ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
April 15, 2022
In the journey to the Cross, there is a lot associated with this day, Good Friday. Yes, it is the day when we remember the crucifixion, but there are other important details, including the introduction of a man we know as Simon of Cyrene. The soldiers grabbed him as he was coming in from the countryside, and the scripture says, “They put the cross on his back and made him carry it behind Jesus.” My spiritual imagination begins to run at this point. I want to know why Simon was coming into town. Was it simply because of the Passover? Had he heard something about this Jesus and was there out of curiosity? Or was he a passionate follower, and he had hoped to defend Jesus? All we know is this same Simon will be the one to ask for Jesus’ body, and to place the wrapped body in a tomb that Simon owned. Most folks wouldn’t have done that for someone they had just met on a road used to march convicts to their deaths. Whether he was there with purpose or by accident, he was thrust into the Jesus story in an unexpected way. In Mark’s Gospel, there is what appears to be a casual reference to Simon’s sons: Alexander and Rufus, yet it probably was not casual. Mark’s audience (40 years after Jesus) probably knew them, and thus we can make an interpretive guess that Alexander and Rufus were well known in the Christian community decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. This suggests to me the unmistakable difference in Simon the next time he saw his family. Something had changed within him, and his children were forever changed because of it. Has there ever been a moment so dramatic in your own life that others took notice, and they too were changed? The Good News of God’s magnificent and immeasurable love can have that kind of impact upon a person, assuming we don’t water it down with a bunch of exemptions and qualifications.
As I look upon the cross this day, O Lord whose enfleshed body hung from that instrument of death, I am left in awe. Your love was not diminished or dissuaded from its glorious purpose. Thank you! Amen.
The Good Friday Services
at 4pm & 7pm
Around the Fountain
