Place of the Skull

“They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull).” (Mk 15:22)
 
They take him to the place of death: another one of those places thick with meaning.  It is a special place, like the mountain of Moriah, like the threshing floor, like the place of atonement – a sacred place.  To reach it, one has to pass through veils.  Upon entering, one kneels, and there rises up the desire to kiss the ground.
 
“And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them.” (Mk 15:24)
 
These words evoke a similar inner trembling to those other words we heard not long ago: “And he was transfigured before them” (Mk 9:2).  It is like the opening of a veil.  They divide his clothing and expose him, naked and nailed to a tree.  All that agony and abuse in order to be opened.
 
Nakedness is another way of saying: a pierced heart.  But nakedness is shameful.  There is shame in the betrayal and abandonment by his friends, shame in the conviction by the council, shame in the rejection by his people, shame in the title under which he hangs, shame in the company of bandits, shame in the bruises, the crown, the spittle on his face, shame in the silence, the exposure and the death.
 
“I gave my back to those who beat me,
    my cheeks to those who tore out my beard;
My face I did not hide
    from insults and spitting.
The Lord God is my help,
    therefore I am not disgraced;
Therefore I have set my face like flint,
    knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” (Is 50:6-7)

“For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame.” (Heb 12:2)
 
His shame is our salvation.  Nothing could be more precious.