The President Points to Jesus, So Why Am I Conflicted?

Is it acceptable to admit I’m conflicted? In our polarized society, it may not be, but I am. I’m talking about the president’s Easter Declaration and feel utterly conflicted about it.

I want everyone — including the president — to believe in Jesus. I also think it is admirable when Christians are public about their faith. If a president is a believer, I’m thankful if he uses the platform, much as I am when a Christian athlete will at a moment of achievement.

President Trump’s declaration released this week contains a beautiful summary of the significance of the events of Holy Week, using his platform in such a way. It might be the clearest summary any president has put out. That much I am thankful for.

The statement is in sharp relief to President Biden’s handling of last Easter, when he allowed the “Transgender Day of Visibility” to overshadow observance of the Resurrection at the White House. Given numerous other LGBTQIA+ events at the White House, Biden’s move appeared incredibly dismissive of the most holy, important Christian holiday.

So, why do I find myself conflicted? Shouldn’t I be overjoyed that the President “preached an Easter message […] more clear than many pastors preach from the pulpit,” as Franklin Graham put it?

You know what is said about what is in the details of things. The athlete who points to heaven every time he hits a home run or scores a touchdown, but off the field is known as a repulsive teammate, is doing more harm than good by his “testimony.”

Yes, I want a faith-filled alternative to last year’s presidential focus on something other than Easter on Easter. But, the alternative I yearn for is a focus on the humble Servant who died for our sins, not the promotion of Christendom’s power. Focusing away from Jesus troubles me, but so does putting the focus on Jesus in a way that strays far from His example.

Between the admittedly poignant summation of Jesus overcoming death for us and closing emphasis on “His love, humility, and obedience,” this week’s White House statement seems to miss the point of that love, humility and obedience. Jesus didn’t suffer so our earthly foes would have to respect us, but so that we could see them become heavenly family by His transforming love.

The declaration’s middle speaks of “defend[ing] the Christian faith in our schools, military, workplaces, hospitals, and halls of government.” Early Christians understood that following Jesus meant living humbly by His example. Here, instead, we see the modern Christian’s inclination towards self-serving desires, a bias we’ve digested from the broader society. Instead of giving ourselves for others, like Jesus, it speaks of defending what is ours from others.

Of course, I don’t want to be persecuted, just as I’d rather a president speak of the Savior on Easter instead of a current cause célèbre. But, there is an irony in using the commemoration of Jesus laying down His rights for us as a platform to demand things for ourselves.

The declaration feels far more an example of reaching for the Power of Christendom than submission to the humble scandal of the Cross. Christendom for centuries fused the might of crowns with the trimmings of Christianity, but regularly forgot Jesus’s words in Mark 10:43-45:

But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (ESV)

There is a further irony when we not only make asserting our rights preeminent, but do so while actively eschewing others’. Consider the parallel hailing of Jesus’s compassion and celebrating a deportation of a sojourner that the Administration admits was by mistake. Kilmar Abrego Garcia may very well turn out to be an evil man. Still, the Bible is always emphatic that ends never justify means: justice rightly and carefully administered is God’s way. To ignore someone’s rights, in defiance of a unanimous Supreme Court order no less, while fretting about what we as Christians are entitled to, is indeed a bitter irony.

The proclamation goes on to say, “We pray that America will remain a beacon of faith, hope, and freedom for the entire world.” But again, when sharing a testimony, we ought to make sure we are doing our best to live it and the very day the White House issued this statement, the president again excused the tyrant Vladimir Putin, this time as he killed Christians celebrating Palm Sunday. The president even used that disaster — perpetrated against innocent people, even innocent people of the faith he pledged to protect — to repeat his accusation that Ukraine is at fault for being invaded.

None of us are perfect. I know I am not and my confession of faith is often out of sync with my other words and actions. If we wait until a president is a perfect follower of Jesus before he shares his faith, no president ever would. I get that.

But, when one’s very public actions — actions one wants to trumpet, even — are contrary to the likewise public confession of faith, I struggle. From asserting tariffs should be used to make people give us “proper” respect to treating the victims of Russia’s war with Ukraine as somehow guilty to acting outside the law in the manner by which enforcement of immigration law is handled, the Administration has chosen a very different public persona than “we want to love and be humble like Jesus.”

If we understand Holy Week rightly, we praise God precisely because we receive what we don’t deserve. Everyone of us deserves far worse than an El Salvadorian Maximum Security Prison, but God took on death so we instead sit at the King’s table as Sons and Daughters of the Living God. That’s why Christians are charged with giving others more than they deserve, not constantly weighing what we deserve.

To the president’s credit, as the leader of a nation, it is his duty to protect that nation. The Bible tells us God intends for those in authority to watch over those with whom they are entrusted.

I could list an array of ways President Biden fell short, but neither he nor his supporters spent much time attempting to cast him as a Christian leader. On the other hand, President Trump and those supporting him see him as wearing that mantle. To seek to be a Christian leader is to submit to a higher standard (James 3:1). Christian leaders need to seek Christ’s humility, not the world’s power; Christ’s suffering, not worldly success.

The Christian leader should not cultivate “us vs. them,” playing loose with others’ rights while constantly demanding one’s own. Christian leadership encourages people to show God’s light to the world, but we cannot do that while constantly speaking badly of all those whom we ought to show that light to. Nor can we hail God’s freedom effectively, while demeaning those fighting for the freedom to live and worship our God, whether they be in Ukraine or anywhere else.

Even the best Christian leader fails, but the key is whether we admit our failures or justify them. President Trump is famously averse to apologizing and that is where the mix of error and proclamation of the Gospel ends up becomes disquieting. Remember what a true man after God’s own heart did when he was wrong? King David acted horrifically at times in his life, but he also repented unreservedly,

Against you — you above all — I have sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. So you are just when you confront me; you are right when you condemn me.

We are meant to live humbly and repentantly. The most beautiful testimony the president could give on Holy Week or any other is not a triumphant defense of Christians’ rights, but a vulnerable confession that he — like all of us — has fallen short and throws himself at the mercy of the One who abandoned His rights for us.

The declaration ends with a pledge to “protect […] God in our public square” and, indeed, if God needed protecting, the strength the statement projects would be far more logical than the “weakness” of repentance. But, as Paul wrote, “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”

God does not need our protection. Holy Week reminds us that we need His. Thanks be to Him that He gave up what he deserves so we would receive what we do not.