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Good morning. It was a clear foul, but one the referee failed to spot, and in moments the ball was 30 yards upfield. The guilty party grinned sheepishly, and we on the front rows grinned back. He was one of ours, a Salford City player. Had an opposition foul gone undetected, we would have shouted our anger, badmouthed the officials, and booed the offender thereafter. But we’re not neutral. We choose a side. That human instinct to see one side as “ours”, and back them whatever the merits, has echoed through many news stories since my weekend football game. It’s there in the disbelief of Russian citizens that “our troops” could be responsible for deploying tactics of rape and civilian murder in Ukraine. It was there in me, when I tried to find reasons to discount a story of a group of captured Russian soldiers being shot in cold blood. Nor is it new. Margaret Thatcher would reputedly enquire as to whether a politician was “one of us”. So, it hasn’t surprised me that, as Partygate returned to the headlines, commentators have divided between the forgive and condemn camps, not on the merits of the lawbreaking by a Prime Minister and his Chancellor but mainly on the basis of party loyalty. I wonder how many of the headlines in daily newspapers would have swapped places had the miscreants been ministers of a different political hue. On the morning of the first Good Friday, Pontius Pilate, Roman Governor of Judea, offered the festive crowd, a chance to show their own loyalties. Which of two prisoners should be pardoned, Jesus of Nazareth or Barabbas, a captured participant in a failed rebellion. Local leaders urged for the latter. After all, Barabbas was “one of us”, a freedom fighter; a man whose loyalties lay with those of ordinary citizens. By contrast, Jesus seemed to challenge everyone, he didn’t belong in any clear camp. Released by popular acclaim, Barabbas stepped out into freedom, to be promptly swallowed by the mists of history. By midday, the man from Nazareth was nailed to a cross. For two thousand years, interest groups have sought to recast Jesus in their own image, to make him “one of us”: from proto-communist to upholder of kingly rights; from political agitator to gentle shepherd. Yet he will pledge loyalty to no such cause. Instead, he shines a light on all our petty, party prejudices, inviting all who wish to follow him to revisit and question their loyalties. Which is why, across Britain and beyond I, and many others, will be doing just that today, as we remember the first Good Friday. Happy Easter!