By Pamela Rose Williams
Friday of Holy Week: Read John 17 today. Good Friday. Today I am drawn to John 17:20 where as Jesus is praying to the Father He says these words: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;”
As I meditated in this chapter and particularly this verse I was so moved to know that Jesus prayed for not only His disciples at the time but also for those of us that have become His disciples because of the original 12 that went out and told everyone about Jesus. And then I got to thinking about a song that always comes to mind on this day. It is the great hymn of faith: Were you there? And I thought: “What does it mean … were you there”?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? You may think your answer should be “No” to this question. But I want to challenge you to think more about it.
We see in today’s chapter of John that Jesus prayed not only for those that were there with Him, He prayed also for those that in the future would come to know Him as their Savior. And I contemplated some other Scriptures full of hope and wonder like Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” AND that He “… offered one sacrifice for sins for ever” (Hebrews 10:12).
Well, after thinking and praying and meditating on His Word, I have come to the conclusion that my answer to the question: Were you there when they crucified my Lord must be YES. I was there on Jesus’ heart when He JOYFULLY endured the cross for ME (Hebrews 12:2). ME … one who believes that Jesus is my Savior because those 12 went out. ME … one of the “future” believers. Jesus knew He was going to the cross for ME. I was there because I was in His heart and on His mind.
No, I was not physically there, but I am not physically with Jesus yet either, but when the Father looks at ME He sees the One who died for ME and became my Mediator (Hebrews 9:15, 12:24). History proves that Jesus was crucified, and I believe He did it for ME. And because of this I believe that one day I will be able to physically see Jesus and praise Him in Heaven.
I was there when they crucified my Lord and sometimes that causes me to tremble!
