Luke 23 & 24

The Bible is full of stories of ordinary people who by the power of God do extraordinary things. One of these is Simon of Cyrene.

When a criminal was condemned to be crucified, he was taken from the judgement hall and set in the middle of a hollow square of four Roman soldiers. His cross was then laid upon his shoulders and he was marched to the place of crucifixion by the longest route possible. A soldier marched before him with a placard inscribed with his crime as a warning to anyone else who was contemplating such a crime.

During the time of Jesus, Palestine was an occupied country and any citizen at any time could be immediately forced into service by the Roman government. A Roman soldier could enlist your "involuntary" help by tapping you on the shoulder with the flat blade of a Roman spear. When Jesus sank beneath the weight of His Cross, the Roman centurion in charge looked around for someone else to carry it. Enter Simon of Cyrene.

Simon was probably a Jew who had scraped and saved his whole life so that he might be able to eat one Passover in Jerusalem. He had come to participate in a cherished ambition of a lifetime, and he now finds himself schlepping a heavy cross to Calvary. It's not too much of a reach to assume he might not have been very happy.

So what exactly makes Simon so extraordinary? The Bible says that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Obviously the sons were well known people to early Christians. Paul writes in his letter to Rome "Greet Rufus, and his mother. So somehow the humility of carrying the cross for the Christ must have changed Simon in a profound way.