Exchanging Loads

Luke 23:26 (ESV) And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.

Simon had no idea what would happen to him that day as he walked into the city. Originally from the area we now know as Libya, he may have trekked the thousand miles from there to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast, or he may have been part of a community of Cyrenian Jews who lived near Jerusalem. Mark’s account tells us he was the father of Rufus and Alexander. Archaeologists have a discovered a first century tomb near Jerusalem of an “Alexander, son of Simon” in a Cyrenian cemetery. In Romans 16:13, Paul greeted a man named Rufus “and his mother, who has been a mother to me also.” This Rufus could well have been Simon’s son. Why else would a random stranger be named in all three Gospels and his sons named in one that likely originated in Rome? It sounds like that trip into the city changed Simon’s life and the lives of all in his family.

The biggest life changes often happened unexpectedly. They are rarely comfortable. Jesus had been carrying his cross after being flogged. Jesus probably stumbled from weakness and pain from the abuse, so a soldier picked Simon, a helpless bystander, and forced him to carry that cross. Simon’s routine trip to the city turned out much differently than he expected. The blood from Jesus’ whippings would have been streaming down the more than one hundred pound cross beam, making it very difficult to handle. He likely faced rough handling by the Roman soldiers who forced him to carry it. Whatever he was originally trying to do in the city got sidetracked by a major interruption far against his will.

Yet, it seems Simon was able to see beyond the pain and unfairness of that day’s interruption. Somehow he contemplated the one whose cross he bore. Perhaps he was able to gain a fresh perspective and realize that the one whose burden he carried that morning would carry his much greater burden on that same cross that afternoon. Simon responded that day by willingly exchanging his burden with Christ, and he, his wife, and his children were never the same again.

Much like Simon, we each need to look past our own pain and discomfort in those unpleasant interruptions of life. We need to see the opportunities they bring. Yet, even more like Simon, we need to take Jesus’ burden upon ourselves (Matthew 11:29), so that he can take the burden of our wrongdoings and their consequences onto that cross. That is the burden we can never bear on our own.