Isaiah 50:1–9, Philippians 2:5–11
The lectionary readings for Palm Sunday, preparing us for the Passion of Jesus, remind us of God’s solidarity with those who suffer and are marginalized, and remind us that God’s solidarity always comes with vindication.
The prophet Isaiah begins with a description of suffering and humiliation:
“I gave my back to those who struck me
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting” (50:6)
Yet this humiliation turns almost immediately to vindication and confidence because God is present in it:
“The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand in court together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?” (50:8–9)
What does this have to do with Migration With Dignity? We are, at this moment in America, in a time when migrants are faced with humiliation, suffering, incarceration, and vulnerability to the powers of death because of hostility on the part of our government. Deaths in immigration custody have reached record numbers.
Jesus promises his identification with those who are incarcerated, sick, tortured, and suffering (Matthew 25:35–46). He shows this identification, with what theologian of liberation Ignacio Ellacuría called “the crucified peoples of the world” in his own body through his Passion where he “humbled himself and become obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8).
Jesus himself is present in detention camps and ICE processing centers where migrants are held in inhumane and torturous conditions. The death-making places of our world are the place of Jesus’ cross.
But if Jesus is present with detained and criminalized migrants, he is present as God with the promise of vindication and justice. As Isaiah writes, “It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?” (50:9) When the powers of our world declare migrants to be criminals or lawbreakers for crossing the border in search of a better life, what does God say? God does not declare guilty those who seek safety by migrating. God stands on the side of the stranger and sojourner.
Migrants face danger and humiliation, just as Jesus did in the week of his Passion. God is with them, and God’s presence always brings vindication. The vindication of God is the promise that ALL shall live with the dignity due to their humanity and Christ’s presence with them. We may not see vindication yet, just as Jesus went to the cross. But the presence of God is the promise of vindication and justice. Take heart: the God who vindicates the sojourner is near.
Hannah Bowman is a member of the Episcopal Migration Caucus who lives in Los Angeles, the founder of Christians for the Abolition of Prisons, and the author of Abolition Ecclesiology: A Spatial Theology for a Church Against Prisons (forthcoming from Fortress Press in November 2026).