My reading in Luke this morning was one verse, Luke 23:26. “As they led him (Jesus) away, they seized Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry behind Jesus.” In Mark’s gospel, it adds an extra detail about this seemingly random man from the country- “They forced a man coming in from the country, who was passing by to carry Jesus’ cross. He was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.” (Mark 15:21) It seems as though he may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was “forced” to lug this massive wooden cross behind someone badly beaten and sentenced to die. But it also seems that the trajectory of his life may have been forever changed! In Romans 16, Paul gives a specific shout out to a man named Rufus and his mother. As Paul is greeting prominent people in the early church of Rome, he says, “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother- and mine.” 

Could Simon the Cyrene have become a Christian after carrying the cross of Christ and as a result, led his family (wife and two sons- ie, Rufus) to grow up as a family of believers? If that is the case, that he was in the right place at the right time. His family would have played a major role in the early church (and Paul’s ministry) and the trajectory of their eternity would have been completely changed. How incredible!

God wastes no opportunity and desires for ALL to know him and follow him. The call to respond is for all because Jesus was sent to save the world through his death and resurrection (John 3:17). While Simon the Cyrene carried the physical cross of Christ and followed him up the hill called Golgotha, we can make the choice to pick up our crosses and follow Jesus too. His footsteps will lead us toward a life worth living- and dying for.

Matthew 16:24, “Then Jesus said to his disciples ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.’”