Golgotha was a spot of all others the most disgraceful;
and so He who occupied the loftiest seat of honor in heaven stooped to the very
lowest, in order to lift up to the highest those for whom Golgotha had been a
more fitting place.
Golgotha was a region of death. Here was the palace of
the last enemy; here he held his revels. It was death's chief temple;
here ghastly sacrifices were continually offered up. Here, at the very citadel
of death, they led Christ to do battle with death.
Golgotha! There is a legend that it was the very center of the
earth's surface, the middle point of the habitable globe. We think nothing of the
legend, but very much of the truth it suggests. For the cross of Christ is the
true center of the church, where all believers meet, of all tribes and nations,
of all parties and sects. Here all may forget their differences; here all, who
from different directions converge, are one church.
Golgotha! There is a legend that the body of Adam was buried
there, and that the blood of Christ trickled down until it reached the bones;
which then were clothed again with flesh and revived. We think nothing of the
legend, but very much of the truth which it suggests. For when by faith the
blood of Christ is applied to our guilty souls, the old Adam, dead by
sin, lives again, but lives renewed and purified. Christ is the second Adam, who
remedies the ruin of the first, and by whom paradise lost becomes paradise
regained.
Golgotha! It was the "place of a skull." And all are
going there. Every possession, every enjoyment, has death for its goal. However
beautiful the path, it leads us ever onward to Golgotha. How closely does
affection bind us to our friends! But they, too, are traveling to Golgotha; and
every day brings us nearer to that "place of a skull." Those who have everything
to make life happy, as well as those to whom life is a dreary waste of
disappointment, are on their way to Golgotha! Those who are radiant with health
and beauty, as well as those who are sickly or deformed, and to whom existence
is a burden, are on their way to Golgotha! Those who have riches, and honor, and
fame, and power, as well as the poor, the unknown or despised, are on their way
to Golgotha!
But if by faith we are disciples and followers of Jesus, our
Golgotha is changed by His. No longer the place of a skull, it becomes
the gateway of glory. Sorrow turns to joy, sickness to health, poverty to
riches, when, in company with Jesus, we are on our way to Golgotha. Yes,
afflictions all become blessings, and death is life, through the grace of Him
who was led to Golgotha.
[Newman Hall]
✞✞✞
John 19:17-18 ... And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
Matthew 27:33-34 ... And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.
Mark 15:22 ... And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.
1 Peter 3:18 ... For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:❤
