Just a few reflections [Luke 23:26-34] regarding some previously unnoticed [at least by me] gracings given by our suffering Savior as he agonizingly trod the Via Dolorosa to his crucifixion on Golgotha's cross. Having been beaten in the face by the Sanhedrin's guards, scourged to the point of exposing gaping muscle and bone by Pilate's soldiers producing a veritable shock-like state, and then having a crown of thorns pressed deeply into his scalp and brow covering his face in even more blood, he now had to carry a 100+ lb. patibulum [cross beam] strapped across his shoulders along the longest and most circuitous route possible from Pilate's palace to Golgotha... a practice employed by the Romans to induce a cold fear in the populace so as to deter future crime. He truly reflected His prophetic description in Is. 52:14 "his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form beyond human likeness." A shocking sight to behold, especially for one so enthusiastically and cheerfully welcomed into the city just five days before.
Jesus, having already suffered the above-mentioned prolonged agonies, began to reel like a wounded animal and the soldiers correctly discerned that he would not make it all the way to Calvary. In fact, there was a very real possibility that He just might die under the cross beam right there in the middle of the road. The Gospels concur in their record that the soldiers would be surprised at the swiftness of Jesus' death once He was crucified [Mk. 15:44; Jn: 19:33]. Thus, the soldiers desperately needed an impromptu solution to this complication impeding the completion of their mission. A north African man from Cyrene [now Libya] who had just at that instant "happened" upon this procession was involuntarily conscripted into the ongoing spectacle and was forced to carry Jesus' cross [v. 26] behind Him as He staggered up the hill along the road to Golgotha.
Quite unbeknownst to Simon at the time, this sovereign and providentially orchestrated gracing would change his soul's eternal destiny. Church historians record that Simon became a Christian as a result of witnessing Jesus' every movement and hearing His every word as He was tortured and executed before him that day; and perhaps he, too, was witness to Jesus' resurrection. Mark's Gospel lists the names of Simon's sons--Alexander and Rufus [15:21] which he would not have done had he not come to know Simon subsequently, and there was no reason for Mark to know Simon had he not become a believer. Furthermore, Mark's Gospel was written to the church in Rome and in Romans 16:13 Paul wrote: "Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too." It would appear that Simon's family may well have ended up being pillars of the expatriate church in Rome! What a testimony to the sovereign grace of Christ during the most outwardly helpless moment of His life!
But Simon's story goes even further, as it provides a dramatic picture of what exactly is required of us to be counted as a disciple of Christ. After Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus made it clear that He would die at the hands of the Sanhedrin, and then He said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" [Luke 9:23]. And then He reiterated this in 14:26, 27 where He said that anyone who loves his family or even his very life more than me, "he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." So the bent silhouette of Simon from Cyrene trudging after Jesus made a striking profile for every disciple of the Savior. The image is sobering, because if we do not feel the very weight of the beam, if there is no sacrifice, if there are no occasions of humiliation, it is quite likely that we are not truly following Christ.
As Simon followed behind Jesus, "A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him" [v. 27]. These women are not to be confused with His devoted followers who had come up with Him from Galilee and who would stay with Him to the bitter end. Rather, these were devout women of Jerusalem who regularly attended executions both to provide opiates and drugs to ease the pain of the suffering criminals and to serve as professional mourners. These daughters of Jerusalem were well-intentioned, sympathetic, kind souls who were beating themselves and bewailing him as He trudged up Calvary's road. They, however, were in no way prepared for what would happen next as Jesus marshaled His remaining strength and turned to face them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children" [v. 28]. How surprising that the wretched prisoner, suffering indescribably and literally dying a little more with each and every step he took, would be thinking of them. As He did this, Jesus followed the Old Testament pattern of addressing the women as representatives of the nation [2Sam. 1:24; Zeph. 3:14; Zech. 9:9; Song 2:7]. He then drove home His gracious warning with both a terrifying prophecy and proverb. "For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then 'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"'" [vv. 29, 30]. The coming judgment would be so dreadful that barrenness, normally held to be a reproach in Israel, would be counted as a blessing. The coming judgment would be so unbearable that Israel would cry out with language used by ancient unfaithful Israel [Hos. 10:8], pleading for an earthquake to put them out of their misery. The following proverb was remarkable for the "how-much-more" aspect of it. "For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?" [v. 31]. Trees do not naturally burn when they are green, but they are highly flammable when dry. Righteous [green] Jesus was not a natural object of disaster, but the sinful [dry] nation was.
The very fact that Jesus warned the devout women [and thus, by extension, devout Israel] shows us that not all who would experience the coming devastation would deserve it. Not all Israel was hostile to Christ and thus, Jesus left open the possibility that God, who even at that very minute was in the process of redeeming Simon's heart, could also redeem the hearts of those who were lamenting what was being done to Jesus. This, of course, gloriously occurred through the New Testament church which was founded in Jerusalem. It is also wonderfully true that many Christians were spared the holocaust of A.D. 70 when Rome besieged the city, because the Jewish persecutions had previously driven most of them out of Jerusalem [the diaspora].
Lastly, we see another unexpected gracing of Christ, as he was impaled and hung on the cross. Between agonizing gasps for breath, He asked His Father "to forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" [v. 34] even as His very blood splattered down on them. It, however, should be noted that this was a specific forgiveness for a specific sin and not for all their sins nor for their sinful condition in general. Yet, it is remarkable that His crucified heart is able to offer such forgiveness in the midst of its agony. And for at least one of the soldiers, Jesus' prayer was not in vain; for some hours later when Jesus said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" [v. 46], "the centurion seeing what had happened, praised God and said, 'Surely this was a righteous man'" [v. 47]. The Crucifixion was for him, too, the dawning of amazing grace.
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