Food For Thought is a public theology & Bible advocacy blog for Eternity from Sophia Think Tank’s David Wilson, who gathers top Christian thinkers to take a closer look at how the Christian faith addresses matters in society at large every week.

Last week was an interesting day in Canberra. In some ways it was business as usual while in other ways it was extraordinary. Let’s recap: there was an apology to those affected by forced adoptions–a bi-partisan achievement rarely seen in Canberra of late. The National Disability Insurance Scheme was voted into reality, a major victory to those who are affected by disabilities. The day before, there was a significant increase in the Aged pension, a wonderful thing to people who are so often neglected in our thinking and our policy making. A good two-day’s work indeed.

Of course, we know there was some other stuff going on too:a threat to bring down the ALP by one of its own unless there was a leadership spill. The opposition in Parliament tried a leadership spill of its own making. The Prime Minister took things into her own hands and brought about a spill herself. Leadership positions were declared vacant in a Caucus meeting at 4.30 but no-one stood to run against Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan, so the incumbents were elected unopposed. The blood spill continues in Canberra as I write and the Opposition leader plots his next attempt to destabilise the Government in every way so that his move into leadership is even more certain.

Yep, just another day in Canberra. And the people of Australia shake their collective head and move on regardless.  Canberra seems like it’s so far away from the realities of everyday life for everyday Australians. The media is also true to itself in all of this. How much airplay did the Apology, the NDIS and the Aged pension get? Not very much at all. What about the leadership shenanigans? Stacks.

So it was also just another day in media land. And, like Canberra, media land seems far away from the realities of everyday life for everyday Australians. I heard one talkback radio caller say it didn’t matter who won the leadership race in Canberra as it would still be Rupert Murdoch running the country anyway!

One week on, and it’s Easter week. At Easter time we celebrate some really important realities that go almost unnoticed by the majority of Australians.

There was a leadership battle going on in Jerusalem during the events that we celebrate as Easter. The religious leaders were trying to put an end to a young upstart rising in the ranks. His name was Jesus and he was proving to be a major pest.

There was an insider who was used to do some dirty work and the Government of the day was manipulated into action along the lines of political correctness. The up and coming leader was put down and it looked like the Establishment had won. There were congratulations all around.

But a vicious rumour started to fly around that said Jesus had beaten the odds and that he was back again. His followers said you can’t keep a good man down and they were right. Good had won out over evil and the world has been benefiting ever since. 

I guess all leadership battles have their parallels. The real story of Easter is that good has won its battle with evil. Death is overcome by life. No wonder they call it good news. But just as the good news of last Thursday in Canberra was drowned out by things that don’t really matter, the good news of Easter will again be drowned out by bunnies and eggs, holidays and consumerism, busyness. Business as usual. I hope this year the really good news of the ‘Easter leadership battle’ will break through and make a difference where it really matters.

Food for thought.

Image: From 2009. Source: flickr.com/photos/kabl1992/