{"id":12332,"date":"2024-06-13T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=12332"},"modified":"2024-06-13T23:39:40","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T15:39:40","slug":"on-the-way-to-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2024\/06\/13\/on-the-way-to-the-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Way to the Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke 23:26-31 26<\/sup>And as they led him away, after seizing Simon, a certain man of Cyrene who was coming in from the country, they laid on him the cross in order to carry it behind Jesus. 27<\/sup>And a large crowd of people followed him and women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28<\/sup>But turning to them Jesus said, \u201cDaughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29<\/sup>For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, \u2018Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!\u2019 30<\/sup>Then they will begin to say to the mountains, \u2018Fall on us,\u2019 and to the hills, \u2018Hide us.\u2019 31<\/sup>For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

These verses record two events as Jesus was forcible taken to the cross. Luke’s account leaves out details known from the other Gospels but adds others, specifically verses 27-31. Three different groups interact with Jesus in this scene. First are the Roman soldiers who are simply referred to as they<\/em>. Luke does not write that these soldiers were specifically told to crucify Jesus, but that would be the outcome of what they were doing. The road to the cross, traditionally called the\u00a0Via Delarosa<\/em>, wound its way from Pilate’s Praetorian, through the city of Jerusalem, to the hill called Golgotha, which was known as the place of the skull where people were crucified. People could see crucifixions for some distance, which made them even more of a deterrent.<\/p>\n

The next major character is specifically named as Simon, a man from Cyrene, which was in northern Africa near modern Libya. No doubt, he had come from a long distance and was in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. When someone is named in the New Testament, people knew the name because of the legends that developed around them. In this case, Simon became famous in the early church for what he did at this point. He possibly became a believer because his sons, Alexander and Rufus, are named in Mark 15:21, and Rufus later in Romans 16:13. The Romans forced the condemned to carry their cross, which would have been a big beam, to the place of their execution. The Roman soldiers commandeered Simon to carry the cross (known as the\u00a0patibulum<\/em>) for Jesus probably because Jesus was faltering and could no longer make his way. The most likely reason was the scourging Jesus received after the trial. This form of beating was enough to kill a person. It quickened the death on a cross. We can imagine the scene as Simon likely got Jesus’ blood on himself and walked behind Jesus all the way to Golgotha. Simon becomes symbolic in a literal sense of someone who has taken up a cross and followed Jesus (9:23; 14:27).<\/p>\n

The third actors are women who were part of the crowd following the procession. Women hold a special place before, during, and after Jesus’ crucifixion. At this point, they are the ones deeply troubled about what they saw. Jesus’ disciples have disappeared from the scene. It is unclear from the text whether these women were disciples or just concerned and compassionate about what they were seeing. They may have heard Jesus or at least known about him.<\/p>\n

Jesus’ response to them in the form of a proverbial riddle is full of compassion and care. Even in his great pain, Jesus looked upon them as a fatherly host by calling them\u00a0daughters of Jerusalem<\/em>. His words have the echo of prophecy about coming troubles for Jerusalem. Like what often happens with war, the women and children would suffer the most with what would be coming soon. The phrase\u00a0the days are coming<\/em> indicated that what Jesus said here was a prophetic warning of future trouble and judgment and recalls his earlier statements in 19:43; 21:6, 22\u201324. The irony in his statement is that barren women will be called blessed. At that time and culture, barrenness was viewed as a curse from God. Barren women would be blessed because they could more easily flee the coming destruction and not be concerned about rescuing their children. But even the barren women would experience such great hardship that they would want to be crushed by the mountains in fulfillment of Hosea 10:8. Jesus ends with a proverb for the women comparing green wood that is flexible to dry wood that is brittle and easily broken. If his situation looked bad, what they would soon face would be even worse.<\/p>\n

The three types of people in this scene represent three different responses to Jesus. Each of those who watched or participated in the journey to the cross encountered the suffering of Jesus with different agendas.\u00a0The Romans are clearly the antagonist, but as Luke portrays them, they are a bit passive and just doing their duty. Simon represents a person who learns what it means to carry a cross and follow Jesus. It was not easy, but he became aware, as the crowds cried out around him, of the honor Jesus had among the people. The women represent those who know the pain of suffering and death and compassionately share with those who are experiencing it. Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross were part of God’s eternal plan for the salvation of all people.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 23:26-31 26And as they led him away, after seizing Simon, a certain man of Cyrene who was coming in from the country, they laid on him the cross in order to carry it behind Jesus. 27And a large crowd of people followed him and women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28But turning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12332"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12360,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332\/revisions\/12360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}