Were You There

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.(Gal. 2: 19-20 NRSV)

This Sunday is Jazz Sunday. We will be singing a variety of spirituals including “Were You There.” Were You There when they crucified my Lord? This song about the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord is perhaps the most beloved and provocative of all African American spirituals. It is a potent reminder every Easter season of the wounds received on our behalf, of the life given up, of the victory over the grave. Through the words of this song, the confines of time evaporate in our encounter with the cross. We are taken to that bleak scene at Golgotha and made to feel the press and hear the shouts of the unsympathetic crowd. We are made to hear the ringing of the hammer, to witness the thirst and the agony, and to shudder at the thrust of the sword. We are brought to our knees and made to week over the lifeless body of the Lord of Life as he is laid in the tomb. Were you there?

What a question this is. If you were there, what was your capacity? Bystander? Instigator? Rabble rouser? Friend? Protester? Where was your heart in those moments? What became of your hopes? Oddly enough, no one can escape these questions. It does not do to claim “I wasn’t even born yet. How could I have been there?” What the slave originators of this song are saying is that all humankind was gathered at the foot of that cross on that day. It was a moment out of time, a moment upon which all human history turns. We all participate in the mystery of those holy days because they were accomplished for us. So, were you there?

From My Soul is a Witness, The Message of the Spirituals in Word and Song, by Marsha Hansen

Were You There?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they pierced him in his side?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when he rose up from the grave?

Refrain:
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.