V- Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross

 

"STATION V: Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross" by contemplative imaging is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

We adore you O Christ, and we praise you. For by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. 

I imagine Simon was less than enthusiastic. 

Honestly, that's probably putting it mildly. Being forced by big scary armored guys with swords and a superiority complex to carry an instrument of execution next to a condemned criminal dripping blood on the holiest weekend of the year (as a member of a religion where touching blood made you ritually unclean) in an unfamiliar city while a crowd of people stared wasn't in this guy's plans. It was deeply humiliating, inconvenient, disruptive, and something he was forced against his will to do. 

The gospel accounts don't tell us many details about what happened next -- but the gospel of Mark notes as an aside that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. If the man's sons were known to the early Christian community, it's a fair bet that Simon was a member as well. 

I wonder what happened between that initial forced burden of carrying a criminal's cross and arriving at Golgotha. Was there some deep connection that happened then and there, or did he only put the pieces together on what had happened well after the fact? 

To look at this station from another perspective -- it's so odd to think of Jesus, as an adult, having to be dependent on anyone. I know He was a man as well as God, so it makes sense that He could come to the end of human strength just like any other man. But it's still strange to think of the one who calmed storms and walked on water having to depend on a random stranger to carry a piece of wood. 

If something did happen between Jesus and Simon, I know it was an encounter with love, because that's who Jesus, as God, is. I wonder how Simon encountered that love in a situation he was forced into against his will, by someone who was depending on him for something. I wonder how Christ showed that love. 

It feels like something important to understand. 

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