Were you there during Holy Week?

WERE YOU THERE?

The beautiful hymn "My Song is Love Unknown" is often sung in Holy Week. It asks a searching question: "Ah, who am I that for my sake my Lord should take frail flesh and die?"......Who am I? We are told that the daily prayer of St. Francis of Assisi was: "My God, who are you - and who am I?"  Lent is meant to be a "Grounding Experience" in our spiritual lives, paradoxically bringing us down to earth so that we might better seek heaven! The bedrock of true spirituality is in that twin question: Who is God?  Who am I?

There's an old folk Spiritual song that asks: "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?"

Listening to the Passion of Our Lord this morning, and then asking ourselves that question can give a more unvarnished answer to "Who am I?" because, to tell the truth we were all there.  Every human emotion is played out in the Passion story, all the psychological complexity of humanity, capable of such goodness, and such badness.

So where do you find yourself in the story?  There are plenty of places to look:

Maybe a face in the crowd overcome with enthusiasm, waving their palms, cheering the celebrity, unsure just who He is; easily moved by public opinion so that Sunday's "Hosannas" can become Friday's "Crucify him!".

Then there's Simon Peter who seems to be Jesus' best friend, but struggles to understand Our Lord.  Peter speaks brave words, can react with sudden violence in defence of his Master, yet in the courtyard will deny Him to save his own skin.

What about Pontius Pilate, the authority figure who is torn between his desire to please his Emperor and the Jerusalem Mob, and at the same time the knowledge that Jesus is an innocent man.  Pilate the cynic, the worldly-wise man who doesn't believe there is such a thing as truth, literally "washes his hands" of the business, yet is personally responsible for a hideous miscarriage of justice.

The women of Jerusalem weep to witness the mindless cruelty of the execution.  They know there's nothing they can do to alter things, and truly weep "for themselves and their children", the helpless victims of life's tragedies who can still find it in their hearts to weep and pray for another suffering human being.

Two thieves also die that day.  One vents his spleen, cursing and reviling Jesus for failing to provide him with an escape route; somehow he typifies many who want God only to solve their problems and take away their pain, and angrily reject God when He doesn't oblige.   The other recognises his own utter emptiness of anything but guilt and just condemnation.  He turns to the innocent One, asking only "Jesus, remember me".

What of Our Mother Mary, stunned and silent at the foot of the Cross, her heart pierced through with sorrow's sharp sword?  How could her soul "glorify the Lord" for what she now witnessed?  What did it mean to rejoice in God her Saviour as her beloved Son died so terribly?  Maybe for you too that God who once seemed so close, whose touch brought such joy, now seems as remote as a far-distant Galaxy.

Simon of Cyrene helps in spite of himself.  He'd far rather not get involved, he feels no enthusiasm for his task and perhaps little satisfaction afterwards, and yet he helps Jesus with the weight of his cross. 

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus have a lot to lose in associating themselves with Jesus, far more than many others who have turned, looked away, run away.  People of principle and conviction, they will stand their ground in the face of an opposing tide of public opinion.  In the perennial struggle between good and evil, every just cause will be theirs too.

Were you there?  Oh yes, without doubt you were, just as I was.  So who are you in the story?  It's a hard question because one can so easily find elements of one's own character, good and bad, in so many of the cast.

This Holy Week is not just a commemoration of an historical event, much more than that, it is a call to discover our true selves with and in Jesus.

Who is God........who am I?

"And can it be that I should gain

An int’rest in the Saviour’s blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain?

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

(Charles Wesley)

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