For so many of us, our lives turn on what appears to be one chance decision or encounter. Among the hundreds of decisions we make every day, on one certain day, one of these decisions can become the pivot point around which all the rest of our lives turn. For Simon of Cyrene, a trip to Jerusalem for Passover became his life-defining moment. A Roman soldier picked him out of the crowd to carry Jesus’ Cross. He would never be the same afterwards. So while no one but God really knows the full story of Simon of Cyrene, this is my way of deciphering the hints, glimpses, and connections of Scripture so I can hear Jesus calling me to join Simon in shouldering the Cross.

It takes a real man to shoulder the cross
To take up daily this symbol of loss
Who gives up himself to share and to bless
And counts becoming like Jesus his greatest success.

    His love for God had brought him there. It had called him from the north coast of Africa and Cyrene where he had been held as a slave while he paid off his debt. Finding his freedom, he had made his way to Judea, homeland for all true Israelites. Even though he didn’t live in Jerusalem, but farmed in the countryside, he had made his spiritual home the Synagogue of the Freedmen like others from Cyrene (Acts 6:9). It was there that a recently christianized Jew named Stephen had brought it all back to him — every memory and every step on his way to Golgotha.

    Although Stephen’s words had incited his friends at the synagogue to riot and to take Stephen’s life, Simon saw something different in that moment — something that reminded him of another time and one of the most bizarre and disturbing moments of his life. Something in the look of Stephen as they killed him reminded him of the one whose cross he bore through the streets of Jerusalem that strange Passover. Stephen’s words, “Receive my spirit!” and “Don’t hold these sins against them,” echoed the words Simon had heard that hard day when he had carried Jesus’ Cross, and then stood and watched as they crucified the one whose blood was smudged on his cheek and stained his clothes.

    Simon’s family had followed him that awful day to Golgotha. His sons Alexander and Rufus had tried to make sense of it all, and asked him a thousand questions afterward. His wife worried that the Cross he carried to Golgotha would be his fate as well — simply because his skin was darker, his hands more callused, his clothing a bit too colorful, and his accent a bit too foreign. They had experienced prejudice before. Black Jews were held in esteem by some, but resented by others who did not consider them true descendants of Abraham.

    Simon’s family was with him as they saw religious fury released once again, this time against Stephen. Their eyes had met those of Saul of Tarsus whom they had known only by reputation, but who would later become as close to them as one of their own sons (Romans 16:13). This unspeakable moment, as the weight of the stones crushed the physical life out of Stephen’s body, would bind them together in a strange bond. Somehow in that horrible moment, Simon knew none of them would ever be the same. He knew that this Jesus of whom Stephen spoke, this Jesus for whom Simon had shouldered the cross, had somehow captured them in a way he could not yet explain.

    Simon had heard that Saul had become a Christian. It was hard to imagine that Saul had become a follower of the Cross, the cross once carried by Simon himself. He could hardly believe it, but somehow he understood. So when Saul returned to Jerusalem, Simon knew he must see him.

    As much as he tried, Simon couldn’t shake the death scenes of Jesus and Stephen. He couldn’t help but wake in the night with a cold sweat on his face as he dreamed of angry faces intent on the murder of the Galilean for whom he carried that Cross. Something in the Cross story had held him captive from the moment he first shouldered Jesus’ Cross. Yes, it was the ultimate symbol of degradation and shame for him as a Jew (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13). But somehow, God’s power kept calling him back to this moment. So when Saul came back speaking about this Jesus and his Cross, Simon and his family listened intently!

    “I have been crucified with Christ,” Saul told them. “I don’t live any longer, but Jesus Christ now lives in me. And the life I now live in my body, I live by faith in Jesus the Son of God, who loved me, and went to the Cross to bear my sins! May I never glory again in anything except in the grace of that Cross!” (cf. Galatians 2:20; 6:14)

    Saul taught Simon, his sons, and his wife that they could be united with Christ, too. They had to believe that this Jesus for whom Simon had carried the Cross, this Jesus they had seen suffer and die, was raised from the dead. That he was seen by alive by over 500 people after his resurrection. That just as he appeared to Stephen at his stoning, he had also appeared to Saul.

    Somehow they knew it was true. Something about that Cross and something about that Jesus made sense to him now. Simon and his family became Christians, too. As they were baptized, Saul said to them, “As you are baptized, you share in Christ Jesus’ death on the Cross and die to your past sin, and just as he was raised by the power of God so you are also raised to live a new life with him.” (Romans 6:1-14)

Simon had no idea what lay ahead that fateful day when a Roman soldier had singled him out to carry Jesus’ Cross.

    They were filled with a new passion and joy they had never known. Saul, bound to them by the memory of Stephen’s death, was also now was their brother in the Cross. He ate at their table, slept in their house, and would be their life-long friend. Even though Simon would not live to see it, Saul would take this story of the Cross all over the world. Simon’s wife would be Saul’s adopted mom in the faith, and their little house in the countryside would become the place Paul would visit on his way back and forth to Jerusalem. Even more astonishing, Simon’s son Rufus would help take the message of the Cross to Rome, leading others to Christ in the most important city in the world even before Saul could make it there. His message? Simply telling the story of the Cross in a way that was both very personal and very powerful — how Jesus’ trip to Golgotha had been the way God had chosen him. (Romans 16:13)

    Simon had no idea what lay ahead that fateful day when a Roman soldier had singled him out to carry Jesus’ Cross. He had no idea how this one event would forever change his life and the life of his family. He had no idea why a freed bond-slave from Cyrene would be caught up in a story so big and so world-changing. But he was. And now he chose to carry the Cross, not because some soldier made him, but because he wanted everyone to know that this Jesus for whom he carried the Cross is the living Lord.

    Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Simon was a father who shouldered the Cross. Because he did, his family was transformed, the church was enriched, and the world was changed. Praise be to God, for the same thing happens today when a father and a family choose to shoulder the Cross of Jesus.

It takes a real man to shoulder the cross
To take up daily this symbol of loss
Who gives up himself to share and to bless
And counts becoming like Jesus his greatest success.

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?” (Luke 9:23-25)

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This is not intended to be a biography, but simply a recreation, based upon Scriptural clues, to the story that may have been behind Simon of Cyrene and his sons Rufus and Alexander and his wife who was like a mother to the apostle Paul.

Some Resources on Black Jews:
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/familylemba.html
  http://www.freemaninstitute.com/Gallery/lemba.htm
  http://robtshepherd.tripod.com/falasha.html
  http://www.shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/faq/13-08.html

Title: "A Father Who Shouldered the Cross"
Author: Phil Ware
Publication Date: June 17, 2002

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