Golgotha (Holy Week)

Read:

Mark 15:22-24

Reflect:

Golgotha - the place of the skull - would have been a place deeply linked to death. We don’t know whether it got the name from its appearance or whether it was a place where people were regularly executed. We do know, though, that it is a place that carries great sadness, grief, loss, shame and death. 

Jesus does not shy away from this place. He does not choose to run and hide, to send for angels or to be sacrificed in a place more fitting for a king. No. His act of sacrifice happens in a place of death and sorrow. This act reminds us that Jesus finds us in our most sorry state, wherever that may be. Jesus does not shy away from our guilt, our pain, our suffering, our shame and our grief. He comes and finds us there and, ultimately, redeems it to the glory of His name. As with His birth, when He chose to enter our world in the filth of a lowly stable (where He was also offered myrrh), He chooses an impure and sorrowful place to save the world.

Respond:

Lord Jesus, thank you that you are not put off by my weakness and sin, however bad it is. Thank you that you enter into our world of hurt and suffering to restore, redeem and renew. Amen.

Remind:

“... the death of Jesus took place in a space where God was thought to be absent. It was a space in which God's revelation would not occur, a place that could not witness to divine glory; it was an anti-epiphanic space, for it was the place of the skull.” 

~Vitor Westhelle~

Photo by Eyasu Etsub on Unsplash