Were You There?

The stanzas of "Where You There" (LSB 456) each contain a response to the question "Were you there when..." The question ends in the following ways: "When they crucified my Lord?" "When they crowned Him with the thorns?" "When they pierced Him in the side?" "When they laid Him in the tomb?" 

The closing of each stanza is "Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble." This trembling is not a reference to fear, but rather to the emotional impact of the challenge Jesus faced in His going to the cross and most of all to the realization that the God who created the world would undergo such suffering and death to reconcile that world to Himself.

"Were you there when God raised Him from the tomb?" This causes us to tremble in awe each time we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, three days after we trembled hearing about His sacrificial death for you and me.

1 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?

2 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?

3 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?

4 Were you there when God raised Him from the tomb?
Were you there when God raised Him from the tomb?
Oh . . .
Sometimes it causes me to tremble,
tremble,
tremble.
Were you there when God raised Him from the tomb?

Text: Public domain