Stations of the Cross, Pt. 4: "In HIs Steps"

IN HIS STEPS (MARK 15:21-22, MATTHEW 27:32-33, LUKE 23:26)
The cross is what separates Christianity from other religions, the suffering Messiah from popular gurus and theological heavyweights from lightweights.

Lois A. Cheney wrote a touching and thought-provoking poem on the cross:
I stand before the cross and wonder.
I stand before the cross and fear.
I kneel before the cross and weep.
I pray before the cross and rejoice.
To know the cross is to know Christ.
To feel the cross is to feel Christ.
To gaze at the cross is to gaze at Christ.
To carry the cross is to be a Christian,
And not until then.
God, forgive us. (Calvin Miller, The Book of Jesus 370. NY: Touchstone, 1996)

Thomas a Kempis said, “Jesus now has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross.”

While John’s gospel noted that Jesus carried the cross upon his shoulders (John 19:17), Matthew, Mark and Luke stressed that Simon the Cyrene carried the cross for Jesus. In the Roman Catholic tradition, Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus carry the cross, is visibly present at the 5th and 9th stations, two of fourteen stations of the cross.

Who was Simon the Cyrene? What did he get out of carrying the cross? Why did it help him and not hurt him from carrying the cross? Simon of Cyrene was a pilgrim, in the biblical sense, who became an eyewitness and a servant of our Lord in the most extraordinary way.

A Cross-bearer is No Longer a Seeker, But a Sufferer
21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). (Mark 15:21-22)

I am often bewildered by the strong response to the gospel song “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” After reading Simon’s story, I understand the stirring feeling of being informed of, invited to and included into this unique privilege.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh…Sometimes I tremble, tremble, tremble,
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Simon was an accidental tourist, but not an accidental believer. He was a Jewish pilgrim coming into Jerusalem, but he ended up as a Messianic pilgrim coming into faith. The foreigner from Cyrene, a region in Libya (Acts 2:10) of North Africa, discovered that the real pilgrimage was not at Jerusalem, but Golgotha; it was a single act and not a yearly Passover affair and the sacrifice was the precious Lamb of God, not the blood of animals.

Oddly, the choice of Simon the Cyrene was as curious as his appearance with Jesus that day. Previously he was faceless, nameless and clueless in the crowd, but now he was singled out to be Jesus’ pall bearer, the closest witness and the survivor of the two. While most people seldom question the color of his skin, one internet painting of Simon the Cyrene depict him as a black man. http://www.magnificat.qc.ca/english/stat05.htm

Another web site suggested that he was one of eight black men in the Bible. Whether it is so may be intriguing, but this uneasy pilgrim could well be a black man, a Jewish foreigner or maybe a Gentile godfearer.

Like other pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem at that time, Simon was there to confess his sins, ask for forgiveness and vow to return. The sacrifice at the temple was symbolical, ceremonial and yearly, but the sacrifice at the cross was personal, bodily and historical. Jesus’ death was the offering of his own precious blood, not the blood of goats and calves, once for all and not once a year to obtain eternal redemption for believing sinners (Heb 9:12). Simon the pilgrim did not receive ceremonial forgiveness, but legal pardon; temporary acquittal, but permanent atonement; short relief, but divine reconciliation.

A Cross-bearer is No Longer a Stranger, But a Son
32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). (Matt 27:32-33)

Henry Morton Stanley, the 19th century explorer whose name is forever associated with finding the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone and the immortal words of “Dr. Livingstone, I presume,” described the transformation that came into his life from befriending Livingstone:
“I went to Africa as prejudiced as the biggest atheist in London. But there came for me a long time for reflection. I saw this solitary old man here and asked myself, “How on earth does he stop here -- is he cracked, or what? What is it that inspires him? For months after we met I found myself wondering at the old man carrying out all that was said in the Bible – ‘Leave all things and follow Me.’ But little by little his sympathy for others became contagious; my sympathy was aroused seeing his piety, his gentleness, his zeal, his earnestness, and how he went around his business. I was converted by him although he had not tried to do it.” (7,700 Illustrations # 3101)

Simon was a passerby who was a reluctant and unknowing eyewitness. Yet it was not fate and destiny that brought Simon to within city limits that day, nor was it man’s design and inclination, but God’s grace, kindness and love that made Simon an eyewitness. Simon was literally trapped, captured and transformed by God’s love.

This African civilian was at the wrong place at the wrong time, ignorant of local politics and Rome’s might. If he had known, he would not pass that way, make the trip or linger so near. Simon had missed what Jesus said at his trials. Jesus’ words on the cross definitely did not escape him and he certainly heard and understood the only words Jesus spoke on the road to Golgotha (Luke 23:27-31), where a large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

More than 20 years after Jesus’ death, Mark wrote his gospel and noted that Simon the Cyrene is now the father of two well-known young men in the Christian community, Rufus and Alexander (Mark 15:21). The logical conjecture from this is that Jesus’ words had an impact on Simon, who, in turn, took Jesus’ warning to heart and was responsible for his sons’ conversion.

A Cross-bearer is No Longer a Spectator, But a Servant
26 As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. (Luke 23:26)

My wife Doris asked if I was ready to preach about Simon the Cyrene, and I replied that I still could not feel what carrying the cross is like and asked if she knew of any one who would be an example of cross-bearing. She said, “Yes, but you wouldn’t like it.” I said, “Really? Let me hear it.” She told about a missionary by the name of Helen Roseveare, a speaker at Urbana '87, and how she had underwent suffering and pain as a medical missionary to Zaire. Doris listened to Dr. Roseveare at Urbana, and though Dr. Roseveare did not tell her story and its details, the audience nevertheless was asked to read a book she wrote about her ordeal in Zaire, Africa. The book’s name is “Living Sacrifice.”

Helen Roseveare had a zest for life and believed that she would make a difference with her training, but she quickly found out that her misplaced pride in her achievement, the numerous languages of Zaire natives and inadequate medical supplies and equipment were unkind barriers. However, nothing compared to the terror she experienced when guerillas held her captive for many months, repeatedly hitting and raping her.

Doris showed me the book she bought, and in it, Dr. Roseveare wrote candidly: “Beaten, flung on the ground, kicked -- teeth broken, mouth and nose gashed, ribs bruised -- driven at gun point back to my home, jeered at, insulted, threatened -- I knew that if the rebel lieutenant did not pull the trigger of his revolver and end the situation, worse pain and humiliation lay ahead. It was a very dark night. I felt unutterably alone. For a brief moment, I felt that God has failed me. He could have stepped in and prevented this rising crescendo of wickedness and cruelty. He could have saved me out of their hands. Why didn’t he speak? Why didn’t he intervene? And in desperation, I almost cried out against Him: ‘It is too much to pay!’…In the darkness and loneliness, He met with me… and He breathed a word into my troubled mind: the word privilege. ‘These are not your sufferings: they are not beating you. These are my sufferings: all I ask of you is the loan of your body.’”

All in all, Dr. Roseveare served faithfully in Zaire for 20 years. Though misfortune struck her, she survived the humiliation and shame of the attack, worked for nine more years in the village and concluded the briefly-reported incident in the book with these words: “For that night, cost became swallowed up in privilege. (Helen Roseveare, Living Sacrifice 22. Chicago: Moody Press, 1979)

Carrying the cross is a costly and controversial privilege. There were many disciples named Simon, but where was Simon Peter, the leader of the twelve apostles? Why did he not say or do something? Where was Simon the zealot when the Roman soldiers were crucifying the Lord? What happened to his anti-Roman zeal and passion? Where was Simon, Jesus’ half-brother, when their mother Mary was crying her tears out (Mk 6:3)?

The shame of the cross -- to the Greeks, Jews, and to the world -- was understandable. Cross-bearers need big bodies, broad shoulders and brave hearts for the journey. Simon the frequent traveler was right for the job. In the end, Simon became Jesus’ biggest supporter and his side-show, the butt of jokes and object of ridicule.

Whether Simon understood it, meant it or treasured it, he was still serving Jesus. The walk behind Jesus was a challenge no one anticipated or prepared for. If he walked in front of Jesus he could have reached Golgotha easily in half the time. But to walk behind Jesus, he would have to slow down each time Jesus slowed, stopped or stumbled. He could not walk fast, overtake Jesus or arrive first. Simon saw Jesus fell three times. He heard Jesus paused for breath, heaved in relief, struggled for air, but eventually reached Golgotha.

Hudson Taylor said: “Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. There are not two Christs – an easy-going one for easy-going Christians, and a suffering, toiling one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ.” (Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret 236-37, Moody, 1989)

Simon the Cyrene was the Good Samaritan to Jesus. He walked a mile with Jesus and was one of three people – the other two being the two Marys (Matt 26:6-16, Lk 7:36-50) - who was counted as having done something for Christ and offered something to Him.

Conclusion: Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross- bearers here below.” If you do not carry the cross on earth, you do not have a crown in heaven. Some of us were nudged by our friends or family, others pulled by the love of God, but push or pull, we will carry the cross in our lifetime. God desires you and I to be strong enough to carry the cross, slow enough to follow His steps and spirited enough to finish the course. Have you discovered the strength of and triumph from bearing the cross, suffering its shame and to experiencing its glory? Will you embrace the cross and endure the shame, so that you can exchange it for a crown? Today, the pilgrimage is not a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Mecca or Golgotha once in your lifetime, or to Jerusalem every year at the Passover, but the true biblical pilgrimage is to deny yourself, take up the cross daily and follow Jesus.