Places of the Passion – Golgotha

Places of the Passion – Golgotha closes out our passion readings from the Gospel of Mark.  We end at the place of the skull.

Tears of…

He looked and saw a woman crossing the street with her young son. He looked again and saw a car swerving quickly in her direction. She didn’t see it, and he saw that she didn’t see it, so he rushed out into traffic and pushed the young mother and her son out of the path of the out-of-control car. But he couldn’t get out of the way in time. The woman looked up and was suddenly overwhelmed with emotions. She began to cry tears of confusion at what had just happened, tears of fear that she had almost been killed, tears of guilt for not watching out for traffic, tears of sorrow when she saw the man’s lifeless body sacrificed for her, tears of thankfulness that the man had saved her life, tears of relief that she was now safe, tears of joy because she and her son could go home alive.

A Place of Sacrifice

We’ve followed Jesus to many of the places of his passion this Lenten season. Today we arrive at a most gruesome place: Golgotha. Calvary. A place of sacrifice, a place of suffering. You heard the words of the sermon text from Mark 15 describing Jesus’ suffering there at Golgotha. You know that it was Jesus pushing you out of the way of the oncoming traffic of God’s anger, putting himself in its path instead. And like the young mother, you might look up at him dying, and you might cry too, at least on the inside. But what kind of tears will you cry? Tears of confusion? Fear? Guilt? Sorrow? Thankfulness? Relief? Tears of joy? All of those tears are fitting for Calvary, tears of sorrow and tears of joy. So let’s take some time now to consider this place of suffering, to think about seven things that happened there, seven reasons to cry at the cross.

Want to hear more?  Watch this week’s message taken from Mark 15, Places of the Passion – Golgotha.