7. SIMON CARRIES JESUS’ CROSS

Verses

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”
— Matthew 16:24 (NLT)

Questions

When you think about this part of the story, what emotions come up for you?
What is something in your life that someone else has carried with you?
What does it mean to you that Jesus didn’t carry his burden by himself?

Meditation

In this image two separate hands hold two separate pieces of wood. Placed together, they form the shape of a cross.

On the road to Golgotha, Jesus had been beaten, mocked, and forced to carry the cross on which He would soon be crucified. Exhausted from the suffering He had endured, His strength begins to fail.

The Roman soldiers pull a man from the crowd — Simon of Cyrene — and compel him to carry the cross behind Jesus.

Simon likely did not choose this moment. He may have simply been another passerby in Jerusalem that day. Yet suddenly he finds himself walking beside the condemned Christ, carrying the weight of the cross on the road to the place of execution.

Jesus partook in having someone carry His burden.

This moment reveals something important about the life of faith. Human beings were not created to carry life’s burdens alone.

There are moments when strength fails, when the weight becomes too heavy, when another person must step in and help carry what cannot be carried alone.

The apostle Paul later writes to the church:

“Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.”
— Galatians 6:2–3 (NLT)

The path of discipleship is not only about carrying one's own cross. It is also about learning to bear the burdens of others.

Just as Simon walked beside Jesus on the road to Golgotha, believers are called to walk beside one another in suffering, humility, and love.

The Church prays:

“Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart… that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease.”
— Book of Common Prayer, p. 823