stephen R Harrison

I recently helped make a cross for our Good Friday and Easter services. We used 6” beams that weighed about 75 pounds each. When finished, that cross weighed over 200 pounds. It reminded me, as it was intended to do, of the cross Jesus carried to Calvary. I sat in silence for about thirty minutes staring at it and thinking about the Crucifixion of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke reveal Simon was tasked to carry the cross for Jesus. Probably fearing Jesus would not make it to be crucified after such intense torture, the Romans compelled this “passerby from Cyrene” to carry the cross of Christ. Jesus’ cross was solid wood and probably close to 300 pounds. With most upright posts fixed in the ground, the piece carried was perhaps 75-100 pounds. What a sight that day: a common spectator in the crowd carrying the cross of an uncommon Savior of the world.

Simon may have been strong enough to carry that cross for a bloodied Jesus, but there was one task he could never perform. Only Jesus could bear the sins of the world. Jesus “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). It is “by his wounds you have been healed.” That was a burden only the sinless Son of a Holy God could perform. Scripture is clear, “For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). More than the physical weight of the cross, Jesus bore the weight of our sins and made it possible to be reconciled to God. Romans 5:10 says, “For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Mark 16:21 mentions Simon’s sons Alexander and Rufus. While the text doesn’t indicate they had any part to play that day, I think there’s something worth noting here. The gospel account of Mark was written around forty years after Jesus was crucified. Mark’s inclusion of the boys, who were middle-aged men by the time he wrote, implies the first readers of this gospel knew these men. Mark purposefully included names in his writing. Mark was most likely saying to these readers, “Ask Alexander and Rufus about what I’m writing. You know them. They were there and eyewitnesses of the greatest story in the world.” Paul mentions Rufus and his mother in Romans 16:13, who seem to be sincere and devoted followers of Jesus. Did Simon explain to his boys that day what Jesus was doing? Did he take the message of the gospel home and tell his wife? We know this: every eyewitness that day would never forget Jesus’ crucifixion. Simon wouldn’t. Alexander and Rufus wouldn’t. Neither can we.

Thank you, Jesus, for carrying our sins on the cross. We, too, are called to “carry our cross” (Luke 9:23-24), not for salvation, but as those whose lives have been forever shaped by the cross of Christ.