Where You There?

And the women also, which cam with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
Luke 23:55-56 KJV

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble! Were you there when they crucified my Lord?Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb? Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb? O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble! Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Were You There? Traditional spiritual

This favorite hymn comes from the rich American spiritual tradition, probably developed in the early 1800s by African-American slaves. As in most spirituals, the words are simple, seizing on one central theme or concept.
Spirituals tend to have a lot of emotional appeal. As a result, this hymn, like few others, puts the singer there. We experience the "tremble" as we sing it. And in the triumphant final stanza, we experience the glory of a risen Lord. We are called out of the cold analysis of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection into the moment of living it. We are called out of the theological debate and into the stark reality. We hear the nails pounded into the cross, we see the onlookers wagging their heads, we smell the burial spices, and we feel the rumble of the stone rolling away. And we tremble… tremble… tremble.
adapted from The One Year® Book of Hymns by Mark Norton and Robert Brown, Tyndale House Publishers (1995).