Once again, the mighty fall.

A week ago, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was something of a national hero, a fearless crusader who made his reputation as a prosecutor willing to take on the titans of Wall Street and beat them into submission.

Monday he will officially resign his office, a man who will be forever known as Client No. 9 who was willing to spend more than $4,000 for a tryst with a 22-year-old call girl.

Everyone seems shocked. Even Spitzer's enemies seem shocked. He was brought down, in part, by legal procedures he had instituted and championed.

How can such a thing happen?

Actually, it happens all the time. Politicians are brought down by sex and greed. So are television preachers. So are captains of industry. So are many of the rest of us, who never rose to national prominence but who caused great pain by our own failings.

It happens, I think, because many of the same qualities that lead us to act in the public eye, qualities of courage and willingness to take risks, can lead easily to arrogance and hubris.

It takes a certain kind of courage to stand up in public and challenge a powerful foe. It takes a certain kind of courage to stand up and ask people to vote for you rather than for another. It takes a certain kind of courage to preach a sermon or, for that matter, to write a newspaper column. When you stand up in public, there will be people more than willing to try to bring you back down.

But, others also cheer you on and tell you that you are wonderful. At that point, it is easy to believe you are beyond the petty little rules that bind lesser men — that's arrogance — and it is easy to believe those rules don't apply to you — that's hubris.

I don't know if Jesus suffered from arrogance or hubris but I am pretty sure the powers in Jerusalem thought he did.

Tomorrow, those of us in the Western church celebrate Palm Sunday (Orthodox Christians do so in April this year). Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphal ride of Jesus into Jerusalem as those who followed him laid palm leaves in his path and shouted that he would be king. This certainly caught the attention of secular authorities and of the Roman occupation government.

Then, he went to the Temple, the seat of religion, and started a riot, tipping over the tables of the money-changers, condemning the priests and setting up a healing service.

A week later, the same people who cheered him on Palm Sunday called for his crucifixion.

I expect some of you reading this are gnashing your teeth at the comparison between Jesus and Spitzer. I admit, it is more than a little arrogant to make that comparison.

But if we miss the comparison, we also miss the point of Holy Week, which ends next Sunday on Easter morning. The point of Holy Week is that Jesus, the man Christians believe to be their savior, ended his life in complete humiliation, hanging naked on a cross while those who risked their lives to follow him looked on in shock and agonized dismay.

The resurrection came from God, the Bible asserts, and Jesus had nothing to do with it. He just held on for the ride.

If Spitzer is rehabilitated, it won't come from his own talents, it will come through the love and care of his friends and family.

Contact Bill Wineke at bwineke@madison.com or 608-252-6146. Read his blog at www.madison.com/wsj/blogs.