Shame You Don’t Deserve - Mark 15:21 Series

Mark 15:21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was pass-ing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Introduction

Simon

Well, they finally wrap up their gruesome vaudeville entertainment session and get on with the crucifixion.

20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. 21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Can you imagine this? You’re just minding your own business one day, on your way into town for Passover, travelling along, and suddenly you’re involved in a crucifixion? Just witnessing a crucifixion could give someone PTSD. It was a brutal, bloody, violent ordeal so horrific that the word “cross” was a taboo swear word in Roman society. Can you imagine just walking home one day, and you don’t just witness one, but suddenly you’re involved in one? Some soldier point at you and orders you to carry the guy’s cross.

Simon wasn’t a follower of Jesus. He probably figured Jesus was a criminal who deserved what he was getting. And now he’s connected with this criminal.

I don’t imagine the soldiers were very gentle with Simon. They are in savage mode already. In order to carry out a crucifixion, you’d have to pretty much set aside normal human sensitivities and just let all the worst animal instincts to take over. And when a whole group of men do that, they’ll do anything to anyone. So I’m guessing this was a pretty brutal ordeal for Simon.

Gentiles

My big question when I was studying this is why it’s mentioned. There’s no explanation or connection to anything. Mark just tells us it happened and moves on. Why is it important that we know someone carried the cross?

And not just someone—specifically a guy by the name of Simon. That sticks out because normally Mark doesn’t mention people’s names. When Peter attacked Malchus at the arrest, Mark doesn’t tell us Malchus’ name or Peter’s name. He just says someone standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest. He doesn’t even mention that it was a disciple.

Mark is like that, most of the time. But here he not only tells us Simon’s name, but we get a whole dossier on him—his name, where he’s from, his kids’ names, why he was passing by—way more detail than Mark gives for even much more important characters. Why so much infor-mation?

Mark wouldn’t include it if it weren’t important, so let’s go through each part. He starts by telling us where he was from—Cyrene, which was in Africa. So this guy was an African, which makes him a foreigner.

It was a herculean effort for the NT writers to convince the Jews of their time about God’s fa-vor on the Gentiles. So the gospel writers are usually quick to point out when Gentiles play a fa-vorable role. Here Mark says, “It was a foreigner who carried Jesus’ cross.”

Historical Verification

Next, why does Mark tell us his boys’ names? It sounds to me like the people Mark was writ-ing to didn’t know Simon but did know his sons. “Hey, you know Alexander and Rufus? Well, it was their dad who carried Jesus’ cross.”

We know Mark had connections with Rome, and we know there was a leader in the church of Rome named Rufus—Paul mentions him in Romans 16:13.

Romans 16:13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

So it sounds like this is for the purpose of historical verification. Kind of like when Paul talks about the resurrection of Jesus and says he appeared to 500 people at once, and Paul says, “Many of whom are still alive.” The point is, you can talk to them and verify this. Mark might be doing something like that. “All this stuff I’m telling you about what happen at the crucifixion—if you doubt me, just talk to Rufus and Alexander. Their dad was there.” The Bible is full of historical markers like that. You notice Bible stories don’t begin with “Once upon a time” (or “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ”). It’s more like, “During the reign of this king you know, in this place you know, when this other famous event was taking place, here’s what happened ”

Sometimes critics say the events of the cross must be legends because none of the disciples were there. How could the Bible writers possibly know all these things that happened when they all deserted Jesus at his arrest? None of them are there at the cross. Answer—Simon was there. Talk about an eye-witness. No one had more of a front row seat for the crucifixion than Simon, and his sons were still around.