In the Christian Gospels, the gateway to Easter is Palm Sunday. It marks the point when the connection between politics and religious faith became abrasive. The hope in a Saviour centred on Jesus clashed with Roman fears of a popular uprising and the resistance of Jewish authorities to Jesus’ mission. Both power blocs found it expedient that, regardless of the truth of his claims, one man should die to preserve a fragile political and social order.
Seen against this background, it is natural that in many Christian churches, Palm Sunday and the lead-up to Easter are also occasions for remembering and pleading for refugees. Like Jesus, refugees stand at the line where faith meets politics. And where the central story of Easter discredits an inhumane politics.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem unarmed, refugees today seek hospitality in centres of power. And like him, too, they are often perceived as threats, driven off, imprisoned, maligned, and left without resources. They make us ask: what is a human being worth, when stripped of power and connections? For Christians, Palm Sunday and the vindication of Jesus at Easter answer that question. Every human being is worth living and dying for. That is what God has done.
This year, refugees evoke little public sympathy or political interest. They are increasingly seen as competitors for support, housing, employment, and education in a fragile economy. In response, many nations have followed Australia’s lead in refusing them entry, detaining them, or despatching them to inhospitable nations. The United States, a nation built on the contribution of refugees, now leads the world in its animus against them and long-standing immigrants. It has initiated a campaign to send millions of people back to nations where they may face poverty and imprisonment. Many of them have lived and built a life and family over many years in the United States. The effects of this treatment on them cannot be calculated in numbers. Its only measure is human devastation.
In a world where the worth of persons is increasingly measured by their nation of origin, by their wealth and connections, and by their popularity, the effect on refugees throughout the world of such inhumane treatment by the United States is crushing. It subverts the humane vision enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the status of Refugees and the subsequent Protocol, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in the body of international law and agreements. Underlying these documents is the conviction that each human being is precious regardless of race, religion, behaviour and wealth, and so must be respected in in the laws and conduct of each nation. The United States was once seen as a defender of these values.
When power, prejudice and self-interest so nakedly override the respect due to each human being in a nation seen as its defender, the most vulnerable members of society are everywhere left defenceless in the face of closed borders, xenophobia, the withdrawal of funding, rejection, punishment and imprisonment.
In the Christian Gospel the unique value of each human being and the respect due to them is non-negotiable. They rest on the central Christian faith in God’s costly love of sinners and in its consequences for our relationship to one another. The practice of Christians in the Roman Empire embodied this faith. In a world where people fleeing from other towns routinely found the gates shut against them, Christians welcomed and fed them. Where Christian faith is strong such stories of a practical love that scorns harsh laws will always be told.
The week leading to Easter is a time for us to welcome the refugees who have settled in Australia, and especially those from Gaza, the Ukraine, Sudan and other nations where war rages. It is also a time to demand review of the harsh laws that fail to respect the humanity of people who seek protection from persecution.
Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor of Eureka Street, and writer at Jesuit Social Services.