Easter
We're gonna keep it short, sweet, and simple here at the Eyrie on Good Friday. First up, a quick review of the Stations Of The Cross.
The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, are a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The stations grew out of imitations of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, which is a traditional processional route symbolising the path Jesus walked to Mount Calvary. The objective of the stations is to help the Christian faithful to make a spiritual pilgrimage through contemplation of the Passion of Christ. It has become one of the most popular devotions and the stations can be found in many Western Christian churches, including those in the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist traditions.
Commonly, a series of 14 images will be arranged in numbered order along a path, along which worshippers—individually or in a procession—move in order, stopping at each station to say prayers and engage in reflections associated with that station. These devotions are most common during Lent, especially on Good Friday, and reflect a spirit of reparation for the sufferings and insults that Jesus endured during his passion. As a physical devotion involving standing, kneeling and genuflections, the Stations of the Cross are tied with the Christian themes of repentance and mortification of the flesh.
The style, form, and placement of the stations vary widely. The typical stations are small plaques with reliefs or paintings placed around a church nave. Modern minimalist stations can be simple crosses with a numeral in the centre. Occasionally, the faithful might say the stations of the cross without there being any image, such as when the pope leads the stations of the cross around the Colosseum in Rome on Good Friday.
The Stations of the Cross originated from the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Roman Judaea and a desire to reproduce the Via Dolorosa. Imitating holy places was not a new concept. For example, the religious complex of Santo Stefano in Bologna, Italy, replicated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other religious sites, including the Mount of Olives and the Valley of Josaphat.
Next, evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really did rise from the dead.
The claim of the bodily resurrection of Jesus is central to the Christian message as the cornerstone of all claims to divinity and salvific efficacy, and although it has been hotly contested by those with naturalist presuppositions, the historical data supports the Christian claim of the resurrection.
The claim of Jesus’s bodily resurrection is central to the gospel message. Without his bodily resurrection, Jesus’s claims to divinity would be empty, and the gospel’s claim to be the power of God for salvation would be false. Although many with naturalistic presuppositions have questioned the legitimacy of the claim of resurrection, six facts support the credibility of the historical claim. First, death by crucifixion was not something that the followers of Jesus were likely to invent. Second, burial account fits with all historical evidence that we have. Third, the claim of the empty tomb was easily verifiable, but there are no contradictory accounts. Fourth, the apostles claim to have met the resurrected Jesus face-to-face. Fifth, these apostles were willing to suffer and die for these claims. Sixth, those who were very unlikely to be converted to this belief were, nonetheless, converted by means of personal experiences of the resurrected Christ.
We can see, then, why Jesus’s resurrection is so vital for believers and that several important conclusions follow from it. The resurrection provides immense hope, comfort, peace, and joy. Since all this is of such importance, it is necessary for believers to keep in mind the evidences for their belief in the resurrection so that they may be prepared to give a reason for the hope that they have when asked (1 Pet. 3:15). Situations where we may be asked to give such an account could arise in the context of evangelizing (Acts 17:18–20, 32–34) or in the midst of personal pain or suffering (1Thess. 4:13–14; 1 Pet. 1:3–9).
Below we will present six facts that not only support Jesus’ resurrection but also argue strongly against naturalistic theories. Additionally, each of these six facts are supported by multiple historical criteria.
From there it gets pretty deep and complicated, but do read on, it’s a fine article. Even if you’re a believing Christian already, I expect you’ll find something there you haven’t really considered before.
The Gospel of John is an eyewitness account, a first-person account of events in that time, and was intended as such. Luke was Paul's "travelling companion", Mark was "Peter's servant in Rome", and the other Synoptic (same point of view) Gospel is similarly problematic. One example of the problems in the Synoptics is that they have Jesus being born in a place called Bethlehem in Judaea, which is 90 miles south of Nazareth, which is a long donkey ride in the middle of winter - or at any other time - try riding one mile on a donkey... The other difficulty is that there was no place such as Bethlehem in Judaea in the first century, the previous one, the city of David, having been destroyed in 483 AD, and only re-established in about 326 AD, by the rather extensive work of Aviram Oshri, an Israeli archaeologist in 2004, who posited the existence of a "Bethlehem in Galilee" four miles from Nazareth. It might be more likely that Jesus, who was known as a Nazarene, was simply born in Nazareth, and leave it at that.
Only John was there in the same time and place, and his Gospel reads like an affidavit, giving details, a number of which date it to that period, and have been confirmed by later discoveries, the most noted being the Pool of Siloam, which was covered over in 33 AD, to be re-found in 1972... It is dismissed as "spiritual" and "mystical", in favor of the Synoptics, which appears to be a convenient evasion. Only the Gospel of John was set out in Greek which had Aramaic phrasing, the rest were not, and only the Gospel of John has surviving fragments dated back to the first century. It stands out amongst the Gospels, and should be read as an eyewitness account of actual events and persons.
The selection of the writings in the New Testament was made by a committee, meeting at Nicaea in about 313 AD, headed up and guided by the Roman Emperor Constantine, who at that time was a follower of Roman paganism and would be until the day he died, where he was allegedly baptised on his deathbed. The Roman emperors did not like Christianity, it had no priests, no leadership, and no temples - it was an example of "leaderless resistance" - and was thus immune to State control, so it was a continuing thorn in the side to the Roman state, something to be eradicated - until Constantine figured out that it could be co-opted and made a part of the Roman state, as a continuation of the Roman state religion. This civil religion centered on Sun worship and the adoption of its pagan holidays, such as Dies Solis Invictus, the day of the Invincible Sun - celebrated on December 25, and Easter, with its pagan fertility symbols such as bunnies and eggs - Of course, if the State has "adopted" what it puts out as your belief as its official state religion, with a couple of minor tweaks - actually a bunch of major ones, but we can just ignore those details - and Christmas is a lot more fun than being crucified as a heretic - its 12 days corresponding to Saturnalia... and on and on. By the way, Caesar Augustus was Pontifex Maximus, the Great Pope...
https://www.biblestudytools.com/john/passage/?q=john+4:1-42 is worth reading, it sets out in plain language the aha!-experience which saves us and brings us into life - and it was possible long before the crucifixion ... as a Samaritan village found out, including a woman with five husbands.