St Mary’s Cathedral

It is a terrible thing to be let down by your friends. After all, when the chips are down, when everyone else has walked away, it’s your friends you would expect to offer you a helping hand. They are the ones who support you, lift you up, dust you down and set you on your way with words of encouragement and promises that they will always be there for you. Most of us owe so much to our friends, we would not be here today and we certainly would not be the person we are without them. I think that is true to say for most us, isn’t it?
It is a terrible thing to be let down and abandoned by people we thought were our friends. So much had been invested in our friendship, so much of ourselves. We would have done anything for them. Why we were there for them when things got really bad. We stood by them. Then when it came time to return the favour, just in a small way, they were nowhere to be seen. What a terrible feeling of loneliness, emptiness, deep-down pain. Had anyone else ignored us we could have put up with it, but when friends desert us it feels like, well, betrayal. I think that is true to say for most us, isn’t it?
As we begin Holy Week and we hear the story of our redemption, it is so important that we do not lose sight of the fact that this story is real, in the sense that it actually happened. The characters are real and not even their names have been changed to hide their identity. Peter, Judas, the two sons of Zebedee, the high-priest’s servant, the Chief priests, the Sanhedrin, Pilate and his wife, the Roman soldiers, the woman in the courtyard, the bystanders, Barabbas, the thieves, the women at the cross, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and Jesus of Nazareth himself. They are real, it happened. They were there and are witnesses. They played their part in this dramatic story which goes literally to Hell and back.
Some stood by Jesus from beginning to end, never leaving his side, ministering to him, supporting, encouraging him even when all seemed lost and pointless. They stood there not knowing what to do or say. But they stayed and even in the depth of grief they remained constant and faithful – Mary, the mother of Jesus, the other women and Mary of Magdalene, John, the beloved disciple, and perhaps others, whose names we do not know.
Some ran away because they were afraid, they could not control their instinct for self-preservation, and even the thought of loyalty and friendship could not restrain their panic. Others slinked off and then crept around the edges, driven at the same time by fear and guilt, and when confronted their only defence was complete denial. Others went even further and betrayed their friendship completely, and what was worse, they claimed the high moral ground as their motive – the sons of Zebedee, the close disciples of Jesus, Peter, Judas.
All played some part in this cataclysmic drama of life and death. All are in some way implicated. All are in someway witnesses of what happened.
Apart from one, Judas, at least as far as we know, the rest continued in some way to be involved in the same vital drama which eventually moved from death to life. All were in some way implicated; all were in some way witnesses.
Friendship, betrayal, drama of life and death, faithfulness, fear and guilt – all these are part of our lives too, part of our story. And our story is real. Today and over the next few days we are each and everyone of us being offered the opportunity of once again being genuinely implicated in this the story of our salvation and redemption so that we can become real witnesses – from life to death and from death to life.
Come with me and join Peter, Judas, the two sons of Zebedee, the high-priest’s servant, the Chief priests, the Sanhedrin, Pilate and his wife, the Roman soldiers, the woman in the courtyard, the bystanders, Barabbas, the thieves, the women at the cross, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and Jesus of Nazareth himself. What part will you play? Faithful friend, fear-ridden disciple, one who betrays? Be part of the drama, be implicated so that you too may become a genuine witness to this salvific journey from life to death and back to life again.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to a tree?
Sometimes it makes me want to tremble, tremble, tremble!
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?