Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
This negro spiritual comes at the end of our Good Friday liturgy, and our music director makes that tremble, tremble, tremble really agitated and awestruck, and the ending unspeakably desolate. But of course the whole service is desolation-inducing.
I'm always moved also by the Reproaches, a 10th century penitential litany which someone fairly recently revised. The original Reproaches apparently lent themselves to Christian antisemitism, letting the congregation feel persecuted with Jesus rather than acknowledge their own part in his persecution. It is not just Israel but all of humanity reproached:
O my people, O my church, what have I done to you, or in what have I offended you? Answer me. I led you forth from the land of Egypt and delivered you by the waters of baptism, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Response: Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy upon us
I led you through the desert forty years, and fed you with manna. I brought you through tribulation and penitence, and gave you my body, the bread of heaven, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty...
What more could I have done for you that I have not done? I planted you, my chosen and fairest vineyard, I made you the branches of my vine; but when I was thirsty, you gave me vinegar to drink and pierced with a spear the side of your Savior, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty...
I went before you in a pillar of cloud, and you have led me to the judgment hall of Pilate. I scourged your enemies and brought you to a land of freedom, but you have scourged, mocked, and beaten me. I gave you the water of salvation from the rock, but you have given me gall and left me to thirst, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty...
I gave you a royal scepter, and bestowed the keys of the kingdom, but you have given me a crown of thorns. I raised you on high with great power, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty...
My peace I gave, which the world cannot give, and washed your feet as a sign of my love, but you draw the sword to strike in my name and seek high places in my kingdom. I offered you my body and blood, but you scatter and deny and abandon me, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty...
I sent the Spirit of truth to guide you, and you close your hearts to the Counselor. I pray that all may be one in the Father and me, but you continue to quarrel and divide. I call you to go and bring forth fruit, but you cast lots for my clothing, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty...
I grafted you into the tree of my chosen Israel, and you turned on them with persecution and mass murder. I made you joint heirs with them of my covenants, but you made them scapegoats for your own guilt, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty...
I came to you as the least of your brothers and sisters; I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Heady stuff, consonant with what we learned about ourselves on Palm Sunday, and nicely connected with the ethical mandates of yesterday, Maundy (= mandatum) Thursday. It's so hard to accept our part in abandoning and persecuting Jesus may be the reason he had to come in the first place. Tremble. Tremble.