There is always something deeply compelling when we look at the Cross of Jesus. Contemporary Christian musician Chris Tomlin writes, "What can take a dying man and raise him up to life again? What can heal the wounded soul? What can make us white as snow? What can fill our emptiness? What can mend our brokenness? Mighty, awesome, wonderful is the Holy Cross, where the Lamb lay down His life to lift us from the fall. Mighty is the power of the cross." (Mighty is the Power of the Cross, Chris Tomlin) John R. W. Stott says of his own vision of the Cross, "I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I turn to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me. He set aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death." (John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ) There is always something deeply compelling when we look at the Cross of Jesus.

Today we begin a new series of messages for the season of Lent that will connect us with what I call "The View from the Cross." As we prepare for the glorious resurrection of Jesus on Easter I want us to see not only the vision of Jesus on the cross but also to see those whom Jesus may have seen and didn’t see as he looked out from the cross. Luke’s gospel in chapters 23 and 24 records for us several who were there at the cross: a man named Simon the Cyrene, the women, the criminals, and the soldiers. He also reminds us of one who was not there and that was Peter, who had denied any relationship with Jesus.

The person we see today in our view from the cross is Simon the Cyrene. He is one of those "one verse" people of the Bible mentioned only briefly in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. There are numerous people mentioned in Scripture who only get one or two verses. They are people who are briefly mentioned or may speak a word or two and then fade into the background. Yet what is fascinating is that often by a little investigating we can see how their "one verse" says more than the whole book of some people’s lives. Such is the case with Simon the Cyrene.

William Willimon, Dean of Chapel at Duke University, recalls asking a talented young Duke actor to memorize the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion, and then to stand up and deliver that passage from memory on Palm Sunday. When they met for his "dress rehearsal," a couple of days before Palm Sunday, he asked Willimon, "Do I have to recite the scripture, just as it is written?" Willimon told him that that was normally what was expected, that they didn’t really care for people editing the Word of God. Then Willimon asked him, "What did you have in mind?" The young actor replied, "I don’t want to remove much, just this bit here about Simon of Cyrene, the one who is asked to carry the cross of Jesus." "Why don’t you like him?" Willimon asked. "It isn’t that I don’t like him," the student replied, "it is just that I don’t think it fits. It messes up the flow of the story. Things have been so dramatic, with the arrest of Jesus, and his trial, and now they are leading him to his cross. It is all very emotional, very moving, and this bit about this guy being pulled out of the crowd to carry his cross, it just doesn’t work, dramatically speaking." Willimon told the student to leave Simon alone. Though he may not work, "dramatically speaking," he certainly works, spiritually speaking. He added, "I’d love to tell you why we love Simon." (From Bystander to Cross-Bearer, William Willimon 8/29/1999) That’s what I want to do today. I want us to understand how that Simon’s experience of the cross is a model of how many came to experience the cross.

What we can piece together from Simon’s "one verse" moment in Scripture is that Simon was a Jew from the area of Cyrenecia of North Africa, which we know as Libya today. He had come to celebrate the Passover in the Holy City, Jerusalem. Whether this was his first time there we do not know. It is possible that this was the result of a lifetime of saving and planning to at last to be in Jerusalem for Passover. As he was coming out of the countryside into the city he encountered a throng of people coming out of the city following a criminal carrying his cross being driven toward a hill. I am sure this was not what he expected to be greeted with as he came to Jerusalem.

I wonder what he thought and felt at the sight of a man carrying his cross, falling down over and over from exhaustion. There is a group of women who followed him wailing, the crowds mocking and the soldiers beating him. As he watches this stumbling criminal he suddenly feels the blade of a Roman spear upon his shoulder and as the soldier motions for him to carry the cross he knows he can’t refuse. Whether he carried it gladly, reluctantly, sorrowfully, we can only speculate. I can’t help but imagine that there was a moment when the bloodied eyes of Jesus looked deeply into Simon’s.

Simon carried the cross of Jesus as far as a place the scripture calls "The Skull", a small hill outside the city walls of Jerusalem where criminals were executed. Did Simon drop the cross and run? I personally want to believe that Simon stayed there long enough to see the full effect of Roman crucifixion. That he observed the nailing of Jesus’ hands and feet, watched as he was raised to the sky and trembled when his cross was dropped into its place with a deafening sound. What Simon saw with his eyes made a deep connection with his soul because of the obvious life transformation that occurred within him.

While some of what I have said is speculation, we do know that for Simon the cross was forever imprinted on his mind. The way we know this is that Mark mentions in his gospel Alexander and Rufus, who were Simon’s sons. Somehow the events of that day so transformed Simon that he shared that with his family and they were transformed as well. Mark wrote his gospel from Rome which explains the greeting of Paul to Rufus in Romans 16:13. There he is called "a choice man in the Lord." Simon’s wife is also mentioned there and was so loved by Paul that he calls her his mother also. This man carried the cross of Jesus and was forever changed by the events! Can you imagine when he heard Paul or Peter preach on the cross of Christ that he could once again feel the weight of that cross on his shoulder? Here is one who knew what it meant to "deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Simon’s experience of the cross began as an interruption he did not plan. Simon had come to Jerusalem to experience the celebration of Passover. He did not come to witness—much less participate in—the crucifixion of a man called Jesus of Nazareth. He was forced to experience the cross by outside forces over which he had no control. I am sure that there are some of you whose experience of the cross was the result of an interruption in your life that you really hadn’t planned. I will admit that for most people their experience of the cross is the result of a process that began with hearing the story of Jesus’ death on the cross when they were a child. Later, that story became more than his story but their story as well. There are other people who never intended in a million years to even come close to the story of Jesus’ death on the cross. While they are not oblivious to the events and may even accept them as actual history still they are not in any way influenced by what they have heard.

The cross, however, has a way of interrupting our lives. Like the blade on the shoulder of Simon that forced him to carry Jesus’ cross, so God has a way of allowing the events of our lives to force us to encounter the cross of Jesus. It may be that there are forces that are beyond our control that cause us to discover that what we thought was only a story has something to say to the deepest part of our soul. Perhaps an illness, a problem, crisis, fear or conflict becomes a blade on our shoulder that seemingly creates for us an encounter with the cross. We had our life pretty well planned out and then everything fell apart. We suddenly are left helpless and alone. Through that pain we sense that there is another force at work calling to us to look not at what we could lose but to see what could be gained through the death of Jesus on the cross. Our experience of the cross may begin as an interruption we hadn’t planned.

When Simon at last came to the place for Jesus’ crucifixion he took the cross from his shoulder and watched it fall to the ground. The man that had been driven from the city was then thrown down on top of the cross. His hands and feet were nailed to the wood that Simon had carried. How long Simon stayed there is anyone’s guess. What I want to believe is that what Simon observed with his sense of sight and sound became for him a connection deep within his soul. It was a connection that he had never expected.

When the cross of Jesus interrupts our life there is the opportunity for a connection to God within us that we really hadn’t expected. I say that there is the opportunity for that connection but not the certainty that it will happen. There were hundreds, even thousands of people, who watched the crucifixion of Jesus that day. There was only one whose name we have recorded out of that mass of people—Simon the Cyrene. We have his name because of how the experience of carrying the cross connected with him personally. Hundreds of others all saw and heard the same thing but nothing happened to them internally. It didn’t touch them inside. Simon allowed what he saw and heard to speak to him in his soul in ways that he never expected.

When the cross of Christ interrupts our life there is the opportunity for God to connect with us in our hearts if we will really look and truly listen. In other words, an interruption of our plans can become a connection we hadn’t really expected. That is always the mystery that surrounds the cross. The mystery is how the events of a day in 33 AD have the power to speak to our heart in ways we would never have dreamed. That somehow this man was no ordinary man. This death was no ordinary death. This injustice is no cry for martyrdom. That somehow this horrible sight connects with our lives in ways and places we never imagined. That connection is a connection with God that we had never expected.

Simon’s life was interrupted by the cross of Jesus. That interruption caused him to see things that he never expected. What he saw though said something to him inwardly that only God could say. It created a connection with God that he had always wanted but had never found. Yet what happened was that these events resulted in a transformation of his life for which there was no other explanation. We do not know if Simon’s wife and children, Alexander and Rufus, were with him on this trip. They may or may not have been. Regardless, they would witness the fact that Simon was a different man. Simon had been transformed. That transformation was the result of the connection that God made deep within him. Somehow Simon understood that this death of Jesus was more than the result of Jewish manipulation of the Romans but was something that God was doing for him.

All of Simon’s life he was concerned about what he could do for God. How he could please him, serve him and honor him. Everything was focused on his doing more and more. That’s why he came to Jerusalem, to celebrate in a ceremony that could put him in better standing with God. Then he saw the cross and he understood that no longer was his life to be focused on what he could do to get rid of his sins. Instead, he discovered that what Jesus had done through his death was that his sins were taken away. It was that discovery that transformed him.

You see transformation is the starting point of all lasting life change. We are transformed when we accept that what Jesus has done on the cross is enough to take away all the guilt for my sins. Unless this transformation occurs there will be a continued confusion that somehow I must do more to make God like me when the reality is that Jesus has already done that. It is this transformation that is the core of life for us. The quality of change at the center of life will influence change at the surface and edges of life. This kind of life transformation is not the result of our efforts but can only be explained by our encounter with the cross. It’s a transformation we can’t explain any other way.

Simon’s experience of the cross became a message to share with those he loved. At some point Simon’s transformation of life became a message that he told to his wife and his sons. They in turn became tellers of this message themselves so much so that they were key figures in the church that was in Rome. The events that began as an interruption of his plans connected with his heart, resulting in a transformation of his life. Now he had a message for the generations to come.

Our experience of the cross of Jesus is to be the very same as Simon’s. The cross of Jesus somehow interrupts our plans for our life. That interruption becomes the vehicle for God to connect with our heart. As a result of that connection we are transformed so fully that nothing is left untouched. That transformation is not something for us to keep secret but it is to become a message to be shared with generations that we must not neglect, for it will be the generations that follow us that will shape their destiny and ours.

You see we can’t assume that simply because a person is in contact with Christian truth that that means a connection and transformation within them. That is the whole tragic reality of our churches and our nation! We make the assumption that because we talk about truth that there is a connection and ultimately a transformation of a person’s life. But it isn’t true! It is that assumption that results in our neglecting to deeply and significantly impact the generations that are waiting to hear. We foolishly believe that what is going on now is adequate for the generations to come. It explains why once our youth leave for college that there is a tremendous drop out of participation with the church. Why? Because we have assumed that contact with truth equals lives transformed by truth. Our experience of the cross is a message for generations we can’t neglect.

Today you have come here perhaps not planning to have your life interrupted by the cross of Jesus. Yet today God is using that cross to speak to you in words and ways that no one else can. The reason he is speaking is for you to allow what was done on that cross to transform you from the inside out. Once that occurs you have a story to tell. "What can take a dying man and raise him up to life again? What can heal the wounded soul? What can make us white as snow? What can fill our emptiness? What can mend our brokenness? Mighty, awesome, wonderful is the Holy Cross, where the Lamb lay down His life to lift us from the fall. Mighty is the power of the cross." The cross that Simon carried is the cross that can change your life.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org