13. The Sheep and the Great Shepherd: Trusting God - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (April 6, 2025)
Notes
Transcript
32 Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross.
After his trials and beatings, after the sourging whip and the crown of thorns, Jesus was led out of the Praetorium by the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
As was customary in Roman executions. the Lord had to carry his own cross. John 19:17
17 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha,
The victim did not carry the whole cross but the cross beam. The central post was left permanently in the place of execution, like a hangman’s scaffold. The victim would carry the crossbeam behind the nape of his neck with his hands hooked over it.
Somewhere along the way to the place of execution, Golgotha, the soldiers grabbed a passerby seemingly at random and compelled him to carry the Christ’s cross. Evidently the burden was too great for Jesus to bear.
Our Lord had been subjected to unimaginable stress and abuse:
He had been up all night and undergone the agony in the garden
He had endured false accusations at various sessions with the Jewish authorities involving him being spat on, blindfolded and beaten up.
He had faced the unjust trial of Pilate, including the cruel and brutal scourging
He had been mocked by a large crowd of soldiers, with the crown of thorns and hit with a stick on the head by the solders.
And so SImon became an unwilling participant, following Jesus up the hill and carrying the cross. As a visitor from Cyrene (in present day Libya) who had just come to Jerusalem, he may not even have known who Jesus was.
As we reflect on this event, there are three things that come to mind.
First, this event reminds us of the tremendous physical and mental suffering that Christ chose to endure on His way to bear our sin on the cross. As Isaiah wrote
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Second, it seems very plausible that as a result of carrying the cross and seeing Jesus crucified that Simon came to trust in Jesus. Mark in his account explicitly mentions the names of SImon’s two sons: Rufus and Alexander. This detail would only make sense if they were well known to the audience of Mark’s gospel as fellow believers in Christ.
Some say the Rufus mentioned in Romans 16:13 is the same Rufus as Simon’s son. That verse would then also mention Simon’s wife as being like a mother in the faith to Paul.
13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
So we see even in this brutal situation, God the Father was working to draw sinful people to His Son that they might find everlasting life.
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
I sometimes wonder why God chose that His Son should die in such a brutal way. Perhaps part of the reason is the hardness of our heart towards God before we trust Christ. God in His love for us was willing to choose the way that would open our hard hearts and bring us to faith.
32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
And thirdly, the picture of Simon carrying the cross behind Christ brings to mind how the Lord calls each one of us to carry our cross as part of following Him.
23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
Our cross may be mocking because we love CHrist. It might be hardship, lack of promotion at the workplace, rejection by friends or family, imprisonment, or at the extreme for some death. Anything that we suffer because we follow Christ.
On that day, Simon carried the Lord’s cross unwillingly, being compelled by the Roman soldiers whose pride would not let them be associated with its shame.
We carry our cross for Christ not because we are forced, nor in anticipation of a reward, but out of love for the One who went to that cross for us. Who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
