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Three days ago, on the day we Christians call Good Friday, the church marked and commemorated the death of Jesus of Nazareth, killed by the Roman governor in collusion with the local religious authorities. He was killed because he was perceived to be a threat to their power, a fact we too often seem to forget. The brutal execution method of crucifixion was regularly used for political criminals.

On this Easter Sunday, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which signifies the ultimate victory and vindication of the way of Jesus — justice, love and peace — over the ways of wealth, violence and power preferred by the rulers who had him killed.

But we easily forget that too in America in the young but pernicious political era of Donald Trump.

Instead, many Christians merely personalize the meaning and message of Jesus — coming to believe that to save us from our individual sins, and his resurrection assures our going to Heaven after him.

In the meantime, they believe, we can feel free to ignore or even collaborate with the wealth, power and violence of the state (and, yes, even the church). We can make our private religious wellbeing a substitute for what Jesus called the Kingdom of God that is intended to change the world and us with it.

This radical contrast between private religion and a world-changing new order that Jesus brought to the world is glaringly evident on this first Easter with Trump in the White House.

No shortage of stories this week focused on whether the administration was doing a good job organizing the annual Easter Egg Roll, which has become a hallowed American tradition.

Given the larger and massively important religious story to tell, that was a dangerous distraction. The deeply disturbing fact is that a majority of white Christians in America supported Trump for President. A majority of white Christians voted in favor of his professed support of their “issues” and “values” despite Trump’s lifelong desecration of all the values Jesus stood for.

They voted for him despite his use of bigotry, his appeals to racism, and his blatant misogyny. And now, they continue to lend Trump vital support as he leads a government that contravenes so many Christian values.

Just before the events of Jesus’ Holy Week entrance into the political and religious power center of Jerusalem, He preached a sermon that was absolutely core to his message. In the 25th chapter of Matthew, He says “as you have done to the least of these, you have done to me.”

Jesus said “I was hungry…I was thirsty…I was naked…I was a stranger…I was sick…I was in prison…” That as we have done or not done to the poorest, most vulnerable, and marginal people among us, we have done to him — to Jesus himself — is one of the most radical teachings in the Bible.

The Matthew 25 text dramatically reverses the values and priorities of political and often religious power; it certainly would turn the policies and practices of Washington D.C. upside down.

How can Christian supporters of Trump claim to adhere to Jesus’ clear call when the President’s proposed budget would slash vital programs that make food, housing, heat, health and education available for the poorest and most vulnerable, all while his administration is poised to cut taxes for the richest Americans?

How can they support an administration that would slash critical humanitarian aid to the hungry in countries on the edge of starvation to help pay for massive increases in military spending? How can they justify cutting the health care of millions of people, or threatening to deport and destroy the families of millions of immigrants, or denying welcome to refugees being slaughtered in their home countries, or deepening the unjust and racialized mass incarceration of prisoners?

These are all people specifically named in Matthew 25. How can these Christians not see that these are Easter issues, and that their political savior is acting in direct contradiction to the values of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

Through his entire life, Donald Trump has been a literal worshipper of money, sex and power — a worship directly contrary to the Christian values of simplicity and generosity, commitment and integrity, service and sacrifice. How can Christians reconcile their support for him with the Christian virtues of humility, mercy, grace and love, which are seemingly absent from the life of an arrogant and consummate marketer and dealmaker whose only consistency is relentlessly prioritizing his brand and ego above everything else?

They can’t, and it’s time to stop pretending otherwise.

I remember speaking at an evangelical Christian college during one Holy Week. I asked the students, “Why was Jesus killed?” A long pause followed, indicating that the question was one that had not been thought about much before. Finally, an answer came: “To save us from our sins.”

True enough, as to the result of Jesus’ death and resurrection. But I was asking about the historic and immediate cause of Jesus death. Why was Jesus killed?

It is indeed quite doubtful that the Ro-