LENT - WEEK OF MARCH 27, 2022

WEIGHING OUR ANSWERS

Each of the articles in this resource reflects on a piece of music to explore the meaning of the Cross and the Resurrection.

"Were You There" - Three Mo' Tenors

"Were You There"

Were You there

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 the sun refused to shine?

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

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?

A Traditional Spiritual

WEIGHING OUR ANSWERS Study Questions

• How does reflecting on the origin of “Were You There” impact

the way you hear, receive, or sing the song?

• Though Jesus’ disciples had fled (Mark 14:43–52), faithful

women were there as Jesus journeyed to Calvary (Luke 23:27),

was crucified, and was buried. Read Matthew 27:45–61. What

is compelling about their example? What does it reveal?

• “Were You There” calls us to deeply remember the Crucifixion.

Jesus asked his followers to do the same; read Luke

22:14–20. Why is this remembrance—whether in taking

Communion or in simple, prayerful contemplation—essential

in our faith and formation?

• Speaking both of Jesus’ crucifixion and the evil of slavery,

David Bjorlin says we’re called to “re-member the past to

the present, to bring these historic events to bear on the now

and make them part of our story.” What might this look like?

• “It brings chills, indeed, to consider the hypocrisy that the

song confronts,” Patricia Raybon writes. Jesus repeatedly

condemned hypocrisy; read one example in Matthew 23:1–33.

Why is religious hypocrisy so abhorrent to Jesus?

• Raybon writes that the song refuses “to let us forget what

happened, and what still goes on in sorrowing places.” How

is God leading you to remember and respond to suffering and

injustice in the world today?

This study is from "The Wondrous Cross: Reflections on Christ’s Sacrifice Drawn from the Songs and Hymns of Easter"