THE PLACE OF A SKULL
Trevor R Campbell
We began Lord’s day with Hymn 28 -
Hail! Thou once despised Jesus.
“He is despised and left alone of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their faces;- despised, and we esteemed him not”, Isa 53: 3. In considering this I have been drawn to the fact that the four gospel writers draw attention to the place where the Lord Jesus was crucified. I am affected by even reading it, beloved brethren: the Place of a skull.
I suppose there has never been a time when the wisdom, the intellect, the intelligence of man is thrust so forcibly upon us. We see it in man’s inventions and the technology of the world. So-called artificial Intelligence and the like are quickly gathering pace in this world. The Place of a skull: I suppose there is no greater place to learn things than by standing by the cross. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - no doubt indited by the Spirit - draw attention to this fact that that was where the Lord Jesus was crucified. A skull: we have probably all seen one in a museum. There is just nothing there, is there? I suppose it is the flesh - I mean the outward skin and our features - that gives a person a certain appearance of attractiveness or respectability. At the cross, Jesus was crucified at the Place of a skull, where everything that man is was laid bare. Everything that I am is laid bare. It is something to come to that, beloved brethren.
We have just had a word about what the Lord has secured on the other side of death, another order of man. It is a wonderful fact that these four gospel writers draw our attention to this: “And having come to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a skull”. Those that crucified the Lord were not the ignorant of the world; they were not the poor, the uneducated or the unintelligent. They were the best that man could offer, the princes, the nobles; the scribes, the Pharisees, all those that knew the law, but at the cross it was all laid bare. What a matter, beloved, just to take account of that.
The Lord would bring us to certain places to teach us, to teach us about the heart of man and ourselves, but too at the cross we learn the heart of God. It is a blessed matter that while man was completely exposed, the love of God was shown and could be shown in the greatest way possible. It says of “the princes of this age” “had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”, 1 Cor 2: 8. You might say they were the best of the world, yet they cast Him out. He was “cast away indeed as worthless by men, but with God chosen, precious”, but the intelligentsia of the world, they rejected Him: despised Him, cast Him out, rejected Him, and had no place for Him. What was the price? Thirty pieces of silver. “They appointed to him thirty pieces of sliver”, Matt 26: 15. What a matter, the world’s valuation of Jesus.
The prophet Zechariah speaks of these pieces of silver. You do not often get sarcasm in the Bible, but the prophet says, “a goodly price”: “a goodly price that I was prized at by them”, chap 11: 13. That is my Saviour, beloved; that is the One that was cast out as worthless. No price could properly be put on Jesus, but at the cross the heart of man, the mind of man, was all laid bare, and that was their valuation. May it affect our hearts.
I love to consider the way that John writes: while he speaks of the place, he says that there was with Him “two others, one on this side, and one on that, and Jesus in the middle” (chap 19: 18): “in the middle”. John does not even tell us what these men were or what they had done, just “two others, one on this side, and one on that”. Even in such a scene, even on the cross, the Place of a skull, God saw to it that that precious blessed Man was distinct. He was there “in the middle”, the blessed Saviour. Luke tells about the malefactor: what he was to the heart of Christ. It was the Place of a skull, and yet there was one there that could draw attention to His distinctiveness: “this man has done nothing amiss”, Luke 23: 41. A shaft of light entered into that man’s heart to recognise the value and the preciousness of the Man that was beside him. What contemplation for our souls.
And then John tells of these persons that were by the cross of Jesus; just a few, beloved brethren. We are in a day of small things. Even at the cross there were just a few. Let us be among the few that are prepared to stand by the cross of Christ, to own His value to us; the One that has secured everything for God, the One that has secured everything for us. We have been brought into wondrous light too, and as our brother has read in John 20, what the Lord finds in a company was prepared to be faithful to Him, apart from the world.
I challenge my own heart. What does it really mean to me that the Lord Jesus has been rejected and cast out of this scene as worthless? Am I prepared to take my place beside the Lord? The world has cast Him out. The wisdom of the world had no place for Him. And that still is the case. We can see that by the wisdom of men passing laws that are completely contrary to the will of God, contrary to the truth as it has come down to us. That is the world that we live in; it is the Place of a skull. I challenge my heart: why would I have anything to do with it? We need to meet righteousness, but may we just have an impression that the world is the Place of a skull; there is no place for Jesus there. But there is a company that love Him and they are found in John 20, and the Lord comes in amongst them. He is the One that is ascending, and He breathes into them. And we have the Holy Spirit to preserve us and keep us. That is where we find wisdom; that is where we find light, through the power of the Holy Spirit and having our eyes on the Man that is above, the same Man that was here. The Place of a skull was where He was crucified by men, but now He is exalted in glory.
May it affect us. May we be drawn to Him in an increasing way, beloved brethren. And may we be encouraged by these thoughts. May the Lord bless the word.
Word in Ministry Meeting in Glasgow
13th January 2026