Grace Community Church, Arlington, TX

Palm Sunday starts the most important week of the year. It is the beginning of Holy Week. It begins with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and it ends with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

And there was this guy who just happened to be passing by that week, and he was compelled to become a part of that story. The guy I am talking about is Simon of Cyrene or The Man who carried the cross.

What do we know about him?

1. He was from Cyrene. Cyrene is located in Northern Africa. There was a Jewish community and a community of Jewish converts, God worshippers, there at this time. They were a result of the dispersion, the scattering of Jews from their homeland. Simon likely grew up in a family of African converts to Judaism.

2. He was on a Spiritual Pilgrimage. The likely reason for why he was in Jerusalem at this time was that he had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast. And since the journey was such a long one, it is likely that he and those who traveled with him from Cyrene, were probably planning to stay another fifty days to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.

3. He had to stay in the country the night before because the city was too crowded with all the pilgrims coming in for the Passover Feast. That was a common occurrence during Passover.

4. He was passing by. He was not following the events of Jesus. He probably knew nothing about this apparent criminal who was now crumbled underneath the weight of the crossbeam which he was to be crucified on. He was in town for the Passover, not for an execution. He had things to do and places to go. He was just passing by.

5. He was pressed into service. He didn’t volunteer. He was ordered by a Roman soldier. So, his plans are interrupted. The day that he had anticipated for probably months, and maybe even years, had been drastically altered.

6. He had to bear Jesus’ cross. The crossbeam was too heavy for Jesus to carry. He collapsed under its weight. The Roman soldier was not interested in this taking all day, so he looked around the crowd and picked out the closest big strong man he could find, and it was Simon.

7. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Mark’s gospel was written to the Romans. In order for Mark to better identify Simon to his readers in Rome in the first century, he spoke of his sons who the Roman Christians were quite familiar with. Alexander and Rufus became leaders in the church of Rome at the time of the writing of this gospel.

In fact, in Rom 16:13, The Apostle Paul closes his epistle to the church in Rome with these words, “Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.”

Simon was most likely dead at this time. But his wife became a woman who the Apostle Paul considered his spiritual mother, and his son, Rufus is called a choice man in the Lord.

Alexander, according to church tradition, had already died a martyr at the time of the writing of the book of Romans.

I think it is fair to say that Simon of Cyrene ended up believing in this Jesus whose cross he carried. And he passed that faith on to his wife and children. And his wife and children became key leaders of the church in Rome.

So, we know how Simon started out, and we know how he must have been changed so dramatically that his impact went through his family all the way to impacting the Apostle Paul and the church in Rome.

But what was it that changed him?

What about your story? Maybe you are already a follower of Jesus, and this story is causing you to think back to the time when, at some point in your life, you would have been just fine with Jesus and His procession just passing you by. But that didn’t happen. You were compelled to become involved in this most important of all stories. And now you are one of His followers.

My question to you is, “what will you do next?”

I challenge you to do what Simon did. Tell the story to anyone who will listen to you. If you do, the ripples of your impact will far outlive you, just like Simon’s did.