Skull And Crossbones

A king needs a royal robe, they think, and of course, a crown. A purple robe would be a sign of royalty. St. Mark (15:16-22) doesn't tell us where the soldiers would find such a robe, but the Gospel of Luke tells us Herod had arrayed Him in "splendid clothing" and sent him back to Pilate (Luke 23:11). The crown of thorns from the soldier's side of things was merely an additional bit of mockery and cruelty that they could inflict on Jesus, but on this side of Scripture, it certainly evoked the very curse itself - "Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you." (Genesis 3:18). It's the curse of the fall that Jesus is in the very process of undoing by bearing it Himself. The fake kneeling by the soldiers in mockery is a foreshadowing of how the whole thing ends with the one they mock returning in great glory and judging the quick and dead, and then says St. Paul, everyone is going to be on their knees and confessing Jesus is Lord! (Philippians 2:10-11).

Golgotha is the Aramaic way of saying "Place of the Skull," but when St. Jerome put it into Latin in the fourth century, he translated Calvariae, the Latin word for Skull. But that is what entered into a lot of our hymnody; instead of "Golgotha," you get "Calvary," as in "Come to Calvary's Holy Mountain Sinners Ruined by the Fall," as we sing at Lent.

It is also fascinating that in church art, especially classic iconography, images of the crucifixion had a skull and crossbones at the base of the cross. Augustine, Hieronymus, Epiphanius, and other Fathers aligned that Adam was supposedly laid buried at this same spot. It's a beautiful idea, and that's what the artwork is trying to depict. Christ goes to His death over Adams's bones which stands in for all of us who are born slaves of sin and headed to death. That's how He will free us from the condemnation brought by our first father's disobedience; He will do it for us all.

-Pr.Will Weedon