The Cross on the Horizon

Cast of The Passion - Thursday, April 4 & Friday, April 5, 7 PM at Franktown UMC

There’s an old spiritual that we sing during Holy Week in the church. It asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the cross? Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

It seems like a rhetorical question and it seems like the answer ought to be ‘no, of course not!’ How could we have been there? This story that we’ve heard…it may be powerful…I might have heard it many, many times in my life…it might feel like it has a claim on me…but, was I there? No. Jesus’ death is something that goes back centuries before I ever came along. I wasn’t there.

But we don’t keep telling this story because it makes great history or great theater – even though it does. We keep telling this story because you were there. We keep telling this story because it’s our story, too.

How were we there? Maybe you were there as Peter. You remember Peter, the impetuous one. Peter was the one who was quick to say, “I’m with you, Lord!” Peter will get out of the boat for you, first to leave his nets and his fishing career, and then to walk on water. He’s the one who says, “We know who you are, Jesus. You are the Messiah!” He’s the one who says, “If I have to go to prison, I’m with you, Lord. If I have to die with you, I’m with you.” And he’s the one who finds himself with a cold feeling even as he stands by the courtyard fire. The third denial on his lips as the rooster crows.

Maybe you were there, too. Finding your faith wanting when hard times came. Thinking you had it all under control. That you were the strong one. That you could do it on your own…until you couldn’t. Did you really need Jesus or were you just trying to prove you could make it by yourself? Yes, you were there. And Jesus was praying for you just as Jesus prayed for Peter. “Peter, I have prayed for you that your own faith will not fail, and you, once you have returned, strengthen your brothers.” He knew what you were like.

Or maybe you were there as one of the women on the way to the crucifixion. Fixated on the suffering of Jesus. Weeping for his pain. Not able to see what it meant. Just thinking, “If I can just take away some of his suffering. If I can just relieve his pain.”

But Jesus knows that they are blinded by the moment. “Daughters of Jerusalem!” he says. “Don’t weep for me, but for yourself and your children. If they do this while the wood is green…while I’m still here…what will it be like when the wood is dry…when there is no escaping the effects of the world’s brokenness. Don’t cling to the pain, women. Look for the life.”

Are you blinded by the pain in your life? Do you think that’s where you’re going to find life? Or do you need to let it go to focus on where you can find life? Maybe you were there as the women.

Or maybe you are convinced that you’re no good. That there’s no use in pretending. No use in fighting the demons. Maybe you were there as Judas.

Or maybe you just don’t want to get involved. Jesus is alright as long he doesn’t affect my position, my comfort, my family, myself. There’s plenty of Pilates in the world.

But there is one other way that you were there. You were there on the cross. Because this person who was God, who gave himself over to the worst that the world could do to him, who emptied himself and became as vulnerable as a human can be…this was the one who stood in for every one of us and for the world. Here on the cross was a life poured out…and a life that is now ours to claim.

Look at the cross and what do you see? Someone who looks just like us because he was us. Flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. With no claim to anything majestic. In the end, with no possessions, no help, no hope except in the God who does not abandon us, but walks with us. This is where our hope is. This is where you are…where I am. We were there.

So yes, this week there is a cross on the horizon. But it’s not an old, old story. It’s your story and at the end of it is a life more abundant than any you can imagine. For you and for the world. And here’s the best news – you were there, and Christ is here. Thanks be to God.