Simon of Cyrene

Matthew 27:32
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.

As they, that is, the Roman guard assigned to crucify the thieves and Jesus, left the city along with their condemned prisoners, something compelled them to stop and force this man, Simon, to carry the cross of Christ. What was it that would cause them to do this? Certainly it was not their sudden overflow of compassion for the man they just tore to shreds with a whip. I don’t believe it was a sudden desire to get Him up the mountain faster so they could get on with the execution. (Remember, crucifixion was supposed to be long and drawn out, exacting as much pain and suffering as possible before death.) Perhaps the soldiers were worried that Christ might die before they could even reach the place of crucifixion, and they couldn’t have that. Whatever it was, I’m going all in and saying God had something to do with it.

I have heard a number of sermons about Simon carrying the cross for Christ. Most of them use Simon to illustrate how we as Christians should act. They teach, “See, even Jesus needed help...” Teaching like that is doctrinally unsound. Christ came to carry away our sins (John 1:29), not get halfway there and tell us to come and carry them again! Are we to believe that Christ, God in the flesh, actually needed the help of a mere man to carry out His mission? What kind of God would we serve if He couldn’t even accomplish His own will without the assistance of His creation, the very creation for whom He had come to redeem through His work and sacrifice?! Not one version of the Bible even hints that Christ couldn’t go on. It is man’s assumption and interpretation of the verse that has led us to believe Christ was in a weakened state, but I’m telling you, my Jesus could have carried all three crosses up that mountain (His and those of the thieves). That’s my Jesus!

I think God had something entirely different in mind when He prompted the Roman soldiers to compel Simon to carry the cross for Christ. Simon’s actions were a direct result of compulsion under the law. This is, what I believe to be, the whole point in this short little intermission during the crucifixion and suffering of Christ. God, through Simon, was showing all of us our unwillingness and apparent inability to voluntarily submit to, and fulfill, the letter of the law. Simon, a representation of all mankind, was forced to submit. It wasn’t out of love for Christ or a need to serve that he bore the cross; it was out of duty to the law and fear of punishment.

The name Simon means obedience. It was his obedience to Roman law that got Simon a few mentions in the Bible; more importantly, it was Christ’s complete obedience to God’s law that got us into heaven. And here you have the whole point: God doesn’t want fearful service out of duty and compulsion. Instead, He desires a relationship based on freedom (through grace) and love. So He went to the cross for us to remove the need for fear. Now, thanks to Jesus, we have the freedom that God always intended for us. We don’t have to be subject to the “gotta do’s” of the law anymore because we live in an age of “already done” by grace.