November 10, 2011
Were You There
It’s not unusual to hear people reminisce about being at, or involved
in, historical events like Woodstock, the Berkley riots or hurricane Katrina.
Their reflections on the situation stir different emotions such as pride, loss,
shame or grief. The old hymn Were You There asks, ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord…when they nailed Him to the
tree…when they laid Him in the tomb?’ I love the way this hymn brings me to
the foot of the cross. However, the prequel to the cross shows us the crowd who
gathered before Pilate chose the prisoner Barabbas over Jesus for release. I
can easily put myself at the foot of the cross, but it’s more difficult to put
myself in the crowd gathered before Pilate. Were you there…
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I wasn’t at Woodstock, or the Berkley riots, or in New Orleans when Katrina raged. And although I’ve been to a rock concert (one was enough), I’ve never been near a riot or inside a flooding city. So I know the specifics of none of these. And even if I would have been there at any of them, I would only have perceived the specifics in a “Steve Corey” way and drawn “Steve Corey” conclusions from those experiences, although that way would have been generally similar to the ways everyone else perceived them and my conclusions generally similar to theirs too. There is a lot to be said for the uniqueness of individual stirrings within a sea of human nature, but general human nature is a quite useful vehicle for going places you’ve never been.
-----I have often placed myself in that mob at Pilate’s door. I’ve thought for sure my voice would ring out for the release of this greatest of men. I might have even stood a few feet ahead of the crowd, separated, and challenging any having enough courage in the crowd to come and encourage Pilot to do what he was thinking right to do. But what reality would such bravado have there with a heart and mind full of the rest of Jesus’ passion, His resurrection, ascension, all the promises He gave and words He taught and the historical acts of His Apostles in that early church and those actions of mankind’s uncomfortable stirrings from sharing this tiny cottage of an earth with the actions of Christ’s supernatural church for two-thousand years as the fodder of my ponderings for the most of my fifty-seven years? A person is made of what he thinks. So I would not have stood apart from that crowd. I wouldn’t have shouted a word opposite theirs. My mind would have been made only of experiences similar to theirs and of the same culture as were theirs. So, in as much as I am a human made of human nature, and human nature was there in all those that day, generally speaking, I was there doing what they were doing.
-----But I don’t have to place myself at the cross that afternoon. I was specifically there. I get angry at people when getting angry is wrong. Many would be surprised at my vocabulary of four letter metaphors! I call politicians the fowl names they deserve rather than forbearing their vanity. I lay and watch TV when I should be washing a floor. And I’ve done worse in the past. I probably won’t do a whole lot better in the future. I know my righteousness is as filthy rags and that presently these things I have done, am doing, and will do are part of the flesh my spirit must forbear. Every specific misdeed of mine was actually there at the cross falling upon Christ as the reason He must die, each one attached to a little tag saying, “Please forgive!” I was there actually, more than just in human nature. I was there in the substance of the specific bad Steve Corey is. Every one of us was there in every last thing we have done which by the most slightest scrutiny misses the mark of goodness. I don’t know about you, but knowing this, His welcome makes me feel pretty close to Him.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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