Good Friday 2024: Simon of Cyrene

When It Feels Like You are Carrying the Cross

Mark 15:21 ESV

And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

1 JESUS: LED AWAY TO A RUSHED EXECUTION, vv. 16-20

We have read through Mark’s account of the crucifixion of our Saviour. It is the historical record of the God-Man, Jesus Chrsit, on His solitary journey to accomplish the plan, which was put into place in eternity past, when the Triune God decided to step into the mess we would make of this world -so that He could rescue a people for Himself, by paying the penalty we had incured, to set us free from the condemnation we were, every single one of us, born under.

On this Jerusalem Friday morning, once the decision had been made and our Lord condemned to die - his sentence was executed in a hurry. The chief priests and Pharisees couldn’t stand the presence of this threat for one breath more than absolutely necessary. Besides, it was the day of the Passoer, and they wanted to have this matter over and done with before they went with hypocritical piety to celebrate the feast of Israel’s deliverance. It makes sense that these religious leaders would be in a hurry.

But Pilate? Every civilized society allows a space of time between a sentence of execution and the carrying out of that sentence. Of course that’s the case - a death sentence cannot be undone once it goes into effect. With the Romans, it was usual to allow a break of 10 days. Pilate could have pronounced Jesus guilty of the sham charges against him - but insisted on a delay before releasing him to his venemous accusers.

He doesn’t - he hands over this prisoner for an immediate execution for no other reason than v. 15 explains: “… wishing to SATISFY the crowd.”

Verse 16: “And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters) and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.”

The soldiers have their cruel mocking fun: “Hail king of the Jews” they cry … as his face they punch and on which they spit in contempt, before kneeling in a scornful play at homage at the dirty feet of this One charged with pretending to be a King. They don’t have much time - but they have time for that.

In verse 16, Jesus is led INSIDE the palace. At the end of verse 20, he’s led away, again.

Verse 20, “And they led him out to crucify him.” Led from place to place … LED - the mark of one with no power in the situation - He goes where others decide.

See him there, the Blessed One, standing outside the gate of the governor’s palace, in the custody of cruel soldiers, with a centurion in the lead … about to be led, like a lamb to the slaughter. But, the text tells us they do not go any further until they take OFF the purple robes and put his own clothes back on his raw flesh.

Do you notice the text doesn’t say that they took OFF of his head, the crown of thorns. If the crown had bee ntaken off, this surely would have been the place to say it: Verse 20 could easily have read, “… they stripped him of the purple cloak AND the Thorny crown … but it doesn’t say that.

It makes sense: Pilate wrote on his accusation: “The King of the Jews” - it’s fitting that he continues to wear this painful, derisive crown.

See your king, friend: King of the curse. Back in Genesis 3, in judgment after our human race fell, God declares: “Cursed is the ground because of you … throns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” See your redeemer, Christian - the One who purchased us FROM the curse is crowned with that part of the arth that came BECAUSE of the curse.

“O sacred head, with grief and shame weighed down,

Now scornfully surrounded - with thorns thine only crown.”

2 JESUS: LED OUTSIDE THE CITY GATES, v. 20b.

The end of verse 20 tells us the direction in which our Saviour is led: “… they led him OUT to crucify him.”

He is led outside the city … away from Jerusalem’s temple and altar. The temple, in THIS city, is the centre of worship and sacrifice … but he must NOT die here. He is a sacrifice, but the Son of God can NOT be sacrifced on this altar.

The rler of the city and the public opinion they have stirred up - is so full of loathing towards the Holy One of God that they rejected him: He will NOT be allowed to die inside their city. Watch Jerusalem casting out their only hope.

But there is a more important reason that our Lord must die OUTSIDE the city: Because even though there are several types of offerings presented on the altar at the temple:

Sweet-smelling offerings of grain are offered on the altar, as God commanded … but SIN-offerings are to be burnt OUTSIDE the camp of the city gate - because God can have no fellowship with sin. As soon as sin is imputed to the sacrifice, it becomes repulsive to God and must not be

In Leviticus 4, instructions are clearly given for dealing with sin offerings: Leviticus 4:11–12, “But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung— all the rest of the bull—he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up.”

It is becoming increasingly UNpopular to describe Jesus’ death as being in any way associated with payment of a penalty for sin: “The penal-substitutionary view” of the Atonement has fallen on hard times lately - INSIDE many circles of the Christian Church. Some say, “Jesus’ death on the cross was the declaration of victory over Satan and the forces of evil … Others say: “Jesus died as a moral example … He went to the cross to teach us how to live …

Still others say, “Jesus’ death was the ultimate declaration of God’s love for a broken human race”. Those are the

Jesus died on the cross to accomplish one of these things - or a combination of a few. But HE DID NOT DIE as a substitute to take on Himself the punishment for our sin - PENAL SUBSTITUTIONARY atonement is the language of vengeful violence, not loving mercy. Surely that is beneath the God of the Bible.

If you have heard that opinion expressed - or if that’s your thinking, friend - then you need to answer this question: “Why did God INITIATE the sacrificial system in the O

Leaves the temple behind him … leaves Jerusalem behind him … He is forsaken: Forsaken by the people … forsaken by God.

“God made him who had no sin to BE SIN for us ...” (2 Cor 5:21). This is a sin offering. We’re not left to guess: the New Testament Scripture tells us that’s EXACTLY what Jesus is doing here:

Hebrews 13:11–12“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” ,

See Jesus, on the Via Dolorosa … It is the way of Suffering. It is also a way marked by filth and stench. The unclean is thrown outside of the city - it is thrown no the dung hill. In the days of Judah’s faithful king, Josiah, that son of David appointed the valley of Hinnom, a place that had been used in the idol worship of Molech - he designated it as a dung-hill ...this is where the refuse is thrown … the city garbage … this is where felons - go to meet their end.

… this is the direction Jesus is going. Away from His father’s house, away from the city where His people live.

Because we were sinners, and because sin had turned our backs to God, and because sin had broken our communion with God’s accepted ones, therefore must he endure this banishment. In that sorrowful march of the cross-bearing Saviour my soul with sorrow sees herself represented as deserving thus to be made to depart unto death; and yet joy mingles with this emotion, for the glorious Sin-bearer hath thus taken away our sin, and we return from our exile: his substitution is infinitely effectual (SPURGEON)

See your king, friend! See him being led out to die. Seeing him making the lonely journey.

3 SIMON OF CYRENE: PRESSED INTO SERVICE, v. 21

Now the journey is a lonely one … it is certainly not a quiet one. With the pilgrims, worshipes and God-fearers,descending on Jerusalem from all over the world for the Passover feast - the city is bustling with people. The normal population of 25 thousand – has exploded to 250 thousand (the historian Josephus says that some 30 years later, Passover attracted close to 3 million. See the walls bulging with humanity.

Verse 21 of our text gives name to one single individual in the faceless crowd. Verse 21 tell sus of, “… a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country.”

Simon is his name, Cyrene is where he’s from. He is an African – Cyrene being on the northern tip of that great continent, in the nation now known as Libya – to the west of Egypt and bordering the vast Mediterranean Sea. Simon is ____800???????_________ miles from home, here in Jerusalem – the farthest he has ever been. He’s a pilgrim here for the Passover and ready to enter the holy city for the festival.

There is no way Simon is getting a hotel room inside the city walls - so he has spent the night in some village just outside. He has risen from bed early this morning, has already bathed and dressed carefully … with a tinge of excitement - he walks the winding pathway that takes him through fields and along narrow roads between hedges … sometimes across dry riverbeds, cracked under the unrelenting power of the sun.

Closer and closer he gets to his destination, first he can see the wall protecting Jerusalem, like a sentry … and as he gets still closer, there is a commotion blocking his way into the city. It is a procession - but not of festive celebration … this procession is marked by angry shouts and mournful cries. In the lead are Roman soldiers - Simon would recognize them anywhere - the insignia on their shields, their uniforms …

There is no getting around this crowd, no going through it. If Simon wants to get into Jerusalem, he’ll have to pull off to the side of the road and let the crowd pass him by. And that is exactly what he does.

From his new, roadside vantage point - he gets a look at the procession as it passes by: there are the soldiers, there are religious leaders, there is a worked up and anxious … and there are three men: stumbling slowly along, bent beneath the weight of rough, heavy-wood crosses, obviously carrying their own execution devices to the place of their impending deaths. Two of the men look exactly as he would expect mento look, who had earned the sentence of death - the death of a cross … hardened, cynical, resenting the world.

But the third man, he looks different: there is no anger there, no curses, no shouting … on his head is the twig of a long-thorned briar, twisted in the shape of a ridiculous crown and shoved cruelly down on his head … blood trickling from several points on his head where the thorns have embedded themselves in his scalp. He looks pathetic … still - no anger.

Simon is waiting until this procession goes past so he can get on with his plans for the day … but this scene transfixes him.

The man with the makeshift crown is moving more slowly than the other two - being shouted at by soldiers, “hurry up”

He tries … it is clear - he’s trying, but it’s also clear from the disfigurement of his body - that he has been savagely beaten and he simply has nothing left.

Knees buckle. He is too weak to continue the journey, bearing THIS physical load and he stumbles under the weight. How could he not be?

In the last 24 hours he has washed the feet of his disciples, led them in a meal, spent hours in the garden, praying with such fervour that he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood in his anguish. He has stood as defendant in a series of sham trials, marched back and forth through town, endured scourging .... Simon knows none of this, but we have read the text - we do.

Impatient soldiers, determined to stay on schedule and get the job done on time - realize there is no point in any more beating … the look around for someone strong enough to lend a hand.

Verse 21, “And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country ...”.

Can’t help but read the name Simon and recognize that there is a much more famous Simon - who is strikingly absent from this scene. where is Simon Peter right now? The disciple who adamantly declared, “Even if all fall away … I will NOT.” So where is he? the Lord is in need of a hand, right now Simon - where are you? We know where he is - somewhere in the distance … cowering.

He’s the nearest man. He’s strong enough - his shoulders are broad: “You there - TAKE THIS!”

The text tells us that they ‘compelled him”. This is not a worshiper coming to the aid of the leader he loves … this is a passerby who steps onto centre stage, not by his own choice, but just because he happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

This Jesus is in the way of his plans for the day.

He doesn’t volunteer - he’s pressed into service -