Simon of Cyrene: The Black Man in Jesus's Life

By TiaElsa

Simon's name appeared only once (few hours) in the New Testament in the life of Jesus. Simon is as a common name for Jewish, Greeks, and other people during that time as Joe or Charlie is today. Yet one of these Simons, called Simon of Cyrene, became a figure larger than life in God's plan of salvation for mankind. They called him "of Cyrene" because he was born in a city named Cyrenaica or Cyrene and whose role in the life of Jesus and in God the Father's plan of salvation was to help Jesus carry his cross, during more than half of Jesus's journey to Calvary.According to history, this man was an unknown man, an African from Cyrene in North Africa, east of Egypt, whose life changed forever.Note that it will be very nice if in every fifth station of the cross, Simon of Cyrene would show up as he really was a black man.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639039517

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Simon of Cyrene

The Black Man in Jesus's Life

TiaElsa

ISBN 978-1-63903-950-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63903-951-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by TiaElsa

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

God's Plan of Salvation

Chapter 2

The Escape to Egypt

Chapter 3

Wedding at Cana

Chapter 4

Death of Joseph

About the Author

Only with few words and archaeological evidence may confirm the historical reality of the Bible's Simon of Cyrene.

Chapter 1

God's Plan of Salvation

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life (1 John 5:11–12). This passage tells us that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, the way to possess eternal life is to possess God's Son. The question is, How can a person have the Son of God?

Man's Problem

Separation from God

But your sinful acts has alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. (Isaiah 59:2)

But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

According to Romans 5:8, God demonstrated His love for us through the death of His Son. Why did Christ have to die for us? Because Scripture declares all men to be sinful. To sin means to miss the mark. The Bible declares all have sinned and fall short of the glory [the perfect holiness] of God (Romans 3:23). In other words, our sin separates us from God who is perfect holiness (righteousness and justice), and God must therefore judge sinful man.

You are too just to tolerate evil; you are unable to condone wrongdoing. (Habakkuk 1:13a)

The Futility of Our Works

Scripture also teaches that no amount of human goodness, human works, human morality, or religious activity can gain acceptance with God or get anyone into heaven. The moral man, the religious man, and the immoral and nonreligious are all in the same boat. They all fall short of God's perfect righteousness. After discussing the immoral man, the moral man, and the religious man in Romans 1:18–3:8, the Apostle Paul declares that both Jews and Greeks are under sin, that there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:9–1). Added to this are the declarations of the following verses of Scripture:

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not of works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

He saved us, not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life. (Titus 3:5–7)

What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter? For if Abraham was declared righteous by the works of the law, he has something to boast about [but not before God]. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation. But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness. (Romans 4:1–5)

No amount of human goodness is as good as God. God is perfect righteousness. Because of this, Habakkuk 1:13 tells us God cannot have fellowship with anyone who does not have perfect righteousness. In order to be accepted by God, we must be as good as God is. Before God, we all stand naked, helpless, and hopeless in ourselves. No amount of good living will get us to heaven or give us eternal life. What then is the solution?

God's Solution

Not only is God perfect holiness (whose holy character we can never attain to on our own or by our works of righteousness), but also he is perfect love and full of grace and mercy. Because of his love and grace, he has not left us without hope and a solution.

But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

This is the good news of the Bible, the message of the gospel. It's the message of the gift of God's own Son who became man (the God-man), lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sin, and was raised from the grave proving both the fact he is God's Son and the value of his death for us as our substitute.

Who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:4)

He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification. (Romans 4:25)

God made the one who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)

How Do We Receive God's Son?

Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross, the Bible states, He that has the Son has life. We can receive the Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior by personal faith, by trusting in the person of Christ and his death for our sins.

But to all who have received him—those who believe in his name—he has given the right to become God's children. (John 1:12)

For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in Him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. (John 3:16–18)

This means we must each come to God the same way—(1) as a sinner who recognizes his sinfulness, (2) realizes no human works can result in salvation, and (3) relies totally on Christ alone, by faith alone, for our salvation.

If you would like to receive and trust Christ as your personal Savior, you may want to express your faith in Christ by a simple prayer acknowledging your sinfulness, accepting his forgiveness, and putting your faith in Christ for your salvation.

If you have just trusted in Christ, you need to learn about your new life and how to walk with the Lord. May we suggest you start by studying www.bible.org. This series will take you step-by-step through some basic truths of God's Word and will help you build a solid foundation for your faith in Christ.

In the Bible, we learn that when Jesus was on the way to be crucified, the Roman soldiers forced a man called Simon from Cyrene to help him carry his cross (Matthew 27:32 and Luke 23:26). It also tells us that this Simon had two sons called Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21) and that Simon carried Jesus's cross to Calvary for at least five hours. Jesus and Simon walked side by side, shoulder to shoulder, all the way to Calvary. How did this happen?

God had prepared for mankind, a wonderful plan of salvation, and of course he placed into his plan only the people that will represent his will and creation throughout eternity—I mean, wanted to be included into it not for now or for then, but forever. The main protagonist for God's plan of salvation was God himself, in the form of his Son Jesus. By being there, I like to believe that everyone participating in Jesus's martyrdom had an specific role and a message for mankind till the end of times. Therefore this plan of salvation created by God got a tremendous meaning, a very important meaning. Why is it so important? It is important because as complicated as it might look, Jesus's plan was simply created for the salvation of mankind, for every man everywhere. There in Jerusalem that day, the drama of salvation was unfolding, chapter by chapter. All of Jesus's selected followers were there. We knew them, and we learned about them through the stories in the Bible as followers of Jesus. But what happened? We have a new figure entering into the scene prepared by God for the salvation of mankind, a man never presented before in the history of salvation, but who does this man represent? Certainly not the Jewish people, nor a friend of Jesus, nor any one of his disciples. He seemed to be someone that we heard only a by small reference or very few times in the Bible, and here he was helping Jesus carry his cross, a man called Simon of Cyrene, a piece of history of the man born in Cyrene.

We need to begin by learning where Cyrene is. Cyrene was the capital city in the province of Cyrenaica, which was in the eastern part of Africa. Today, it is known as Libya.

The next question still is, Was this God's plan of salvation for all mankind? Or was this only for the Jewish people? Well, I was taught that Jewish people were those who believed in one God (monotheism), while there were people who believed in multiple gods (polytheism). According to the Jewish people, the law said that only the Jewish people would get to heaven as the selected race by God. But for me, I wanted to see people other than those of the white Jewish race, selected and included by God into his wonderful plan of salvation. And Lord and behold, there he was, a man that by all description and definition was black! Yes, Simon of Cyrene, a black man, was inserted into God's plan, to play a role at the most critical point of the process of salvation—the man who helped Jesus carry his cross. And for this to come to effect, I got to think that any one of God's angels would be very happy in helping Jesus. But no! It had to be a man because on issues of man, angels could not interfere with God's plan of salvation for mankind. Yes, Jesus was the Son of God, but God wanted to give us a legacy and example, because this was to be remembered throughout the ages. He wanted us to tell everyone about his love and how he came to redeem our world. Yes, he came to redeem and save everyone in the world—not only a few but also God selected each and every one who he knew needed to partake in this critical moment. I am sure that was why he selected Simon of Cyrene.

God wanted him to be involved in his plan of salvation. When the human flesh was the only thing we had at that time, God allowed Jesus to be only human, weak and vulnerable. He was tied, beaten, and flagellated. He felt pain all over his body. He felt anguish and thirst. His cross appeared to be too much for him especially after many hours of torture and the long distance he walked through the streets of Jerusalem. No angels were allowed to come down to help him. Yes, it had to be a man who had to help him because God wanted this to be between God and mankind. He wanted to make a statement for history forever. God wanted to teach us how to help one another like brothers and sisters no matter who he or she was, or even if we don't know him or her, or even if he or she was not like us or look like us or speak like us.

In response to my question, God made me stop in a passage from the New Testament where God placed for a few hours and eternity, Simon of Cyrene. A question still stands—Who was Simon? Who really was he? Where was Cyrene? Several hours of research brought me to these results.

Carrying the Cross with Simon of Cyrene

We can be sure that Jesus was grateful to Simon not only for providing some relief during the Passion but also for helping him reach his goal of redeeming humanity (see John 12:27 and Acts 2:23) by his suffering and death.

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, Whoever wishes to come after me must deny him, take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34)

They pressed into service a passerby, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. (Mark 15:21)

Carrying our crosses is a quite familiar concept to Christians.

We tend to associate this notion with physical ailments or challenges, difficulties in prayer, mental illness, emotional distress, or any of a number of unwelcome events that inevitably occur in life. Unwelcome as they are, if they cannot be eliminated or mitigated, they must be endured. However, Jesus tells us in all three synoptic gospels that carrying the cross was the calling of all authentic followers of his, a cost of true discipleship (see Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23, 14:27). How we deal with our crosses then makes all the difference for us and for many persons with whom we associate.

Of course, the best person from whom to learn how to handle the crosses that come our way is Jesus himself. But as fallen human beings, it is particularly instructive to consider the only man like us (in all things, including sin) who actually (not metaphorically) carried the cross of Jesus aside from our Lord himself, that is, Simon of Cyrene.

Cyrene and Cyrenians

Cyrene (pronounced sai-ree-nee) is located on the continent of Africa in what is now Libya. Nearly nine hundred miles separate Cyrene and Jerusalem, a journey that would have taken several weeks in the first century. Simon was very likely a black Jew coming to Jerusalem for the Passover. That he comes from Cyrene is unsurprising because we know from 1 Maccabees 15:23 that there was a black Jewish community in Cyrene for at least three hundred years prior to the events of Holy Week; we also know that Cyrenian Jews had their own synagogue in Jerusalem per Acts 6:9. Earlier in Acts, we are told that there were Cyrenians in the crowd who heard Peter speaking on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10). Later, in Acts 11:20, we hear of Cyrenians preaching to Greek Gentiles. Another Cyrenian, Lucius, is mentioned as being in the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1). Certainly, Cyrene was an active center of evangelization in the early decades of Christianity.

The Simon of Cyrene in the Gospels

Simon of Cyrene is mentioned only three times in the New Testament—once each in Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21 (quoted at the beginning of this chapter), and Luke 23:26—and all in relation to the episode on the way to Calvary. We are told that this passerby was coming in from the country (Mark 15:21) when the Romans took hold (Luke 23:26) of him and pressed [him] into service (Mark 15:21 and Matthew 27:32) to carry Jesus's cross. We know from John's gospel that Jesus initially bore his own cross (John 19:17), but it is commonly held that the soldiers, because they feared that Jesus would not be able to make it to the place of execution without assistance due to the beating he had already endured, looked for help in the crowd. Conscripting Simon, they led him to the Nazarene and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus (Luke 23:26).

From what we know of Roman crucifixions, it is most likely that only the transverse beam was carried by Jesus and then Simon; the vertical beam was planted at the crucifixion site. Contrary to the traditional form of the Stations of the Cross, there is no indication in the Bible that Jesus again touched the cross until he was nailed to it on Calvary. (The Pope Paul VI-approved scriptural form of the stations, celebrated publicly by Pope John Paul II, adheres only to events explicitly found in the gospels.)

The Impact of Jesus on Simon

Simon may well have heard of Jesus prior to this visit. Even though he had just arrived in Jerusalem from the country, it seems unlikely that he witnessed Jesus's trial or had been part of the crowd associated with these events. (After all, as mentioned above, he is described as a passerby coming from work at a faraway town.) Yet, after this lengthy trip and a tired body, he was being forced to help this Jesus of Nazareth, a condemned man.

It is not difficult to imagine Simon's initial reactions to being conscripted into this service:

Surprise in being singled out

Annoyance with this unplanned detour

Reluctance