The Place of the Skull

I come down one road. You come down another. We all meet at the foot of the cross.

The title of an old song is “The Ground is Level at the Foot of the Cross.”

At Calvary, Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, we are all the same.

When we understand Calvary, we forgive. When we view the blood streaming from a broken body, we love. When we hear the women crying, we have compassion. Calvary enables us to overlook faults, because love covers a multitude of sins.(1) Calvary is our greatest example of suffering, sacrifice, giving beyond what a human being seems capable of giving. Jesus gave everything. He gave all He had to give. There was nothing left.

Calvary, oh what it means to me.
Since Jesus set me free, I think of Calvary.
Jesus’ blood, oh what a cleansing flood.
He did it all, for me, on Calvary.(2)
Whenever I am tempted to lift myself up, I need to kneel down…at the foot of the cross, where the ground is level.

Part of me wants to look away from Calvary, pretend it didn’t happen. I don’t like to read the last chapters of the gospels that detail the trial, the beating, the crucifixion of this man named Jesus. It is repulsive. “We hid as it were our faces from him.”(3) He was despised. We didn’t want to look! What an ugly sight. Why did He do it? Why? Why? Why?

He did it all for me…on Calvary.


References:
1. I Peter 4:8
2. Song Lyrics, “Calvary,” Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Giving Him Thanks, 1981
3. Isaiah 53:3