“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.” (Mark 15:21)
After the taunting by the Roman soldiers Jesus is now led on the “via delarosa”…the walk to the hill called Golgotha. As was the routine, Jesus and the other two criminals were paraded through the streets from the governor’s palace to the hill of execution. The streets are narrow and by mid-morning they are extra crowded as the city prepares for the annual celebration of the Passover. Making the half mile trek to Calvary would be more difficult today. Each prisoner has a six foot crossbeam strapped across their shoulders which weighed about a hundred pounds. The soldiers would lead the way clearing a path through the crowd bringing attention to what happens to those who go against the Roman Empire.
For Jesus this was not going to be an easy task. He had already been beaten within an inch of His life and had not slept in over twenty four hours. The soldiers could tell that Jesus had suffered too much to be able to carry his cross so they needed to “recruit” a volunteer. The streets were filled with pilgrims from all over the realm who had come for this Jewish holiday and the Romans had the authority to force anyone of them to assist them when needed.
On this day they pulled a man from the crowd from Cyrene and forced him to be a part of this gruesome event about to take place. We aren’t told too much about him. He was not from Jerusalem and was the father of two boys. It may be that the boys were with him when he was commanded to carry the cross of Jesus. If so, they probably followed behind their father as he followed behind the suffering Savior. It is Luke’s version of the story (Luke 23:26) that tells us that Simon walked behind Jesus becoming a living illustration of what Jesus calls each of us to do;
“If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23).
What was Simon thinking as he walked behind Jesus through the narrow walkways of Jerusalem? “This is not what I expected today!” “Where are my boys?” “This is so inconvenient.” “This guy in front of me isn’t going to make it.”
With his eyes fixed on Jesus and the soldiers yelling at him to keep up he slowly climbs the hill to Calvary. Tradition says that Simon was transformed by this event and became a courageous believer that ended up giving his own life as a martyr. Some say that his son Rufus also became a believer and is the Rufus mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:13.
Whatever happened to Simon we cannot be sure but, we can be sure that what Simon was forced to do we are called by Christ to do willingly. We are asked to step out of the crowd and, no matter how inconvenient, follow Jesus to the cross. We have been on this journey for more than 30 days. You may be getting tired and the walk is becoming harder and the burden of meditating on (carrying) the cross is getting heavier and you are thinking, “This is harder than I expected.”
Today, keep your eyes on Jesus and follow Him up the hill. He is going there for you.