Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). – John 19:17

Beloved in the Lord, our message for the day centers on the heavy and quiet grit found in John 19:17 where it says that Christ, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull. If you have ever had to carry something that felt way too heavy like a grief or a secret or a responsibility you did not ask for then you can almost feel the splinters in this verse. John focuses on the fact that Jesus carried it himself. There is no mention of a helper here but just a man and the rough timber of his own execution. It reminds us that sometimes the hardest paths in life have to be walked with a singular and lonely kind of resolve. He was not just carrying wood because he was carrying the weight of every wrong we have ever felt or done while moving toward a place that smelled like death.

The walk to Golgotha was not a private moment but a public parade of failure. To the people watching from the sidewalks Jesus looked like a defeated man on his way to a garbage heap. But there is something incredibly human and hopeful about the fact that he chose the Place of the Skull as his destination. He did not stay in the clean or polished parts of the city. He walked right into the middle of the mess which is the place where things go to die. It tells us that God is not afraid of our dark places or the parts of our lives that feel beyond saving. He is willing to get his hands dirty and his back bruised just to meet us where we are most broken.

Finally there is a deep sense of moving forward in this passage. Jesus went forth. He did not stand still and he did not turn back. Even though he knew exactly what was waiting for him at the end of that road he kept putting one foot in front of the other. We often want a God who just snaps his fingers and makes the pain disappear but here we see a God who walks through it with us. He took the heavy lifting upon himself so that when we find ourselves carrying a cross we cannot handle, we can look at him and realize he has already paved the way. He carried the weight to the finish line so that we would never have to carry our burdens alone.