First Easter - At The Cross

This Easter marks the very first Easter for one of my friends, now as a Christian.  And I thought on this.  It is also my very first Easter, now as a completely emotional human.  I know, to me, it gave me cause to stop and think.  I asked my friend if this Easter was a bit more meaningful as well ...

Looking at John 19:16-34

The cross was nothing more than a means of execution for capitol crimes by the Romans.  It was an appalling death.
For the Romans this was drudgery.
This was victory for Satan, it had won, it had crushed God's plan!
Death by cross was shame to the Jew.
It is the payment for us, for our sins against God.

The road to the cross was painful, slow, humiliating, Rome's punishment for the worse offenders.

The sign on the cross in the three languages of the area:

• Greek the common language
• Aramaic the language of the Jew
• Latin the official language

It announced to all there that day, this was the King of the Jews.

There was lots of activity by the cross that day!  Watchers for the spectacle of death.  The soldiers gambling for Jesus' clothes.  Scoffers there to deride Jesus for being a fool, a fake.  And those in pain for what their loved one is enduring.

And thinking further ... of our Savior enduring this death, to prove His power over the grave ... so that we might live ...