Lent midweek 4 Matthew 27:32 and Mark 15:21 Title: Simon of Cyrene: The Cross, Now Carried.
Lenten Midweek 4
Simon of Cyrene: The Cross, Now Carried
Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21
Grace, mercy, and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
A question that must be asked by everyone who hears of Jesus is, “Who is this man, this Jesus of Nazareth?” It is certainly not a new question, for we find people asking the question throughout the New Testament, but especially in the Gospels.
The question is asked by the Pharisees after Jesus teaches in the synagogue. The crowds asked the question after he performed numerous miracles. “Who is this?” the disciples asked after the wind and the waves obeyed his voice. “Who are you?” Pilate asked Jesus during his trial. “Are you a king? Where are you from?” and probably many more similiar questions that are not recorded for us in the Holy Scriptures.
There was one thing that lay behind all the hundreds of questions that were asked of Jesus during his ministry, a question that had to be answered. “Could this Jesus of Nazareth be the Messiah?”
Messianic expectations must have filled one such pilgrim, Simon of Cyrene who we are going to look at today. Cyrene was a city in Libya which was located in North Africa. Though on the African coast, Cyrene was a Greek city in which Jews had settled in large numbers.
The Law of Moses required Jews to offer the Passover at the place that the Lord chose and Jerusalem was that place. And since every Jew tried at least once in a lifetime to make that pilgrimage, Simon was in Jerusalem on such a pilgrimage. He was a Jew who came for the Passover. As I showed you last week when we talked about Pilate, nationalistic hopes ran high during the Passover. The idea of the coming Messiah and a united Jewish nation were closely related in Jewish thought. Jews hoped, prayed, waited, and longed for their Messiah to come, so that they could be at last free of foreign rule.
As a Jew, Simon of Cyrene was probably well acquainted with the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. Not all of the Jewish people believed the same thing about the promised Messiah. One group believed that their would eventually come a wise, and righteous descendant of David who would rule the people of God in such a way that peace, harmony, and plenty would abound.
Another group expected God himself to break into human history and set up the messianic age. The Jewish people would rule over all those people that had enslaved them through the years. It was certainly going to feel good to finally get revenge.
Another group combined the expectations of the first two and said that a divinely endowed Davidic Messiah would destroy Israel’s enemies and give Israel the blessings of the new age.
The last group expected the messianic King to be the suffering Servant of the Lord referred to by the prophet Isaiah in the Servant Songs. The question that remained unanswered by them was, “How could a king suffer for the nation?” It had to happen for it was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah. “The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain; but Moab will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure. They will spread out their hands in it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands”. No one had put it all together yet, for it would only be in the light of Jesus’ actual death and resurrection that anyone can see all that was there.
No one knows what kind of expectations Simon of Cyrene brought with him to Jerusalem that day. But there is one thing that I know for sure and that was he didn’t expect to be carrying a cross of a condemned criminal. But it happened. There he was, confronted with a man condemned to death. After getting over the shock of being pressed into service he was probably asking himself, “Who was this man? What had this man done?”
As he carried that cross that day, I am sure he heard what the multitudes of people who followed Jesus were saying. And then there were those women who crying as they followed behind Jesus. “What was that all about?” He might have even heard Jesus’ words of judgment spoken to the women of Jerusalem.
You see by his being pressed into carrying the cross, Simon of Cyrene came into contact with the Word of God. The Person who is the Word, his spoken Word, and the words of the others gave witness to this condemned man. All of that told Simon that this man was Jesus of Nazareth.
What Simon knew before he came into contact with Jesus that fateful day, we don’t know for certain. We don’t know how long he stayed at the foot of the cross either. We don’t even know if he became a believer, but this much is clear: When Mark mentions Simon of Cyrene, he is identified to the Church as “the father of Alexander and Rufus”. Now that might not seem important, but Alexander and Rufus must have been believers well known to the Church, or else Mark wouldn’t have mentioned them. It is quite possible that Rufus is he one greeted by Paul in Romans 16 as a leader of the Roman congregation. We don’t know for sure but it appears that the mention of these two men tell us that faith was the outcome of Simon’s encounter with Jesus of Nazareth.
Though it’s not exactly spelled out for us, Simon’s carrying the cross pointed to what Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”.
You see, the cross is the answer to the question “Who is this man?” He is the fulfillment of the Suffering Servant spoken of by the prophet Isaiah 53, verse 3. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not”
That word “esteemed” in Greek means they didn’t recognize who he was or what he was doing, and we’ve seen how true that was. “Surely he has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows; yet we saw him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted”.
I want you to listen closely to the question I am going to ask, for it is an important question, one whose answer will answer the question of “Who is this man?” Was the crucifixion an accident and who smote the servant? According to Isaiah he was smitten by God!
The cross was no accident. It wasn’t just a sad miscarriage of justice. It was all part of God’s plan. The Father in heaven, not men, struck his Servant. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed”.
The whole thing here is one of exchange as we are told in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. He takes all the punishment; we get all the benefits.
The cross and the man who was hanging on it, until he died, fulfilled the messianic expectations in the way only a Jew who knew God’s Word could see. Here was the Anointed One, the Messiah, set apart to be the substitute. Walking in the footprints of the Savior, Simon carries the cross and by doing so took part in the crucifixion, which the Holy Spirit had revealed seven hundred years earlier.
In a sense Jesus Christ’s footprints are scattered all over Scripture. That is if you’re looking for them. The crucifixion and Old Testament writings all came together and say, “Truly, this is the Son of God.”
Jesus’ crucifixion was not an accident, nor was it something that happened that coincidentally fit what the prophet had spoken. No, it happened because the Word of God made it happen. As it happened, people witnessed it and believed. Simon did what God had planned. His act, his sons, the cross and yes the resurrection all answer this question: “Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth?”
But the Jewish people with all their expectations were not the only ones who asked that question for Jesus asked the same question others asked of him, “Who do you say that I am?” And those who had a false understanding of who he is answered out of spiritual blindness: “John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets”
Jesus asks the same question of us today when he asks each one of us, “Who do you say that I am?” Essentially the same question each one of us must ask ourselves, for until we have answered the question, “Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth?” we won’t know that he is the Lamb of God, who carried our sins, who truly is the Son of God, our Savior from sin and our Lord of life. Amen.
Simon of Cyrene: The Cross, Now Carried
Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21
Grace, mercy, and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
A question that must be asked by everyone who hears of Jesus is, “Who is this man, this Jesus of Nazareth?” It is certainly not a new question, for we find people asking the question throughout the New Testament, but especially in the Gospels.
The question is asked by the Pharisees after Jesus teaches in the synagogue. The crowds asked the question after he performed numerous miracles. “Who is this?” the disciples asked after the wind and the waves obeyed his voice. “Who are you?” Pilate asked Jesus during his trial. “Are you a king? Where are you from?” and probably many more similiar questions that are not recorded for us in the Holy Scriptures.
There was one thing that lay behind all the hundreds of questions that were asked of Jesus during his ministry, a question that had to be answered. “Could this Jesus of Nazareth be the Messiah?”
Messianic expectations must have filled one such pilgrim, Simon of Cyrene who we are going to look at today. Cyrene was a city in Libya which was located in North Africa. Though on the African coast, Cyrene was a Greek city in which Jews had settled in large numbers.
The Law of Moses required Jews to offer the Passover at the place that the Lord chose and Jerusalem was that place. And since every Jew tried at least once in a lifetime to make that pilgrimage, Simon was in Jerusalem on such a pilgrimage. He was a Jew who came for the Passover. As I showed you last week when we talked about Pilate, nationalistic hopes ran high during the Passover. The idea of the coming Messiah and a united Jewish nation were closely related in Jewish thought. Jews hoped, prayed, waited, and longed for their Messiah to come, so that they could be at last free of foreign rule.
As a Jew, Simon of Cyrene was probably well acquainted with the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. Not all of the Jewish people believed the same thing about the promised Messiah. One group believed that their would eventually come a wise, and righteous descendant of David who would rule the people of God in such a way that peace, harmony, and plenty would abound.
Another group expected God himself to break into human history and set up the messianic age. The Jewish people would rule over all those people that had enslaved them through the years. It was certainly going to feel good to finally get revenge.
Another group combined the expectations of the first two and said that a divinely endowed Davidic Messiah would destroy Israel’s enemies and give Israel the blessings of the new age.
The last group expected the messianic King to be the suffering Servant of the Lord referred to by the prophet Isaiah in the Servant Songs. The question that remained unanswered by them was, “How could a king suffer for the nation?” It had to happen for it was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah. “The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain; but Moab will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure. They will spread out their hands in it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands”. No one had put it all together yet, for it would only be in the light of Jesus’ actual death and resurrection that anyone can see all that was there.
No one knows what kind of expectations Simon of Cyrene brought with him to Jerusalem that day. But there is one thing that I know for sure and that was he didn’t expect to be carrying a cross of a condemned criminal. But it happened. There he was, confronted with a man condemned to death. After getting over the shock of being pressed into service he was probably asking himself, “Who was this man? What had this man done?”
As he carried that cross that day, I am sure he heard what the multitudes of people who followed Jesus were saying. And then there were those women who crying as they followed behind Jesus. “What was that all about?” He might have even heard Jesus’ words of judgment spoken to the women of Jerusalem.
You see by his being pressed into carrying the cross, Simon of Cyrene came into contact with the Word of God. The Person who is the Word, his spoken Word, and the words of the others gave witness to this condemned man. All of that told Simon that this man was Jesus of Nazareth.
What Simon knew before he came into contact with Jesus that fateful day, we don’t know for certain. We don’t know how long he stayed at the foot of the cross either. We don’t even know if he became a believer, but this much is clear: When Mark mentions Simon of Cyrene, he is identified to the Church as “the father of Alexander and Rufus”. Now that might not seem important, but Alexander and Rufus must have been believers well known to the Church, or else Mark wouldn’t have mentioned them. It is quite possible that Rufus is he one greeted by Paul in Romans 16 as a leader of the Roman congregation. We don’t know for sure but it appears that the mention of these two men tell us that faith was the outcome of Simon’s encounter with Jesus of Nazareth.
Though it’s not exactly spelled out for us, Simon’s carrying the cross pointed to what Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”.
You see, the cross is the answer to the question “Who is this man?” He is the fulfillment of the Suffering Servant spoken of by the prophet Isaiah 53, verse 3. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not”
That word “esteemed” in Greek means they didn’t recognize who he was or what he was doing, and we’ve seen how true that was. “Surely he has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows; yet we saw him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted”.
I want you to listen closely to the question I am going to ask, for it is an important question, one whose answer will answer the question of “Who is this man?” Was the crucifixion an accident and who smote the servant? According to Isaiah he was smitten by God!
The cross was no accident. It wasn’t just a sad miscarriage of justice. It was all part of God’s plan. The Father in heaven, not men, struck his Servant. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed”.
The whole thing here is one of exchange as we are told in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. He takes all the punishment; we get all the benefits.
The cross and the man who was hanging on it, until he died, fulfilled the messianic expectations in the way only a Jew who knew God’s Word could see. Here was the Anointed One, the Messiah, set apart to be the substitute. Walking in the footprints of the Savior, Simon carries the cross and by doing so took part in the crucifixion, which the Holy Spirit had revealed seven hundred years earlier.
In a sense Jesus Christ’s footprints are scattered all over Scripture. That is if you’re looking for them. The crucifixion and Old Testament writings all came together and say, “Truly, this is the Son of God.”
Jesus’ crucifixion was not an accident, nor was it something that happened that coincidentally fit what the prophet had spoken. No, it happened because the Word of God made it happen. As it happened, people witnessed it and believed. Simon did what God had planned. His act, his sons, the cross and yes the resurrection all answer this question: “Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth?”
But the Jewish people with all their expectations were not the only ones who asked that question for Jesus asked the same question others asked of him, “Who do you say that I am?” And those who had a false understanding of who he is answered out of spiritual blindness: “John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets”
Jesus asks the same question of us today when he asks each one of us, “Who do you say that I am?” Essentially the same question each one of us must ask ourselves, for until we have answered the question, “Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth?” we won’t know that he is the Lamb of God, who carried our sins, who truly is the Son of God, our Savior from sin and our Lord of life. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 6:54 AM
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