Wednesday after Judica + Mark 15:20-47 + March 21, 2018

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Christ had been awake all the night before His crucifixion. His sufferings began in the garden with the anguish that came with drinking the cup of God’s wrath against sin. After His arrest He was taken to Annas, then to Caiapha. In the early hours of the morning He was sent to Pilate, who, after interrogation, sent Him to Herod. There Herod’s soldiers mistreated Him before sending Him back to Pilate for His final sentencing. He has been beaten and flogged. Then He is expected to carry His own cross to Golgotha, the place of the skull. It must have been massive if He was to then be nailed to it. As He carries the hulking instrument of His own death the soldiers escorting Him to Golgotha realize He is exhausted. “Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross.” Here is a man, pulled out from the crowd of the world to bear Jesus’ cross for Him. Luke gives us just one more small, but important, detail in Luke 23:26, that “on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.” Simon took up the cross and followed after Christ.

In the midst of all the details of Christ’s crucifixion, this one about Simon may see the most out of place, a parenthetical aside which doesn’t serve a purpose. But this is not the case. The Holy Spirit wanted this small detail to be written for our learning. In the crucifixion narrative we the Holy Spirit clearly shows us Christ and His suffering for the sins of the world. In Simon the Cyrenian, the Holy Spirit shows us the Christian. Hadn’t Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me?” Christ was surely speaking of a figurative cross. The cross His disciples take up are suffering, persecution for the sake of the gospel, along with common trial and hardship in life. The Cyrenian shows us, quite literally, how those who want to follow Christ must bear the cross. When read this way, this Simon becomes an example for us who desire to come after Christ, so that we might take up our cross, whatever kind of physical or mental suffering it may be, and follow after Christ.

The first thing the Evangelists tells us about Simon is that the soldiers “compelled” him to carry Christ’s cross. He didn’t volunteer for this duty. Who would want to carry another man’s death instrument on his shoulders? Not only was this a hulking physical burden to bear, but it’s an instrument of shame as well. Isn’t this how it goes for each of us and the crosses Christ lays upon us? We shrink back from suffering. We spend so much of our time working to avoid trial and hardship. We recoil at the thought that we might be persecuted for speaking out the truth of God’s Word to someone. It isn’t even persecution that frightens us, but the fear that our neighbors, family, or the stranger who’s struck up the conversation with us might think less of us. No one likes suffering of any kind whatsoever, in body, property, or honor. The sinful flesh especially doesn’t like to suffer. The sinful nature desires comfort and seeks the pleasures of this world. When the sinful flesh hears Jesus say, “Let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” it furiously begins to excuse itself from any cross-bearing. Like Simon from Cyrene, we must be compelled to bear the cross. So our Lord lays our crosses upon us. But there is comfort even in this. We are not to choose our own sufferings and crosses. No one likes self-made martyrs. Our Lord knows our crosses, our suffering, and hardships because He has laid them upon each of us individually, whatever those crosses may be. Our sufferings at not at random, rather, the Lord knows them. He sends them. Therefore we trust that He will remove them when at the best time.

The next thing we see about Simon of Cyrene is that he bears the cross but bears it after Jesus, as St. Luke tells us. This means that when the Lord lays a certain cross upon us, we are not bear it alone and try to wiggle out from underneath it. We are follow Christ in our sufferings and hardships. St. Peter tells us, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:21-23). Christ is our example, our pattern, for suffering. As He bore His cross and its shame patiently, we are called to the same. We are not revile others. Nor are we to complain against God for it. Like Christ in His passion, we are to commit ourselves to God our heavenly Father. Nor should we think it’s strange that we suffer various and diverse hardships in this life. Too many in our age believe that God will take away every suffering from this life as a sign of His love and graciousness and make life a bed of roses. But this is far from what Christ and the apostles tell us. Whatever your cross, Christ calls you to bear it patiently, trusting that the Lord, who has laid it upon you, will remove it at the proper time that is best.

Scripture also instructs us to bear our crosses with joy! Peter writes, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:12-13).  You partake in, or share in, Christ’s suffering. Simon was compelled to bear Christ’s cross, not his own cross. So our crosses, whatever they may be, are Christ’s cross as well. This is what allows us to bear our crosses patiently and joyfully, for we know that we are suffering as sons of God even as Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, suffered. This makes our crosses sure signs of God’s favor, not His disfavor!

Finally we see that Simon eventually was relieved of the cross. Once he had borne it as far as the Lord intended, the cross was lifted from his shoulders. So Christ will relieve us of our crosses in good time, according to His divine wisdom and His gracious will. We also see from Simon that bearing the cross bore fruit. His sons, Alexander and Rufus, followed in their father’s faith and became known in Ephesus and Rome as leaders in the church. This is an encouragement to us as we bear our crosses and hardships, that though we feel the great burden, we know that God is using our crosses for our good. St. Paul tells reminds us in Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” So our crosses exercise our faith, which is good for us. When we patiently bear the cross the Lord uses that for the good of others as well, and the church, though we may not always see that good in our lifetime. Therefore, knowing these things, take up your cross and follow after Christ. Suffer whatever He sends you patiently, for you share in Christ, your elder brother’s sufferings, not for your sins, but for the sake of being conformed to Christ’s image. Rejoice under your cross, knowing that it is a gift from God for your good and knowing that He will relieve it in His time according to His good and gracious will, even as He lifted Simon’s cross, even as He lifted Christ’s cross by raising Him from the dead on the third day. For you have the promise, “as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation” (2 Cor. 1:7).

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + of the Holy Ghost. Amen.