Were you there?

"Then they sat around and watched Him as He hung there."

Matthew 27:36

The Living Bible

"Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" asks the old spiritual. Rembrandt van Rijn, the famous painter whose great art hangs in the finest galleries of the world, would have answered, "Yes, I was there, too!" In his masterpiece, Descent from the Cross, Rembrandt shows the disciples gently lifting Jesus from the cross, their brows furrowed with anguish and questions. Among the spectators on the dark day, Rembrandt painted his own face, identifying himself with those who were at the Cross.

"Yes, I was there," says Holland’s most famous artist. And my question now is, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" For centuries people have avoided the issue, blaming either the Romans or the Jews for Jesus’ death. The real issue is far more complex than who prompted Pilate to give the order for the crucifixion or what nationalities were represented when the soldiers carried it out.

The real issue is, "What brought Jesus to this point of crisis?" Is there something fundamentally flawed in us all, myself included, which shares in the guilt of those who perpetrated this great injustice? We cannot say simply that His luck ran out. The Cross of Calvary was all part of a grand design which God brought about, correcting something inside our old nature which is badly flawed and corrupted.

Either I am merely the product of evolution and answerable to nobody higher than myself, or I was created in the image of God–which means that not only am I responsible for my choices but I am also accountable to my Creator. This changes everything radically.

Yes, there are theological implications going far beyond Easter eggs and bunnies. As an individual, my record is flawed. I have fallen short of God’s expectations by my choices and by my nature. Yes, I have committed sins of omission as well as of commission. This means that I am a sinner, and when I include myself, as Rembrandt did, with those who were at the Cross, I see light beyond the darkness. I hear the faint ring of His voice penetrating the hearts of men with joy as He cries, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

If I believe I am simply a rational animal, the highest form of intelligence, I will continue to be offended by the Cross. But if I believe I am a human being, created in the image of God, there is a powerful, magnetic attraction to the Cross which is the antidote to all of my failure and sin. In this I can glory, knowing that He paid a debt He did not owe so that I could receive the gift of the Father’s love.

Count me in with the others who stood at the foot of the Cross on that infamous day long ago. - Resource Reading: Matthew 27:31