Just asking...
“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”
Those are the opening words of an extraordinary gospel song, first sung by African American slaves, bringing to mind the death and resurrection of our Lord. But more than bringing to mind. Shaking us to the core. “Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble…”
“Were you there?” Immediately the question draws me in, inviting me to consider what I’ve witnessed. In a dark night, a falling star leaves a sparkling trail as it burns in the earth’s atmosphere and my impulse is to turn to someone near me to ask if he saw what I just saw. How much more so this one who, for a short while, has shed light into my personal darkness? This one I have come to know as “my Lord.” Crucified. Extinguished. “Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble…”
Were you close enough to hear and see for yourself “when they nailed him to the tree?” Did you hear the solid thud of the hammer on the head of the nail? Did the finality strike you too? Did it all seem to swirl around you, the sound of wailing women, the folds of his robe taken in hand by someone who thought he’d just won a bet? Does the sheer injustice of it cause you to tremble, tremble, tremble?
“Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?” Getting it done quickly. Too quickly. Promising each other that they’d return and make it right somehow. Not knowing how they would keep that daring promise. Outwitted, out numbered, out of options. Outcasts. Were you there? Did you tremble?
And, Glory, Glory, amazing sight! My Lord and my God! Were you there when he rose up? Did you hear your name? Did you reach for him? Touch his hands? Recognize him when he blessed the evening bread? Or stoked the charcoal fire on the beach until sparks flew into the dawning sky? Were you there when he asked, do you love me, do you love me, do you really love me?
Does it cause you and I to tremble?
Perhaps the most troubling word in this song is “sometimes.”
And yet, we who are the “sometimes” sort are nevertheless redeemed by an “always” God.
Oh…Sometimes that truth alone is enough to cause me to tremble!
"Much Grace..." Pastor Shirley
