When we remember major events, we almost always associate it with where we were when we first heard about it.  For example:  The assassination of JFK (I was in the college bookstore my junior year of college).  The attack on the Twin Towers in New York (I was leaving a calculus class and was told about it by the incoming class).  The attack on Pearl Harbor (I’m not quite that old).  Don Larson’s perfect game in the World Series (more people remember being there than Yankee Stadium holds, but I read about it in the paper).  The association with place more strongly fixes each event in our minds.

            The moving Afro-American spiritual “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord” asks a similar question, and the Gospels give us a fairly good answer as to who were the believers that were present: many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee; among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary of Clopas, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome (the mother of James and John, not the evil princess).  The Gospel of John gives the only mention of a disciple (or male believer) present, “the disciple whom He loved.” 

            Each verse of the hymn asks a question of place. The four verses of the first published version (1899) ask: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”; “Were you there when they nailed Him to the cross?”; “Were you there when they pierced Him in the side?”; and “Were you there when the sun refused to shine?”  Most current hymnals either add or replace verses with “Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?” and “Were you there when the stone was rolled away?”

            Of course, since none of us could have been there, the questions are rhetorical.  They are meant to associate a place in our minds with our memories of what we’ve heard about the crucifixion.  Some of us have been to Jerusalem and seen the purported site, but even if we haven’t, the hymn’s images of the place still strengthen it in our minds, hearts and souls.  The beauty of the music itself makes the impact even stronger.

            Please listen to the hymn, if only by recalling it in your mind, and let it refresh your memory of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. This is proof of his unconditional love for US.

Jim