The tenth chapter of Matthew
is chocked full of insight of the things that Christians must both watch out
for and to do. They are things of sobriety and vigilance. Foremost among them
is, “And he that takes not his cross, and follows after Me, is not worthy of Me”
(Mat 10:38).
The Calvinistic Doctrine is that
none are worthy; however, it can be seen that some are worthy and some are not.
The ‘red line’ on the ground is who takes up the Cross of Jesus.
Worthy is ‘axios” in the
Greek; it is a balance on which two masses are placed to see which is the
heaviest in the world. That scale only works in the presence of gravity
otherwise it will always balance. Hence, worthiness is a scale that is
useful only in the material world. Therefore, worthiness is a balance of things
that have weight. It is what is important to a person here and now, not after
death nor in another realm wherein there is no mass as we know it.
Again, considering the Greek, where
“cross” comes from stauros — it is an upright stake
The Holy Cross is thought of as an
image. Close your eyes; what do you see? Jesus on the Cross if you are Catholic
or an empty pyre if you are a protestant. The Cross is symbolic of how you see
it.
The only obvious incident of anyone taking up the Cross of Jesus and following Him was by a practically unknown man, to wit:
31
And after that they had mocked Him (Jesus),
they took the robe off from Him, and put His own raiment on him, and led him
away to crucify Him. 32 And as they came out, they found a man of
Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. (Mat 27:31-32)
What did Simon do in reality? He
became the stauros himself. He balanced the beam on his shoulders and followed
Jesus. He was worthy because he carried the weight so that Jesus need not.
Jesus is God. He could have carried
the weight of the Cross Himself; is that not so? He needed Simon the Cyrene
there to show that at least one man would take up the Cross and follow Him. The
body of that Simon became the ‘Cross’ so to speak because both were heavy masses
in this world. Like Jesus who came before him, Simon the Cyrene showed that he
could overcome the burden of the world. Hence, the True Cross represents Simon
carrying the burden of the world for Jesus. He, however, could not do that long,
only as far as Calvary (Mat 27:33), but Jesus bore the Cross all the way to His
death.
What is in a name? The name Simon
(Simeon) means “to hear and obey.” Simon could have made excuses, but they
commanded him, and he obeyed without question. That applies to everyone who
must hear the gospel of Jesus and obey without questioning.
Now think of the transformation
of Saul. His name meant ‘Questioning.’ He was converted into the new creature ‘Paul’
whose name means ‘humbled.’ Names mean things. Why would Simon take up the
Cross of Jesus and follow him to Calvary? Because he was humbled, and because
of that, he was worthy.
If Simon had viewed the Cross
only like an ox (a bullock), then he would have been little more than the
golden calf of the Israelites. He would have been the beast of burden who the
Israelites would worship. Perhaps Simon represented that calf who had no power
to save even though it could carry away the burdens of the Israelites. If so,
then the ‘golden calf’ in a sense bowed to Jesus! Simon could only take up the
Cross and follow Jesus when commanded to do so, but that is only thing he could
do; Jesus had to bear the weight of the world; Simon could not go all the way there
but as far as the Cross would allow.
That he was a Cyrene delineated him
from the other Simons, both the apostle with that name and Peter.
The noun ‘Cyrene’ indicates power
as well as high social standing. Simon was likely not just any every day ‘Simple
Simon’ but represented both sophistication and authority. What did the Cross do
for the Cyrene? It humbled him in the same manner as Saul who questioned Jesus
was humbled into Paul.
Those names were no accident. God
planned the sacrifice of His Son back in the Garden of Eden. The Romans did not
control Simon to do anything; he was born to be there and do that!
Adam — his kind — was cursed
because of the original sin; when God spoke to Adam, it was not just the man but
his gens — the family of Adam that would come. The penalty was this: “In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (Gen 3:19). That is the English
version. Why would Adam sweat when only eating bread? I submit that was for
Adam-kind, to be worthy of God, both him and his kind must take up the Tree of
Life and follow Jesus. Adam’s kind must “keep the way of the Tree of Life” (Gen
3:24). The Dolorosa Way was the Way to the Tree of Life — to Jesus and the
Cross.
Simon the Cyrene kept the Way by
carrying the Cross. He submitted, not because he was commanded, but because he
was willing.
‘Eat’ (English) in Gen 3:19 is akal
in the Hebrew. It is not so much consuming as it is burning up,
or expending calories. It is work… work by sweating.
The ‘bread’ in that same passage
is not bread as is thought, but literally battling. As such, God was not
talking about eating at all but overcoming the world. Simon the Cyrene battled the
burden of the Cross of Jesus to overcome the world. It was not his strength
whereby he was able to carry the Cross but because his eyes were on Jesus as
they both crossed the finish line. Jesus said, “It is finished,” and they both
finished the Way to Calvary.
Keeping the Way to the Tree of
Life (Jesus) defines the worthy. Simon did not go all the Way by himself, but
Jesus was leading Him. He apparently did not see the Dolorosa Way as the Way to
death but the life.
So far as Simon knew it might be
his own cross that he was bearing for Jesus. That day, Simon was worthy of
going with Jesus. Whether it is recognized or not, there was a ‘Saint Simon of
Cyrene.’ He fulfilled his purpose, and like Nathanael, Jesus saw him under the
fig tree (John 1:48), for just like Nathanael, Simon’s walk was planned in the
beginning. Jesus surely saw him under the fig tree when he ordained Simon to
walk the Way to the Tree of Life.
Did Jesus see you under the fig
tree? Are you walking all the way with Jesus or just part way like so many who
merely stood around the Cross?
Carrying the Cross of Jesus was
done both physically and empathetically by Simon. He felt the pain that Jesus
felt. The agony of the Cross was not the physical pain that Jesus suffered but
the burden of sin. Simon, although not the Christ, felt the weight of sin that
Jesus carried, and he carried it for Jesus.
While on the Cross, Jesus became undone.
His Father figure seemed to have abandoned Him because God cannot co-exist with
sin, His flesh suffered death, and His Spirit was given to save the world from
sin and to Comfort Christians in a world of sin.
Jesus did not really give up the
Ghost. As is soon discovered, Jesus gave up the tainted flesh in the likeness
of Adam for a likeness of His Father. That ‘Image’ (selem in the Hebrew)
was a ‘shadow’ or ‘phantom’
It was the flesh of mankind that
Jesus freed because the Spirit was confined in a ‘prison’ of sorts. Making
free is emancipation from the constraints of the flesh. Taking up the Cross
and following Jesus is leaving the flesh behind to remain in the world so that
the soul is free to go to God’s realm.
Glorification is not only a
process but a coming to equilibrium in a higher state. The soul is set free
from the old flesh and a new creature with glorious, incorruptible flesh results.
Note that Simon did nothing but
obeyed out of goodwill for God (love). Simon carried the Cross, but Jesus lost
virtue to him. As they walked, Jesus would have been made weaker as was
revealed with the drink. Simon required no drink because it was the Holy Ghost
of Jesus that none saw that was bearing Simon’s burden.
That is not stated; how would I
know that? It all in the name, ‘Simon’ — he was humbled, going from prestigious
to merely a beast of burden. He had no power; it was Jesus who was still
bearing the Cross and Simon merely followed, given no direction, but much power.
What credit did Simon get for
bearing the Cross? None. Jesus got all the credit, and it was His Power that
kept Simon all the Way.
Now let’s go back to the beginning.
“And the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good
and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life,
and eat, and live forever’” (Gen 3:22).
Again, Simon did not eat of the
Body of Christ as in Holy Communion. He burned up what we call ‘calories’ in modern
times. Eating is consuming calories, whereas work is burning them.
God said ‘man’ (Adam), not the
person Adam but his kind, homo sapiens.
Simon was an upright being
without a tale. He was ‘Adam’ in that he was man. He was bowed as he
carried the Cross. Blessing in the Hebrew is literally bowing. He
blessed Jesus by lowering himself a little lower than the ‘Angel of God,’ to wit:
“We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of
death, crowned with glory and honor” (Heb 2:9).
Simon was made a little lower
than Jesus for Jesus’s sake, for it was Him that was made lower than the
angels. Whereas the soldiers kneeled to God in mockery, Simon kneeled to Him in
submission. He was carrying the same burden that Jesus would carry but it was
made easy by the virtue (dynomos in the Greek) of Jesus.
As such, the Passion Play was
written long before, in the Garden after sin, or so it appears. Simon the
Cyrene just happened (sic) to be there doing things that were pre-ordained for
him. Nothing is never by chance and because he was named specifically ‘Simon’ and
a ‘Cyrene,’ God planned his appearance at the real performance and all the ‘actors’
were real life people.
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