Golgotha Tag

The Faces at Golgotha

David Dykes

INCONCEIVABLE The Gospel writers don’t go into minute detail about the crucifixion because all of their First-Century readers had witnessed the horror of crucifixion with their own eyes. We really don’t have a modern frame of reference for it. It would be like me going back to the time of Jesus and saying there was a head-on collision on Loop 49 and none of the passengers were wearing seatbelts. You get the picture—but they wouldn’t. We can’t begin to imagine the wickedness and cruelty of Roman crucifixion. John 19:17-27.

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The Place of the Skull

As a boy, when I read in the Bible that Pilate had Jesus “scourged” I didn’t understand that word. I remember asking my Pastor, Brother Fred, what that word meant. He could have replied it meant to “be beaten” and he would have been technically correct. Instead he gave me an answer I’ll never forget. He said, “David, that was when a cruel Roman soldier turned the bare back of Jesus into hamburger meat.” Don’t forget—at any moment during His torture He could have escaped. He could have said, “God these people aren’t worth this kind of pain and suffering. He told Peter He could have called 12 legions of angels to rescue Him. But He didn’t—because He loves us.

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