Simon of Cyrene and Picking Up Our Cross (Matthew 27:32).
length: 58:16 - taught on Apr, 15 2026
Class Outline:
Wednesday April 15, 2026
Main idea:
Through Simon of Cyrene, God reveals the loss we experience through denial and the gain we receive through Christ that is picking up our crosses and following Him.
"Divine interruption: When God compels an ordinary person to carry the cross behind Jesus, it becomes a picture of true discipleship—denying self, surrendering our plans, and following Him in suffering, knowing He has already carried the ultimate burden for us."
Scripture text:
As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross.
They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.
When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind [opisthen - behind or after] Jesus.
Context to Simon.
Cyrene: a very important Greek colony, prosperous and wealthy, that the Romans took over in 96 BC. It had a significant Jewish population. Many Jewish Cyrenes returned to Israel.
Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes
But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch
One Cyrenian became a leader in the Antioch church:
Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
We may assume that some of the Cyrenian pilgrims took the gospel back to Cyrene, for the Christian Church was established there at an early date.
Simon seized.
Mark tells us that it was the third hour (9am) which means it was the hour of morning prayer. With many others, Simon was on his way to the temple to pray.
It was the third hour when they crucified Him.
In Matthew and Mark he is pressed (compelled. In Luke he is seized (laid hold of)).
In seconds he is pulled into the procession and shouted at to carry the cross (or cross-beam).
This incident would not be included without reason. Why give his name and his son’s names?
Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.
Why do we know Simon?
The point of mentioning Simon is not to trace his surprising involvement in the crucifixion to a legacy in the epistle. Rather, it is the image of a man carrying a cross behind Christ.
Athanasius: Simon, a man, bore the cross to signify to all that the Lord underwent not just his own death, but that of men.
Jesus Christ died our death. Not just physical but spiritual death.
1. The seemingly chance meeting points to election:
God sovereign and man’s faith (free-will)
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.”
2. Pressed
“Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”
Simon had to set his own journey aside as he was called into this new path.
3. What it means to follow:
"He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after [opiso] Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind [opisthen - behind or after] Jesus.
So prevalent in the NT is the concept of following Christ in His suffering, in His obedience, to lay down our lives to the Father’s will and here we see a man, an insignificant nobody, by some crazy coincidence (sovereign providence) actually pick up a cross and carry it following Him. But that man would not be crucified, the innocent Lord would and would die for Him and us all.
Application of the image - pick up your cross:
Simon had a path to follow. In that hour, in that slow trek to Calvary with a cross on his back, Simon forgot about all his plans and dreams of his future.
When we look ahead on the road of our lives, what do we see? A promising career? Family? Wealth? Popularity? Fame? Political power? A life of ease or adventure?
How often are our plans interrupted?
As Simon looked back on that event as a believer in Christ, he likely saw it as a moment of discovery.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
I’m sure Simon resisted, and we often do as well. But our gracious God keeps the door open.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
We not only are to lose our lives to follow Christ, meaning a complete overhaul of fleshly or earthly priorities, we are to bear our burdens and the burdens of others.
Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. 5 For each one will bear his own load.
But you must remember that you are not strong on your own. You are weak. Humanity is weak.
The strong do not need courage - they have all the power.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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