I love the Easter hymn, "Were You There?" I love negro spirituals plus the images that come forward in the song are incredibly moving. Although it's painfully sad, it ends with victory.
Whenever I listened to it, I thought I was the one singing the words, asking others if they were there, if they understood the significance, and wanting to see if they were moved by it all. But I just noticed that the song keeps asking if someone was there when "they" did all these things to Jesus. Who were "they?"
1st Stanza: Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
2nd Stanza: Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
3rd Stanza: Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Who were the they? How could they have been so awful to the kindest, most gentle man the world has ever known? I could see that they had anger on their faces and hatred in their eyes for my Savior. They were awful, horrible human beings with no souls.
But today, when the words were ringing through my head, I asked the question again, "Were you there...?" And this time my heart replied. "Yes, I was there." I was there, but not as a witness.
I was the one that crucified Him. I was the one that nailed him to the tree. And I was the one that laid Him in the tomb.
Then my heart broke and I started to cry. It was me. I was there. Every time I reject Him, doubt Him, fear Him, abandon Him... I am hurting Him as much as those who drove the nails into His hands. To consider myself more virtuous than those who held the hammer is to underestimate the value of Jesus' sacrifice on my behalf.
I think that so many of us distance ourselves from identifying with the physical murderers of Jesus and ask, "How could they do such a devastating thing? What terrible people they were! We would never do such a thing!"
And it's probably true. Maybe we wouldn't have driven the actual spikes into Jesus' hand. But if we are reading the Bible carefully, we'll see that it wasn't the pain of the crucifixion that killed Jesus. It was the weight of our sins. So we are, in fact, the ones that killed Him.
This is a humbling thought to consider but it brings, with it, a desire for repentance. It draws me to my knees to the foot of the cross where I can bring all of me to Jesus and say, "It should have been me on that cross, instead of you. What else can I give you to show you my broken heart? Here, take all of me. I lay it all down."
When I willingly put down my sinfulness, my hands are free to accept His gift. I have the privilege to stand with the redeemed and witness not the crucifixion or the death but the victory, instead. So when we get to the 4th stanza of the song, I'm no longer kneeling, but standing hand-in-hand with His other children and I can say, "Yes, I was there when God raised Him from the tomb!" Everything Jesus experienced was on our behalf. That was our death He died. And when God raised Him up, He raised us up to new life as well.
Were you there for the whole song? Please don't look at only the last stanza. Although it is the cornerstone of our testimony, it cannot be sung without recognizing that we were also there for the previous stanzas. Humility, repentance, offering ourselves, accepting Christ's sacrifice, and then experiencing the new life. It's all part of the same package. It's all part of the same song that we will sing for all eternity.
