. . They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull).
–Mark 15:22
They called that place
The Skull
And how true–
Here love is stripped
Of all its softness, all
Its warmth:
Skinned alive,
And reduced to
A grinning death's head
(c) 2000 Latayne C. Scott
Many people in times of crisis speak of how they were able to see things with crystal clarity: to understand a situation, to see a solution, to move unhesitatingly toward action. The death of Jesus gives us that clarity, too. We would never gild a crucifix or paint rosy cheeks on the dying Savior pictured there if we understood what that cross really meant. It meant that at least for a little while, sin and death and Satan had won a victory. Golgotha, after all, is not the curves and dimples of a face, it is the starkness of a skull.
