Bob Notes...
Bob Notes…
Were you there? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
These words from an old spiritual still make us pause. Sometimes they evoke emotion. Of course, we were not “there” when they crucified the Lord. Not in any sort of physical or rational sense. We cannot physically place ourselves on the road to Golgotha—smelling the dust intermingled with blood. We did not stand there and hear the cries of the criminals being led to their slaughter. Nor did we listen to the wails of the women along the road who were standing up against such a miscarriage of justice. None of us watched in horror as they laid Jesus down onto a cross of wood and began to pound spikes through his wrists and ankles. We didn’t feel the thump of the cross as it was dropped into the hole prepared for it to stand in. We were not there when the crowd hurled insults at Jesus and he responded by saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. We didn’t hear Jesus cry out to God, asking why he had abandoned him. We could not have observed Jesus crying out, “I thirst”, and then watched as a soldier took a sponge dipped in vinegar and pushed it up to Christ’s lips. We didn’t watch in sorrow as Jesus told John to care for his mother Mary. There is no physical manner where we could have had our spirits soar as Jesus turned to the thief on one of the crosses next to him and told him directly, “Today you will be with me in paradise”. And we could not possibly have endured as Jesus said, “It is finished.” We were not there on that dusty April afternoon as Jesus uttered his final sentence, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”. If this weren’t enough, we were not there to hear the captain of the guard utter the words, “Surely this was the Son of God”. Nor were we there as the ground shook, the curtain in the temple split, and the people ran away in horror. No. We were not there. Not physically. This event took place centuries before any of us were born, but these occurrences and the resurrection which followed a few days later changed the world.
As people of faith, the events of that long ago Friday are as real as if we were there. They are at the core of our beliefs concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And so even though we were not there—we were there. We can feel and experience everything that happened that Friday because it was the day that someone else received the punishment for our sins.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? I believe I was. And sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble,, and tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Wishing you a blessed Holy Week and a glorious season of Resurrection!
Pastor Bob