Golgotha

Amazing grace and extravagant favor That Golgotha would be graced by His presence And sprinkled with His blood. Death’s defeat was not merely its elimination But its beautification.

"Christ in Limbo" by Hieronymus Bosch

It was not mere human execution that took place on that hill, but a demonic onslaught. Men may have pierced His flesh, but Hell enveloped His spirit. Separated from the Presence and offered to Death, such is the wrath of God. What glee and cries of delight, the ugliest sound Heaven had ever heard, with which bloody chains assaulted Him. Screams of victory erupted from the throat of Hell as the Son was dragged into its bowels; the Father and Dove looked on as one of their own disappeared into the darkness.

But the darkness was too stupid to see the end, for the darkness blinded even itself. With the trap with which it ensnared mankind for millennia it ensnared itself. Never could it anticipate that the divine bloodstains in its halls would seal its demise. It did not realize that holding Him within its caverns made it possible for even those in Hades to say that the Christ was Emmanuel for them as well. It thought God was offering a sacrifice to Hell, when it was Hell that was unknowingly participating in a sacrifice to God. It lusted for His blood, forgetting the ancient warning that life is in the blood. It did not foresee its gates would be kicked open by the Dove, leaving a holy footprint to this day. It did not expect a mass exodus out of Hell, led by the Lamb who was slain.

And the Father watched as His Son, forever scarred, emerge into the light of the morning sun.