‘Binding the Strongman’ — An Easter Warning

By Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.

There’s a strange and sobering warning in the air this Holy Week— a convergence of sacred observance and civic unrest. Across the country, new rounds of protest are planned for Saturday, April 19. Here in San Diego, demonstrators will gather at Waterfront Park and march to the Gaslamp District to protest a wave of executive orders consolidating power in the hands of a single leader. The event is being organized by 5050california.org, under the banner: “Not on our watch—because silence is compliance.”

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday—a day marking Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem amid cries of “Hosanna!” (save us!) and the waving of palm branches under Roman rule. Historically, it was not just a parade, but a protest march that led to his execution by the occupying empire.

This Sunday, April 20, is Easter—a day when Christians celebrate Christ’s resurrection. It is also the final day of Passover, when Jews recall the liberation of an oppressed people. But April 20 is also Adolf Hitler’s birthday, still marked by white supremacist and neo-fascist groups. This troubling convergence of symbols—resurrection, liberation, fascist memory— aligns with another political calendar milestone.

“On Day One”, January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border. That action triggered a 90-day period for the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to assess the danger and submit recommendations on invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows the president to deploy military forces within the United States. That 90-day window ends on Easter Sunday.

No one can predict what Trump will do. But his followers interpret his actions through the optics and symbolism of power and providence. His movement has shown repeated disdain for democratic norms—denying due process, undermining free speech, and threatening judicial independence. If the military were activated against immigrants, protestors, or other “enemies,” it would mark not just an abuse of executive power, but a dangerous transition toward authoritarianism backed a military state.

In San Diego—so close to the border and home to many immigrant and refugee communities—the implications are immediate. Many vulnerable residents are living in fear. Others are watching their retirement savings erode under the pressure of punitive tariffs.

People of conscience are rightly alarmed by a torrent of executive actions concentrating power in the hands of a so-called strongman.

As a retired pastor, theology professor, and church historian, I believe a political reading of one of Jesus’s most poignant parables is warranted: “No one can enter a strongman’s house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman.” (Mark 3:27)

This Holy Week, we must ask: Who is the strongman now? And what powers must we resist in Jesus’s name?

In context, to “plunder” is to liberate and restore what has been taken. The “goods” represent communities and lives captured by systems of domination and fear. Traditionally, the strongman is interpreted as Satan. But theologians like Walter Wink (Engaging the Powers) and biblical scholar Ched Myers (Binding the Strong Man) interpret the strongman as a political figure—a metaphor for imperial authority, embodied in emperors like Caesar.

Today, the strongman sits in the White House, surrounded by a weaponized team. As David Brooks recently wrote in The Atlantic, the Trump administration is “destroying any institution or arrangement that might check the strongman’s power.”

The time has come to bind the strongman—legally in the courts, politically in Congress, socially through protest, and spiritually through prayer.

As a resident of Point Loma and church member in Ocean Beach, I feel both the tension and the hope of this crisis moment. On Good Friday, the Peninsula Faith Leaders will lead a peaceful, prayerful Pilgrim Walk along historic “Church Row” between St. Peter’s By the Sea and Resurrection Church OB (from Noon and 2pm on Sunset Cliffs Blvd.) —not as a protest or a parade, but as a demonstration of spiritual unity, community, and presence.

For me, Palm Sunday’s praise leads to Good Friday’s prayer walk, and into Saturday’s protest. Before I celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday, I will march with fellow San Diegans downtown. I will carry a sign that reads:

“Bind the strongman before it’s too late — Mark 3:27.”

Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D. is a Church historian, practical theologian, and member of the Point Loma/Ocean Beach Peninsula Faith Leaders. Author of *C. S. Lewis on Scripture* and co-editor of *Spiritual Direction* and other books by Henri Nouwen.