucified” by Diego Velázquez (1632).
Today we commemorate the day Our Lord and Savior was executed. He was executed for sins he did not commit. He was executed next to two revolutionaries. Through the 1930s, Black and Brown men and women were lynched in trees. Native peoples were exterminated as our country practiced “manifest destiny.” We can point to many other examples–even those happening today, where the United States looks like the Roman Empire. Jesus was crucified for being a human; for having compassion for sinners, widow, and the orphan. Today we crucify those people. There are approximately 2,100 men and women on death row as of January 2025. We crucify them to act like we are solving the problems. Killing the people on death row does not solve crime. Deporting migrants to prisons in foreign countries without due process will not lower the price of eggs, nor will bombing children in Gaza or Yemen. We are all complicit in Empire.
Our Lord and Savior was killed to maintain power and privilege. Brown children in foreign countries black and brown people on death row, and the destitute were killed today to maintain power and privilege. Our Lord and Savior knows this place. Today many people are executed, as a distraction to the powerful to stay powerful. And while Good Friday might feel like an ending, we know that it is not the end of the story, just as the Empire will not have the last word.
Black Moses is the Call to Action Executive Director. He is based in New Orleans.
