Every Good Friday, whether you are Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist, or UCC, Isaiah 53 will be included in the readings for the day’s worship service. The passage describes the suffering of God’s innocent servant. And though it was written long before Jesus walked the earth, it uncannily mirrors the events of Jesus’s arrest, sham trial, execution and burial. But as I was reading the Isaiah 53 today–especially verse 8–another innocent man came to my mind.
Isaiah 53:8 – ‘The Voice’ translation
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away.
From this generation, who was there to complain?
Who was there to cry “Foul”?
He was, after all, cut off from the land of the living,
Smacked and struck, not on his account,
because of how my people (my people!)
Disregarded the lines between right and wrong.
The innocent man’s name is Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Garcia, a legally protected immigrant, was detained by ICE without cause, condemned without due process, cut off from his family and from legal protection, and buried in a notorious prison (known as CECOT) in El Salvador by the US government that first admitted his deportation was an “administrative error”, then claimed it had no power to find him or extract him, and now claims to have found “proof” of his gang affiliation, justifying his deportation to CECOT. The President of El Salvador has also refused to release him, claiming he is a terrorist.
Despite advocates who have cried, “FOUL!” and despite judges (including the Supreme Court) who have ruled in his favor, he remains–and likely will remain–buried because of the blatant disregard for the law and the lines between right and wrong.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been crushed before our eyes. He is not the only one.
Mahmoud Khalil was accused of terrorism for exercising his right to freedom of speech. His crime was speaking against the genocide in Gaza at Columbia University in New York; He was detained by ICE without being charged of a crime and sent to a Louisiana detention center over a 1000 miles from his legal representative and his pregnant wife–a US citizen. This week, a Louisiana judge ruled that Department of Homeland Security can proceed with his deportation. DHS has claimed that he is a threat to national security.
Jose Barco, a US veteran, served two tours in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart for his heroic actions to save his fellow-servicemen when a bomb exploded. Barco suffered PTSD and a traumatic brain injury from the explosion which was never adequately treated. Following his service, he applied for naturalization–a process that was never completed. DHS tried to deport him to Venezuela, but the country denied him entry. He now sits in an ICE detention center in Colorado while the US government decides what to do next.
Jerce Reyes Barrios, a Venezuelan who followed all the rules to seek asylum, was detained and sent to CECOT without due process, accused of being a gang member solely on the basis of a tattoo and a hand gesture.
Mario René López, a US citizen, has been sitting in a Virginia ICE detention center for 2 years due to legal questions regarding the validity of his citizenship claim.
Every day, innocent people are being harassed and taken away–leaving children without mothers and fathers. Some are disappeared, buried in detention centers and foreign prisons. And few of God’s people are objecting or crying “Foul!” Some even support the lawlessness and the cruelty of these unjust detainments and deportations.
I’ve often thought of the crowd crying out for Jesus’s crucifixion and asked myself, “How could they condemn an innocent man?” I’ve also wondered, “What would I have done if I had been there?” Jesus is being crucified again and again, and we are there.
We need to ask ourselves, “What are we going to do?” Will we disregard the line between right and wrong? Will we be silent? Will we turn away and be complicit through our denial? Will we, like those in Isaiah 53:4, “consider him punished by God, stricken by [God], and afflicted,” not realizing that it is we that have gone astray and that Jesus’s suffering is because of our sin? Or will we cry “Foul!”? God, help us.
Tongue on Fire 