No Better Story

The New Universe

It was a bluebird sky above a cool Friday morning as he headed into town. It had been a long trip, some 850 miles from Cyrene. Millions of Jews had converged on Jerusalem for Passover and their campsites dotted the countryside around the city. He marveled at the crowds pushing in and through the city gates and scowled as he pondered the many stops he needed to make that day. The crowd noise was unbearable and he suddenly missed the quiet of his garden in Cyrene. As he elbowed his way past people the shouts and yelling only grew louder. Suddenly the masses fell away and he found himself standing before a Roman guard who was beckoning him forward….. 

Who was Simon of Cyrene before that fateful morning?  A farmer, a stonemason, a potter? Like so many, his fate was about to be changed by an encounter with Jesus. He was heading into Jerusalem for the Passover and suddenly gets hijacked to carry a condemned man’s cross. Eight in the morning and he must have thought this was quickly turning into the worst day of his life. He’d been traveling for weeks to get here and now he’s forced to drag a cross through a Jerusalem population that’s swelled from 25,000 to over two million. Two million people inside a city of 300 acres. It was ridiculously crowded and it must have been terribly difficult to navigate with a 300 pound cross on his back. Below is what 2 million people looks like.

But this was anything but a chance encounter and this day would turn out to be the exact opposite of the worst day of his life. Although, I don’t imagine Simon was a follower of Jesus before that morning. He was probably a displaced Jew living in Cyrene who had traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover. But I like to believe his unique experience that day led him to faith in Jesus. The Roman guards forced him to carry the cross and I imagine he cursed his luck. How could he know that bloody and battered man walking beside him was God’s son? Whatever communication they might have had is unknown, but Simon’s half a mile hike with the cross is mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels. Simon's sons, Alexander and Rufus, are mentioned in Mark’s Gospel in a way that suggests they became followers of some standing in the early Christian church. Seems a stretch that he would be mentioned so frequently if he faded into history after carrying that cross. 

I don’t believe he did. Walking a hard road with Jesus by your side will change you, and being close to Him, then and now, has a profound affect. Proximity to divinity alters you and I believe it altered Simon. So maybe, after dragging the cross up that desolate hill, he didn’t leave…….. Perhaps he stood with Martha, Mary, and John as Jesus hung there, and gazed in wonder when that bluebird sky went pitch black for three hours. Possibly he steadied himself when the earthquakes shook Jerusalem, and he was stunned when he heard the Roman centurion exclaim, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” 

Later he would have heard of the temple veil being ripped from top to bottom the moment Jesus breathed His last. A veil, sixty feet tall and thirty feet wide and six inches thick, which represented our separation from God, was ripped from top to bottom as if God ripped it with His own hands.

Three days later he would have started hearing insane stories about that man whose cross he’d carried. Stories that the man he’d watch die…….had risen! Maybe that terrible day for Simon was just the beginning. Tradition says that Simon went to Egypt to preach the Gospel and was martyred for his faith. We won’t know for sure until we get to Heaven.

I jot down that story and wonder why I bother. There’s nothing that competes with the real Easter story. Who in their wildest imagination could have dreamed up such a tale? Told in such an understated and matter of fact way, just another ho-hum day when the creator enters his own creation, then proceeds to sacrifice Himself so his creatures won’t have to die.

It’s a crazy plan, right? God sacrificing His own son, a part of Himself…..to save us? Turn on the nightly news and imagine sacrificing your child for any of those crazies out there. Not likely! But the Old Testament is clear, it was His intention the entire time. The same God who, because He is just, condemned us for our sin, also took it upon Himself to save us since we couldn’t do it ourselves. We couldn't even want to do it for ourselves.

And on top of dying for our sins, while Jesus was at it He went ahead and conquered the scourge of His universe, death. The result of sin is death and everything is dying……Every star, every galaxy, every planet, and every person. Science tells us the entire universe is in a state of decay. When Christ defeated death it wasn’t just for human beings, the death of everything was defeated. I suspect in His new universe stars, galaxies, planets, and people won’t burn out, degrade, go cold, or die. 

We couldn’t dream up such a story because “perfectly selfless” is beyond our grasp. We spend so much of our time here on earth striving for a better existence, more comfort, more happiness, more, more, more…… we can’t really comprehend the concept of giving up everything for nothing.

He didn’t have to come, you know. He could have just stayed in Heaven and left us in our own messes. All powerful means nothing in the universe could have forced Him……..except love of His children.

Happy Easter!