One Moment with Christ
There is a beautiful song called “Watch the Lamb” by Ray Bolz that first introduced me to this man who was forced to carry the cross of Christ. It is a beautiful song that stirs your soul when you listen to it, but the actual story of the man from Cyrene is even more stirring. One verse is all Mark gives us to tell about this man and his children. It almost feels like an insignificant fact. Perhaps, in light of the walk to the cross, this one man’s compulsion doesn’t compare. Yet, in his life, we can see our own.
We know very little about this man, Simon of Cyrene. Cyrene is a country in Northern Africa, some 800 miles away from Jerusalem. Few of us travel such distances now, much less by foot or beast of burden. Still, this man and his sons made the journey to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. From the other side of the Mediterranean, God called a helper for His One and Only Son. As we look at church tradition and the tiny amount of scriptures that might mention this family, we will see that this man coming to Jerusalem at a time such as that was no mistake. He may not have ever heard of Jesus of Nazareth before being grabbed by the Roman soldier and ordered to carry the beam of the cross, but his life was forever changed by him just the same.
Scripture only mentions Cyrene a small handful of times. Outside of the book of Acts, we find Cyrene mentioned, as we did in our reading today, only as an indicator of where Simon originated from. The remaining verses are all contained in the book of Acts. Once it is mentioned simply to describe the travelers who witnessed Pentecost. Of the remaining three mentions, one is often associated with Simon. Acts 11:20 and 21 simply says, “But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord.” Christian tradition tells us that the Simon who carried the cross for Jesus was one of these men who then preached the Good News to the Gentiles.
Simon’s sons were also mentioned in our reading today. This fact leads us to immediately think that the readers of Mark would know who they were. While we don’t have very much information about them either, we do have one mention in the book of Romans. Considering that both the book of Romans and the book of Mark were written for a Roman audience, scholars have long believed these Rufus (only mentioned twice in scripture) are one in the same. Romans 16:13 says, “Greet Rufus, eminent in the Lord, also his mother and mine.” That is quite a title which has to have belonged to quite a man. Also, the fact that Paul honors his mother as being as beloved as his own, shows us the nature of her character as well.
How many people did this family touch? How many souls were saved from the blindness of ignorance because a Roman soldier pulled a tired traveler from the crowd? Make no mistake, Simon’s encounter with the Lord was not an accident. His presence at just the right time and place was ordained by God Himself. Remember that when you believe yourself to be wandering through this life. Long before we were conceived, God was weaving our story together. Our choices may change the shape of our path but not its destination. Simon only received a few brief moments with the Lord, yet his entire family’s lives were forever changed. That is all it takes. One moment with your Savior changes everything.
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
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