Were You There?
Matthew 21, 23
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Of course, you were not there. I don’t know you, but I do know that you are living two thousand years after the fact. Yet, even so, the words of this hymn most certainly resonate, I am sure, across the centuries. In your mind, you can imagine the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
But the Gospels you can read fail to reach the depth of horror and despair that we, the followers of Jesus, witnessed that day. Actually, they don’t come even close.
You see, I was there. I was there when they crucified my Lord. I saw it all, from the beginning, the trial that wasn’t really a trial, to the crowd, which was more like a violent mob calling for His death, to the cowardice of Pilate, and to the expressions of pure hatred from our religious leaders.
I saw Him led away to be scourged, and I followed the procession to the hill of execution, outside the city gates. I could not look away as He was nailed to His cross and lifted up from the ground. And I heard the crowd mocking Him, telling Him to “come down” and save Himself.
I saw Him suffer. You cannot imagine how hard that was to watch. But for some reason, I stayed to the end, until He breathed His last. For a time, I, along with the few others of His friends and followers, simply stood there, rooted to the ground in disbelief that the life of Jesus was over. The finality of His death, ending like it did, seemed unreal, and so for the longest time, we just stood there, trying to find some way to take it all in. Finally, we left, His lifeless body, hanging alone in the darkness.
I will never forget that day. The memory of it is etched in my very being, and even though I know, as you do, that Jesus was raised from the dead on Easter morning, the terror of Good Friday has not faded.
But you know all of that, don’t you, even if it’s impossible for you to feel the horror as we did.
I am writing this to you so that I can point out one thing that you might not remember about these events. It’s about the change that I saw in Jesus; yes, the change that so mystified me and others among His followers.
That week, the week that you call Holy Week, started out so well; extremely well, in my opinion.
You see, Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem from Galilee and as the scripture says, the entire city was in an uproar.
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21)
And they welcomed Him with palm branches and their cloaks, as they would a king. But not everyone was so pleased. Not at all and He quickly went afoul of our religious leaders.
You see, Jesus immediately went to the temple and physically threw out the moneychangers, charging that the temple was made for prayer and not for commerce.
Expulsion of the Money Changers
Giotto
Then, as you surely remember, Jesus began to teach in the temple. Every day. And as He did, the crowds grew and the religious leaders became more and more alarmed.
The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!”(John 12)
Opposition quickly mounted. In the temple, He was badgered by Pharisees, scribes and other members of our religious leadership. They tried to discredit Him, to trick Him into opposing Caesar, and to question His authority.
Jesus didn’t back off. In the temple, He called them out:
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them rabbi.” (Matthew 23)
He thundered at them, calling them “hypocrites” and “blind guides” not behind their backs, but to their faces.
The crowds loved it. Jesus could not be tricked, could not be put in a bad light. He preached and taught in a way never heard before, and day by day, the crowds grew.
But in the evenings, alone with us, he lamented:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23)
You know how the story ends. Finally, thanks to Judas the betrayer, they got Jesus alone. He was arrested and by Friday, He was hanging on a cross.
And here is what I want you to remember. It’s easy to miss, so let me point it out.
After a week of growing confrontation, a week in which Jesus seemed to triumph over His adversaries, He changed. He changed from a strong, truth-telling prophet into a quiet victim, neither defending Himself against false charges nor turning the tables, as He had done just days before, against those who sought His death.
My mind could not comprehend it. I was in the crowd as the religious leaders cried for His death, and as Pilate asked Jesus questions whose answers would have cleared the murky charges against Him. The injustice of it all was appalling.
But Jesus did not answer in any way to help Himself. I wanted Him to lash out against His enemies, to call them out for what they were. But He did not. I wanted Him to at least defend Himself in His mock trial, but again, He did not.
And when, finally, He was condemned, I wanted Him to speak, to teach His accusers a lesson they would never forget. But I was disappointed. The opportunity for teaching was lost. Or so I thought.
And so, Jesus went to His cross. The criminal on one side of him ranted and raved about what he called the injustice, and as you remember, he also condemned Jesus for not saving him.
Jesus did not reply to him. But he did speak to the other criminal, the penitent one, who, Jesus said, would be with Him “in paradise.”
I was sure that Jesus lost a great teaching opportunity. His departure from the righteous prophet into a quiet victim was so puzzling to me. It was as if His entire personality changed. What could it mean?
It’s now years later and like you, I can now see these events in the light of Easter. Because now, I can see that, in His crucifixion, Jesus was teaching us, after all.
What have I learned? Mostly, I have learned about the obedience of Jesus. Yes, Jesus obeyed His Father, our YHWH God. As Jesus said, He went as it had “been written,” all the way to the cross. I learned that the night of His arrest, Jesus had asked to be relieved of His fate the next day. But that was not to be and He bowed to the will of the Father.
I learned that even in His painful death, Jesus was all about saving the penitent; that He was not out for revenge against His enemies, even asking God to forgive them.
Jesus accepted His fate. He did not complain, even when He was treated unjustly. We can all learn a lot from that.
He stayed true. Yes, Jesus could have come down from the cross. He had that power. Yet He obeyed His Father even to death on a cross.
So yes, like the song says, I was there. And yes, I did tremble. Actually, I did more than tremble. That day was the worst day of my life. And the final thing I learned is that with our God, the story is never finished until the Light of God shines into the darkness.
What can you learn from the death of Jesus?