Ross Saunders led a series of studies at Christ Church, Lavender Bay during Lent in 1999. His insights into the people and events of Jesus’ time in Palestine brought a dramatically enlightening approach to the New Testament accounts of the crucifixion. Following each presentation there was opportunity for discussion and elucidation.

Ross has based his book on these studies and has taken the opportunity in print to enlarge and expand the scope of them. At the conclusion of each chapter there are several discussion questions which relate the studies to our contemporary church and culture.

The author, in almost every chapter, challenges traditional interpretations and conclusions. His descriptions of crucifixion are not for the squeamish but confront the reader with the realism of Jesus’ cruel torture and humiliation.

There is a strong and emotional feeling of being there on that first Good Friday.

Ross Saunders uses his gift of painting vivid word pictures to good effect. The familiar New Testament accounts are colourfully and refreshingly sketched as the author seeks to take us into the thinking of the New Testament characters who surround Jesus during his last days as a human being in Jerusalem.

“I have tried,” says the author, “to emphasize the humanness, not only of these people, but also of Jesus himself.”

“By doing this I hope that we will all have some sense of the truth that ‘we were there, too.’ If he died for us, then we were there, either on the side of the religious establishment who were intent on his murder or among those who came to believe that he is who he claimed to be, the son of God and Redeemer of the whole world.”

Were You There? is a remarkable little book which provides a useful resource for group study at any time, but certainly as a prelude to Easter.