The Golgotha Address
The Golgotha Address
On Memorial Day several years ago, I was reflecting on the reason we Americans have holiday remembrances like Memorial Day and Independence Day. I thought about the sacrifices made by others for the freedoms I have today. Having visited Gettysburg, I reread Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and envisioned its first reading on the sight of that battlefield.
My mind then went to my standing at the probable site of the crucifixion of Jesus on a trip to Israel. I imagined another battlefield address – one from the foot of the cross at Golgotha.
I sat down and wrote The Golgotha Address, using the Gettysburg Address as a template.
The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance of the sacrifice Jesus made for our spiritual freedom from the eternal penalty of sin, the present power of sin, and one day the very presence of sin.
This Golgotha Address helped me think about the significance of the Lord’s Supper in a different way, so I could see it again, for the very first time. I hope this helps you as well.
Ninety-nine score and twelve years ago our Savior, Jesus Christ, brought forth on this world, a new beginning, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all people everywhere need redemption.
Now we are engaged in a great spiritual war, testing whether our dedication to Christ, so challenged and so assaulted, will long endure. We gather today on the battlefield of that war, re-declaring our allegiance to Him who gave His life that we might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow – the ground on which Jesus died. Our Savior struggled and died there. He consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what Jesus did on the cross there.
It is for us Christ followers, rather, to be dedicated to the finished work that Jesus died for, and thus far, so nobly advanced.
It is for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from the honored death of Jesus we take increased devotion to that purpose for which He gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that His death shall not have been in vain – that we, His people, shall have a new determination – that we will declare throughout our world that God loves all people, and that whosoever believes in Jesus, shall not just perish from this earth, but have everlasting life.
Dr. Ed Laymance, July 3, 2022