Monday
Monday
Simon of Cyrene
As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene … and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
Luke 23:26
Jesus must have been worn out. He had had to endure several trials without sleep, together with a merciless flogging and much abuse. And now by Roman tradition he had to carry his own cross, or at least its crossbar, to the place of execution. It seems that he stumbled under its weight. True, none of the evangelists says so, but Christian tradition does. And this may explain why the soldiers laid hold of Simon of Cyrene and transferred the cross to his shoulders, compelling him to carry it. The church has always honored Simon for this act of kindness, even if he was forced to do it.
It seems clear that Simon and his family became believers. For Mark identifies him as “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mark 15:21), which indicates that they were well known in the church of Rome by the time Mark’s Gospel was published there. “Simeon called Niger [black],” a leader in the church of Antioch, may have been the same man (Acts 13:1), and the Rufus and his mother whom Paul greeted in Rome (Rom. 16:13) may well have been the same family. All this suggests that the Simon who carried the cross for Jesus was a black African from what we call Libya.
It is interesting to reflect how three of the major actors in the drama of the passion were related to the cross. We could say that Judas caused the cross, because his treachery led straight to it; Barabbas escaped the cross, gaining his freedom at Jesus’s expense; and Simon bore the cross, carrying it for Jesus. Moreover, these three are not incompatible with Christian experience today. Like Judas we have caused the cross by our greed and duplicity. Like Barabbas we have escaped the cross through him who died in our place. And like Simon we are called to take up our cross every day and follow Christ.
For further reading: Luke 9:18–26