Remember Calvary!

(Luke 23:33) “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary...”

To visualize an actual location where our great Saviour bled and died leaves me with mixed emotions. How thankful I will always be, for He has set me free! Honour, power and glory belong to no other, He alone is fit to be glorified as the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s and I gladly proclaim Him as my Lord and King. For He is my King, He is my Lord! I will bow to no other because of His faithfulness to that hill, called Calvary. In my mind, there is soberness to the actual event with flashes of discomfort, pain, ridicule and much more. However there is overwhelming gladness when I consider that for our King, it was worth it all! I know that without Him and that hill known as Golgotha, I would be lost and undone, a man groping in the dark, without hope and doomed for hell. But now I cry, “Yes I can see!” And all because of Calvary. It was but a place, a piece of land, Kranion, the Greek name for Golgotha - the place of a skull: a reprehensible place, to add to the reproach of His anguish, but significant, for there He triumphed over death. He was crucified. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross as it lay upon the ground, and it was then lifted up, and fastened into the earth, or into some opening made to receive it. This was an excruciating and disgraceful death above any other. He was crucified in the midst between two thieves, as if He had been the worst of the three. Thus He was not only treated as a transgressor, but numbered with them, the worst of them. That He was reviled and reproached, and treated with all the disdain and disapproval imaginable: The people stood beholding, not at all worried that they now crucified God in the flesh but rather pleasing themselves with the display as they geared and called out, “if you are God save yourself.” They triumphed over Him as if they had conquered Him, whereas He was Himself then more than a conqueror; if He be the Christ, the chosen of God, let him save himself that was one of their thoughts!  They mocked Him; they made spectator sport with Him, and made a jest of His sufferings; and as they drank sharp and cheap sour wine themselves, such as were generally allotted them, they victoriously asked him if he would pledge them, or drink with them. And they said, “If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself”; for, as the Jews prosecuted Him under the notion of a pretended Messiah, so the Romans under the notion of a pretended king. That the superscription over his head, setting forth his crime, was, “This is the King of the Jews” (Luke 23:38). He is put to death for pretending to be the king of the Jews; “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Genesis 50:20) - So they meant it; but God intended it to be a declaration of what He really was, notwithstanding his present disgrace: He is the King of the Jews, the King of the church, and His cross is the way to His crown. Ironically this was written in those that were called the three learned languages, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, for those are best educated that have learned Christ. There was no mistaking what they had done. It was written in these three languages that it might be known and read of all men; but God designed by it to signify that the gospel of Christ should be preached to all. Although they may not have understood what they had just done; “And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments.” (Luke 23:34) – Nevertheless they were guilty of their part in the sentence; crucifiers of Christ know not what they do. They that speak ill of Christianity speak poorly of that which they do not know, and it is because they will not know it. There is a kind of ignorance that does in part excuse sin: ignorance through want of the means of knowledge or of a capacity to receive instruction, through the inappropriateness of education, or inadvertency. The crucifiers of Christ were kept in ignorance by their rulers, and had prejudices against him instilled into them, so that in what they did against Christ and his doctrine they thought they did God service, all those who reject Christ and His finished work will nevertheless be guilty of the body and blood of the Lamb and they will all suffer His wrath!

Christ is in His kingdom, interceding. “Lord, remember me, and intercede for me.” He is there ruling. “Lord, remember me, and rule in me by thy Spirit.” He is there preparing places for those that are His. “Lord, remember me, and prepare a place for me; remember me at death, remember me in the resurrection.” “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!” (Job 14:13)

Now the hill of Calvary although so full of treachery is now a place of comfort for a multitude of believers, in fact they cannot be numbered, and all because of our great Kings faithfulness to it. “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;” (Revelation 7:9) 

See how it now does ring so sweet in the ear for all those that believe. Light springs from the mixed emotions of Golgotha, and every herb of the field blooms sweetly beneath the shadow of the once accursed tree. It was a place of thirst for our King, Grace has dug a fountain which now gushes waters pure as crystal, each drop capable of such healing. Think not on this your seasons of conflict, look only to Calvary and you will find solace there, a hill full of such comfort and a King who now intercedes for all who call out to Him. Remember Calvary as it will never be forgotten!

Signing off

Tyrone

Much of my reference was drawn directly from Matthew Henry’s Commentary and some gleaning from the "prince of preachers" C.H.Spurgeon.