Morning By Morning #96

They seized Simon from Cyrene…and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

Luke 23:26

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Simon’s carrying of the cross of Christ is an exact picture of the work of the church throughout time, for the church is the cross-bearer “behind Jesus.” Mark this down, dear Christian, Jesus did not suffer to keep you from suffering. He bore His cross, not so you could escape it, but so you could endure it. Christ exempts you from sin—not sorrow—so remember that and expect to suffer.

Yet may we be comforted with this thought: in our case, just as it was in Simon’s, it is not our cross but is Christ’s cross we carry. Therefore, when you come under attack for your faith or when people mock you cruelly because of your faith, remember—it is not your cross, it is His. What an honor and a delight it is to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus!

You carry the cross “behind Jesus,” so you have been blessed with great company, for your path is marked with the footprints of your Lord. And your heavy burden has been stained red by the blood of His shoulder. It is His cross and He goes before you as a shepherd goes before his sheep. So “take up [your] cross daily and follow [Him]” (Luke 9:23).

Remember this also: you bear the cross in partnership with Him. Some people have taught that Simon carried only one end of the cross and did not carry it by himself. It is quite possible Christ carried the heavier end, while Simon may have carried the lighter end. Certainly it is the same with you—you carry the light end of the cross, while Christ has already borne the heavier end.

And remember this: although Simon had to carry the cross for only a little time, it has given him lasting honor. And although we must carry the cross for a little while at most, we “will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Peter 5:4).

Thus, truly we should love the cross and, instead of shrinking from its burden, we should consider it something precious—especially since we know “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4:17).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

What Simon of Cyrene was asked to do was in accordance with Roman law, for any civilian could be pressed into service to carry burdens up to one mile. This is why Jesus said, “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matt. 5:41). And the place of the Antonia Fortress, where Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate in the Old City of Jerusalem, is less than one mile from any of the possible crucifixion sites.

Simon’s encounter with the Lord may have led him to trust Jesus as Savior. Mark 15:21 gives us more detail about Simon, referring to him as “the father of Alexander and Rufus,” possibly the same Rufus whom Paul mentions in Romans 16:13 when he says, “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.”

Simon, like us, was chosen to carry the cross of Christ. Perhaps he then carried that cross, as a believer, for the rest of his life—much more than the one mile required by Roman law, but many miles as a true blessing of God!