Carrying the Cross
Today I’m going to tell you about someone who had one of the most incredible experiences any human being has ever had. Many of us would say that Jesus is one person we’d like to meet; how amazing would it be to be close to Jesus, to hear him speak, and to look into his eyes? One person got to do all those things at the most difficult moment in Jesus’ life, when he was walking the last, painful steps to his death on the cross.
April 13, 2014
Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26, Carrying the Cross
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
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That man’s name was Simon and he was from Cyrene, the main city of the Roman colony of Libya, in North Africa. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all state that Simon of Cyrene carried the cross for Jesus when he was simply too weak to bear it any further. Each of the three gospels contributes an important piece of information.
“As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross.” Matthew 27:32
“They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.”
Mark 15:21
“As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.” Luke 23:26
Many of us have probably had the experience of looking forward to a significant trip to a special place. You save money, make your plans, and look forward for months and months anticipating what it will be like and what you will do when you arrive. Jerusalem has been a place to which pilgrims have journeyed for thousands of years. By the time of Jesus, Jews traveled from far and near to come to Jerusalem for festivals and holy days, especially for Passover. Simon of Cyrene was making just such a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but he was doing so in the days before planes, trains, and automobiles. As good as the Roman roads were, as fast as the ships were, it took a lot of time and money to take such a trip from North Africa to the Middle East.
Any of us who have saved, planned, prepared for, and looked forward to a special trip can relate to Simon of Cyrene. He likely arrived within just the last few days filled with excitement, anticipation, and joy. He’ll be in the holy city of Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the festival of remembering the deliverance of God’s people from slavery in Egypt. Mark and Luke both mention Simon was coming into Jerusalem from the country, meaning his accommodations were outside the city walls by at least some distance.
Dressed in his finest clothes, I picture Simon heading toward the gates of Jerusalem and the Temple with quick and determined steps that Friday morning. Having pictured this day in his mind many times, he was totally unprepared for what happened next. However disappointed you may have been by a trip or pilgrimage that you’ve been on, it could not be worse than what Simon stumbled into. As he enters Jerusalem a motley crowd is coming his way – there’s tension and fear in the air, among the crowd there are women as well as men, there are even religious leaders, some people look angry, the faces of others are pale and contorted by despair, some of the women are wailing. At the center there are Roman soldiers and the condemned criminal himself. The soldiers want Jesus to go faster, but he’s been beaten and whipped, there is a trail of blood on the street that marks his path, he is nearing the end of his strength. He halts and sways under the weight of the heavy beam and the cross bar that will be nailed to it to form the cross. He simply can’t go any further under this burden; he staggers and sinks to the street. The impatient soldiers want to get this awful job over with so they look around to grab someone to help the prisoner. Their eyes fall on someone who wasn’t even part of the crowd from Jerusalem, but who was on his way into Jerusalem to worship and had simply paused for a moment to see what was going on.
Simon’s long anticipated dream trip of a lifetime suddenly turns into a nightmare worse than he could ever have imagined. Put yourself in his place – your mind focused on worship, devotion, and the great celebration of Passover when all of a sudden the strong hand of a Roman soldier seizes your shoulder with authority and commands you to pick up the heavy, blood-stained piece of wood. Of course you are unwilling, repulsed, and seek to flee. Matthew and Mark both say Simon had to be compelled meaning he resisted and perhaps even struggling to get away. One translation of Luke says they “laid hold” of him. Simon is forced to submit and has to walk in the midst of a mob of strangers, following a condemned man, ruining his best outfit with a rough, bloodstained heavy beam of wood. From dream to nightmare, from holy day to horrific, from the temple in Jerusalem to a place of execution – Simon walks behind Jesus in the midst of the mob following the bloody foot prints. He thinks of his wife and sons and how he will ever tell them about this awful turn of events. (Suddenly getting stuck in traffic or having a flight delayed or cancelled or even getting robbed on one of your trips doesn’t seem so bad does it?)
Then something happens that completely changes Simon’s feelings.
The wailing of women’s voices continues and even rises as they near the hill. Slowly Jesus stops, and turning toward the women he says, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Luke 23:28-31.
It was not just the warning Jesus gave about the fate that awaited others if this was the fate of the innocent, but the concern with which he spoke, the compassion in his eyes, the unbelievable inner strength he displayed. When he looked at Simon and their eyes met, Simon felt something inside of him he could not describe. However, he carried the cross with very different feelings from there on.
Now let’s pause and fast forward ahead seven weeks, Simon’s time at Jerusalem is drawing to a close. He will begin the long journey home shortly after the celebration of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover. Since the experience of carrying the cross Simon has learned a great deal about the prophet from Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth and the more he learned the more he wanted to hear about his teaching, parables, healings and miracles. For weeks stories have been circulating that his body disappeared in the days after his execution. While some scoffed that his disciples had stolen the body, no one seemed able to answer how they could have done so when the tomb was under guard and the tomb sealed by a huge stone. On the Day of Pentecost, maybe for the last time before his journey home, Simon comes to Jerusalem around nine o’clock in the morning, the time of the morning sacrifice in the temple.
Once again he runs into a crowd, but this crowd is very different than the one he encountered on Good Friday. There is excitement, a lot of talking in many different languages, fellow Jews from numerous countries clad in colorful outfits that reflect their homelands. Acts 2:9-11 tells us the crowd includes those from “the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene” so we know folks like Simon were present. At the front of the crowd there are some young men who are speaking in a way that is capturing the attention of the crowd. Just as people are questioning what it all means, one man steps forward, Simon will later learn his name is Peter, and he delivers a powerful message of God’s deliverance for all people from their slavery to sin through Jesus who died on the cross that all people might be forgiven.
Can you conceive of the change that occurred in Simon at that moment? This crucified Messiah, this chosen one of God, this Jesus who had been raised from the dead after dying for the sins of the world – SIMON HIMSELF HAD CARRIED HIS CROSS! If only he had known at the time what God was up to and who Jesus was there would have been no reluctance to carry the cross. He would have considered it an honor way beyond him, a privilege beyond calculation.
Carrying the cross, what Simon thought was the worst possible moment of his life – crushing his dreams and hopes, changing his long made plans – would in fact turn out to be the most remarkable experience of his life.
Sometimes out of our most difficult trials, ordeals, and disappointments: marriages or relationships that have failed; the death of loved ones, jobs that don’t work out, our own declining health, futures that are yet unknown, our struggle to overcome our own temptations, weakness, or addictions – even out of these experiences can come life-changing insight and perspective. If God can bring good out of the horror of carrying a condemned man’s cross, God can bring good out of just about anything, if like Simon, we are open to confessing our sin and our need for forgiveness. If like Simon and those first 3,000 souls who gave themselves to Christ on that first Pentecost, we’re willing to dedicate ourselves to a personal relationship with Jesus in which we seek to let him be our guide and teacher in every aspect of our lives. Simon of Cyrene heard Peter invite everyone (Acts 2:38-39), “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” Almost certainly Simon was one of the 3,000 souls who heard and believed and had the joy of being forgiven and the power of the Holy Spirit strengthening him to live his new life.
I want to conclude by conveying one more picture – can you imagine Simon back home again in Cyrene, his long planned, memorable visit to Jerusalem over? It has been the experience of his life, he returns a changed man. What a story he has to tell his family and friends! No pilgrim in history ever had a more amazing story to tell and his wife and children can listen to it by the hour and they never tire of hearing it. They shudder as he tells of being forced by the soldiers to carrying the cross to the hill where the execution took place. He tells them all about the prisoner, his words, his bearing, and everything else that happened. His family sits amazed as Simon relates what occurred on Pentecost. He tells them of his becoming a follower of the Way of Jesus and in the process he leads his wife and sons to trust Jesus and to follow him as well.
We know this because Mark 15:21 tells us Simon was “the father of Alexander and Rufus.” Mark’s gospel was written 25-30 years after Simon’s experience in Jerusalem. The fact that Mark is the only Gospel writer who mentions Alexander and Rufus, without any need to explain who they are, indicates they were well known persons among those for whom Mark was writing. The sons were by then more well known than their father and that’s why Mark explains the family connection. Acts 12:12, describes Mark’s mother’s home in Jerusalem which was large enough so that a good number of people could gather to pray and a Greek servant is mentioned so they were probably people of means. Mark traveled with Paul and Barnabas, then Barnabas, and later with Paul again. Eventually Mark is in Rome with Paul (see Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24) and the last reference to Mark in the New Testament is in 2 Timothy 4:11 which is a request from Paul that Mark should return to him at Rome. Mark was a Roman citizen as well and probably settled in Rome. It’s likely Mark wrote his gospel in Rome for people who knew Simon of Cyrene’s sons Alexander and Rufus.
We know this also from Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome because in Romans 16:13, we read Paul’s personal greeting, “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; and greet his mother – a mother to me also.” There is no other Rufus in the New Testament and it looks like the apostle Paul was a guest in the home of Rufus’ mother or that she cared for him in some way or somewhere during his missionary journeys. Apparently Simon has died during the intervening years and according to tradition Alexander had suffered martyrdom as a Christian missionary by the time Paul wrote Romans.
It is pretty amazing to think that out of what Simon of Cyrene must have thought was the worst possible experience of his life actually began a whole new phase in his life. It began a deeper, truer life of faith, and a more honest appraisal of himself and the cost of his own sin. It started a personal relationship with Jesus and a dependence on the Spirit of God in daily life. Out of what was in the moment the worst experience of his life came eventually the greatest meaning and a new destiny as he and his family were greatly used by God in the first critical years of the growth of the Christian movement.
We know from archeology that the gospel got to Cyrene very early because there are first century Christian burials in the Jewish cemetery there and men from Cyrene (Simon “the black” & Lucius) are leaders in the church in Antioch, (Acts 13:1-3). It all began with carrying the cross.
Like Simon we too can learn to carry our cross. We can say as Paul did, “And it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Like Simon we can pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
As Simon shared his faith with his family, we can share what God has done for us with our family and with those who are close to us.
When you look at the cross, of course, think of God’s love and forgiveness for you, and Jesus’ sacrifice for you, perhaps think every now and then about Simon of Cyrene who carried it.
Prayer: Carrying the Cross by Joyce Rupp
Jesus, grant us strength to carry the cross-
On those days when life seems too demanding with all its cares, burdens and concerns…
When we experience great loneliness deep inside and the pain of separation fills our spirits…
When we feel the pain of our world and unite in compassion with the Earth’s suffering people…
When we struggle with decision-making and the time comes to make good choices about our lives…
When we are with others in their physical pain or when we vigil with one who has a terminal illness…
When we are asked to go the extra mile, to be generous with our time and your presence…
When we feel weary and worn out, when it seems like all of our energy has been drained away…
When we are challenged to risk our security and to accept new growth in our relationship with you…
When we experience the effects of aging or extended illness on our bodies or our minds…
When we feel discouraged, desolate, and depressed and want to withdraw from others…
When worries and concerns choke our peacefulness and leave us with anxiety and fear…
When we harbor old wounds and are called to offer or to receive forgiveness…
Together, Crucified Jesus, help us to take up our cross day by day. Through these crosses we can grow closer to you. Help us to lean on you and to learn from you. May we not give in to self-pity or self-doubt. Rather, let us trust in your presence which strengthens us. Encourage us on our tomb-like days. Remind us of your resurrection. Help us to keep our vision focused on life and growth. Amen. (from Joyce Rupp’s book- Out of the Ordinary)
Carrying the Cross Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
- Can you recall a trip that you were really looking forward to that didn’t turn out the way you expected it would before you left?
- How do you think Simon felt while carrying Jesus’ cross to a place of execution?
- How do you think Simon’s perspective changed once he realized whose cross he carried?
- Carrying the cross, what Simon thought was the worst possible moment of his life – crushing his dreams and hopes, changing his long made plans – would turn out to be…
- Have you ever had an experience that was very unpleasant or difficult that you later looked back on and realized that some good came out of it? What happened?
- How might the experience of Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross of Jesus impact how you carry a cross you are compelled to bear?