GOLGOTHA

GOLGOTHA Jesus had been sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate and then tortured and flogged by the cruel guards of King Herod, and finally commanded by Pilate to carry his cross to Calvary, or Golgotha, which means ‘the place of the Skull’. Pilate told a Centurion to arrange for an escort of guards around Jesus to escort him to the windswept hill. The heavy beam of the cross was placed on Jesus' bleeding shoulder as they left the yard and went into the crowded street. The already large crowd continued to grow, some of them followers and friends, others bitter enemies, and yet others who were just confused and angry. Jesus staggered and buckled under the weight of the beam, but he continued to drag it behind him.  It was the custom to write a description of the crime committed on a clay plate and fix it to the top of the cross.

Pontius Pilate had ordered that an inscription be written that read, “The King of the Jews”. Golgotha was near the busy city of Jerusalem and the signboard was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it. An angry voice called out above the crowd “Who wrote that inscription? – it’s wrong”, and one of the temple priests protested that it should have said that ‘He said he was king of the Jews’. However, Pilate had made it very clear to everyone that he had written that inscription and it would stay as it was. A few paces further on Jesus staggered again but this time fell headlong to the ground. The Centurion could see blood flowing freely from Jesus now and he knew that he had to keep him on his feet. A burly lumbering man who by the look of his clothing was visiting from some other region, was close by Jesus as he stumbled forward. The Centurion called out to the man and told him to help Jesus carry the cross. The man from Cyrene did what he was told and took the beam and strode on into a journey that was to be immortalized in endless time. When the trek to Calvary was completed, it would take six full hours on Calvary for Jesus to die.

Mary the mother of Jesus stood on the flat terrain at the top of Golgotha along with her sister, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene, and they were joined there by the disciple John, the other disciples having preferred to hang back from the crowd. Two criminals were already hanging on crosses either side of the hole where Jesus’ pole was to be fixed, but these two men were tied to their crosses, not nailed. Jesus was finally hoisted up and then the pole was crudely dumped into the hole prepared for it. 

When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside John, his close friend, he said to her, ‘Mother behold your son.’ And to John he said, ‘Son behold your mother’ And from that time on John took her into his home. Present amongst the growing crowd were some temple priests and other leaders of the Jews who jeered. “You were pretty good at saving others, but you can’t even save yourself.  If you are the Promised One, our Messiah, then come on down from that cross and prove it to us. Weren’t you going to pull down our temple and rebuild it again in three days? Well, why not get yourself down from that cross?”

It was the custom for a soldier to push a sponge of sour wine and myrrh into the mouths of those being crucified, but when the soldier did that Jesus turned his face aside and refused the swab, and the man joined the other soldiers who were throwing dice to see who was going to keep Jesus’ robe. This fulfilled the Scripture that says, ‘They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my robe.’(Psalm 22:18) Dust was spitting itself into peoples' faces on this strangest of days and gusts of wind blew as storm clouds raced faster than usual across the sky, causing a flickering of sunshine and deep shadow. 

As Jesus hung there the criminals beside him were weakening, groaning in their pain, when one of them turned to Jesus. He had earlier on joined the choir of obscenity, picking up the ugly chant with gusto. He now wanted to have his last few words of bravado heard in this dark prison of life and death he had made for himself, and he shouted out.  ‘So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!’ But the man on the other side shouted at him angrily. “Don’t you even fear God when you are dying? We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t done one wrong thing.” He then turned to Jesus and said. ‘Lord, will you remember me when you are in your mighty kingdom?’ Jesus turned his head and looked at him with love, saying “Today you are coming home with me to Paradise.” 

High noon surrendered to a deep darkness which remained for three full hours. Darkness took over that day, and in those last hours it put a stop to many things. Shouts of bravado that just moments ago would have roused bold echoes now hung hollow in the still air, and those mockers that had stood close to the action at the foot of the cross now slid back into the crowd. There were Angels suspended within this pall of sadness that shrouded the desolation below and Heaven waited in eternity as three hours of darkness passed on earth.

Then Satan shot himself like a dart into the one that hung between two criminals on a lonely plateau of the place of the Skull. The gigantic spirit of Jesus absorbed the full impact of Satan as all hell's hateful fury hit him, and as every vile thing ever done by countless millions of crippled hearts down through the ages and for the ages to come assailed his being. Thunder cracked and the earth began to shake. The magnitude of this kind of collision, the sum of all sin hitting the sum of all innocence, would shake all created things.  A swirling sea of fear sought to pull Jesus under, but he hoisted his faith above the fear with absolute trust in his Father's love, as he took every vile accusation that Satan hurled at him and locked them safely within that vault of perfect love. He owned it all, yet he was completely innocent of any wrong deed.

Another missile from Satan hit him. It was black and fathomless, nothingness. It was like annihilation. He was living out yet another prophetic fulfilment of Psalm 22 spoken by David over five hundred years before.  ‘My God My God why have you forsaken me?’(Psalm 22:1) The source of this horrific thought was not Father God. Darkness had assailed the human heart of Jesus, the Son of Man, of the lineage of David, and in an instant, Jesus knew the answer to his own question. He had not been forsaken by his Father, but in his humanity, he had experienced forsakenness for a moment, so that no living soul from this time on would ever have to feel forsaken by God again because of their human weakness.  As he hung there, he embraced the tragic weakness of humanity and touched the feelings of forsakenness for every human soul throughout all ages.

The vast bank of love and compassion that filled heaven filled his heart and went out to a beloved humanity. He looked at the mocking faces out there in the crowd and he loved them. He sent his voice into a waiting heaven and cried out. ‘Father, forgive them – they don’t know what they are doing.’ He had done it. It was finished.

The Plan of Salvation could now be put into effect. Jesus had something more to say but his throat felt parched, and he wanted to speak with strength. ‘I'm thirsty,’ he gasped, fulfilling yet another Scripture (Psalm 69:21). ‘and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.’ The Centurion ordered a soldier to give Jesus the vinegar/wine sponge, and then Jesus spoke out in a loud voice ‘Father into your hands I now offer my Spirit.’ Then in one last gasp he said for all to hear. ‘It is finished!’ Then he died. And he and we were placed securely in The Father's loving hands.

The Jewish leaders didn’t want the victims hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath at that, for it was the Passover) - so the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus to quicken their deaths in order to take their bodies down. But when they came to Jesus they didn’t break his legs because they saw that he was dead already.  However, to make sure that he was truly dead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out. The soldiers did this in fulfillment of yet two more of the prophetic Scriptures from Psalm 22 that say, “Not one of his bones shall be broken,” and, “They shall look on him whom they pierced.”

Who brought about the death of Jesus? Was it His Father, The Jews, The Romans, our sin? All of these played very significant parts, and there are Scriptures for each of their roles. But it was finally Jesus who said these words.  John 10:17…I lay down my life for my sheep - I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I have received from My Father.” At the moment of his death the cosmos convulsed.

An earthquake tore a searing gash into the mountainside and people were toppled off their feet. Rocks split apart and the graves and tombs on a nearby hill cracked open. People ran in fear from the place, but they did not know where to go.  At that moment there were priests in the temple about to sacrifice the Passover lamb, and when their knife pierced that sacrificial animal the true Lamb of God offered himself on Calvary as the final sacrifice for all sin. The priests were thrown off their feet by the earthquake and the temple shook as huge stones fell from the parapets. The great veil in the temple proper, which separated the place of God’s presence in the holy place from the rest of the temple was lightning torn from top to bottom. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’

When that veil was torn it signified that Christ as both man and God had done away with the separation of mankind from God symbolised by the veil in the temple worship, but this opening of the veil had also done away with the separation of mankind from God in all the earth. He had gone ahead for all of us to so that we could live in his abiding presence. We can now have faith to come confidently into this holy place in our own hearts because of his mercy upon our imperfect humanity and we can receive the power of his life within us to do what is right and pleasing to God.  The veil that was torn when Jesus died on the cross was the awesome declaration of the certain hope that we can live in his presence at all times, behind that veil of separation.

Jesus was without sin because he trusted his Father with all his heart to fulfill his own heart’s desires. His human desires which are common to us all were subdued by his higher heartfelt Godly desire and so they did not conceive and give birth to sin, and therefore did not bring forth death (James 1:15). The moment Jesus died the law of sin and death was being overturned to make way for a new spiritual law to come into effect - the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and that spiritual law did not exist in the Garden of Eden. It would occur only after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the sending of the Holy Spirit to give us the risen life of Jesus within, and to give us a new heart of compassion like his own. Our hearts can now be fulfilled with a new desire that freely chooses to fulfill the desires of God’s heart.