Artist: Claude Mellan
This king and queen, our father and mother, and we in them, stood beneath the branches of the tree of knowledge. Our hands reached up to pluck the fruit forbidden to man. We filled our mouths and Eden spat us out. We devoured fruit and digested death. The Friday of our creation was followed by the day of our decimation. We made the grave our home. “In Adam all die,” the apostle says (1 Cor 15:22). Thus this grave, in earthen tones, paints the picture of Friday’s good work undone.
But our journey is far from over. Walk back with me to that mass grave, that headstone, and look now what has been erected over the top of that morbid mound. See it there? Look at that tree whose trunk is sunk into the soil of our tomb. Look at those two naked branches painted red with the blood of the Lamb. Look at him who is nailed as a criminal but reigns as a king. And look at your calendar and tell me what day it is. It is the sixth day, is it not? It is a Friday, the Friday we call good.
I promised you a mystery; I will disclose all of it now. That man you see on the tree—he is the re-Genesis of the world. He has come to remake us alive and free and beautiful on the Friday of his crucifixion. In this new beginning it is finished, all is finished. The mass grave beneath the cross unburies its dead. The blood of God, dripping on this earth, is the key that unlocks the chains that bind us.
Adam, made on Friday, is remade on Friday, and we in him.
“As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men,” (Rom 5:18). Good Friday’s good work is done by him who came to undo the work of sin and death.
This place is named Golgotha, “the place of the skull.” Most people think it derives its name from a rocky hill shaped like a skull. From ancient times, however, the church understood this as the place of Adam’s skull. In fact, if you look at most icons of the crucifixion, you will see a skull and crossbones at the foot of the cross. Those belong to Adam. His skull is at the foot of this new tree of life.
Golgotha is the first Adam's grave, over which the tree of the second Adam’s cross is erected.
Upon the skull of Adam, and all of us in him and with him, the Spirit has placed blood and flesh and skin once more. He's breathed into us his breath. He's placed upon our newly formed brows the crown of victory and life.
Quote by Chad Bird above
The Gospels tells us that Israelites called the place "Golgotha," meaning "Skull Place." In Greek, the first written language of the New Testament, Golgotha was translated "Kranios," a word similar to our "cranium."
Now, Golgotha was called Skull Place for a few reasons. One, it was the Roman place of execution for criminals. It may also have been a Jewish place of execution, since Mosaic law ordered that stoning be done outside the city walls (Num 15:36). The ever-practical Romans would have used a traditional execution place.
