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Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Bill Thiessen

On Good Friday, we attended the annual inter-Mennonite service in Calgary. As we entered Bethany Chapel, a string ensemble was providing a meditative musical prelude. On the platform was a large cross. When the service was to begin, various actors took their places – a woman bystander, a priest, two thieves, a centurion “guarding” the cross and Mary, the mother of Jesus.

A vocalist sang “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” as a thread throughout the service. Appropriate Scripture was read for each segment, followed by music and a dramatization by the various players at the scene. There was no sermon; none was needed, because the message was implicit, pervasive and powerful.

As intended, the service caused me to reflect: Were you there? Was I there?

Was I there as a would-be disciple of Christ who disappeared when the risks became too great? Was I on the periphery as an uninvolved bystander not quite able to make sense of it all? Was I in the crowd, lost in confusion about the Christ whom not much earlier we had hailed with hosannas”? Was I like Mark, the Gospel writer, who was so close that he lost his shirt trying to capture the intense action for a report for the media?

Where was I? Where am I now?

Christ suffers today for and with those who are suffering violence, injustice, hunger, disease and starvation all over the world. He is walking with the afflicted. Where am I today?

I may catch myself criticizing the first disciples for their lack of understanding and for their cowardliness when the going got tough. I may pride myself on knowing more about who Jesus is. I may be inclined to suggest that I would have done better had I been a charter disciple.

I wonder. Am I there when He is being crucified today? When He is being buried? When He rises from the dead? When individuals come to new life in Christ? When He eats a love feast with friends – and former enemies? Am I there with those for whom He died – and for whom He lives?

I wonder: Is there any other way to live?

Bill Thiessen is a former member of the Mennonite Central Committee British Columbia staff.

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Last modified March 30, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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