#353: Were You There
May. 1st, 2020 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lutheranhymnsOne of my choir buddies from out west has remarked that isn't a very good text. Because, the answer to the questions it asked is just, "no." We were not there [at Jesus' crucifixion]. And you know you we were not there. So why are you asking.
If I'm being generous, I would guess that the implied meaning is "we weren't there, but all of us have sinned and therefore caused Jesus' death, so in that sense, we were there." Or maybe, it's "they" who did all these things to Jesus, not in the sense that "it was the fault of a small group of conspirators two thousand years ago," but "humans and their sin" did this; but if you add another verse about "Were you there when God raised him from the tomb" it contrasts human agency with God's awesome agency. Although that verse isn't in this edition, so who knows.
If I'm being generous, I would guess that the implied meaning is "we weren't there, but all of us have sinned and therefore caused Jesus' death, so in that sense, we were there." Or maybe, it's "they" who did all these things to Jesus, not in the sense that "it was the fault of a small group of conspirators two thousand years ago," but "humans and their sin" did this; but if you add another verse about "Were you there when God raised him from the tomb" it contrasts human agency with God's awesome agency. Although that verse isn't in this edition, so who knows.
