The Rev. William J. Barber II joins in song at the conclusion of a news conference held by the state NAACP at Davie Street Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, N.C., on May 15. (D.L. Anderson for The Washington Post).

GOLDSBORO, N.C. — It’s Easter Sunday at Rev. Williams Barber’s small church in Goldsboro, and Barber is sharing the Apostle Luke’s description of Christ’s final days. Jesus died for our sins, he says, but he was executed for sedition. The Romans killed Christ because he refused to bow to Caesar’s oppressive political system.

Then Barber, an imposing 6-foot-2 with the frame of the high school football player he once was, quickly pivots from Jesus to present-day politics.

“Caesar may be dead, but the spirit of Caesar is still alive,” he says, “Because oppression still lives and hate still lives and racism still lives and meanness still lives and injustice still lives.”

You can see it, Barber tells his parishioners, when politicians “commit the sin of taking health care from the sick so that they can give tax cuts to the greedy, knowing that thousands will die unnecessarily.”

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