Showing posts with label Simon of Cyrene. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon of Cyrene. Show all posts

24 HOURS-Week 4: Pictures

Posted by Randy | Labels: , , , , , , , , , | Posted On Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 8:35 PM

In this post I'm sharing some present-day photos of historic sites of Jesus' last hours here on earth. Below is a portion of the Via Dolorosa (The Way of Suffering). This is believed to be a portion of the path Jesus walked from his time of torture with the Roman soldiers to Golgotha, where he was crucified. It was along this path that he carried his cross, and when he could do it no more, was aided by Simon of Cyrene.



Following his own conversion, Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire in 313 AD, in effect making it the religion of the realm. In the 330s he had a church built on the site that was believed to be where Jesus was crucified and buried. The church has undergone numerous construction projects, expansions, and even experienced destruction during the time of the Crusades. However, today the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands on this site. The picture below shows the area inside the church where it was believed Jesus was crucified.



Below is an outcropping of rock outside the old city of Jerusalem. In the 1880s a British general by the name of Charles Gordon discovered this formation and believed it had the appearance of a skull. Soon after, he discovered nearby an ancient garden tomb (see below). He therefore believed that this was the actual site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. He believed Jesus was crucified on the hill overlooking this face of a skull (Golgotha in Aramaic or Calvary in Latin). This site is today called Gordon's Calvary.



For some fairly technical reasons, many, and maybe most, scholars do not believe this site is where Jesus was crucified and buried. The site located at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre seems to be the more likely spot to many scholars, yet Gordon's Calvary leaves you with a much stronger sense of actually "being there."


What I find very interesting is that today this rock outcropping actually sits above a bus barn in Jerusalem. My wife Susan and I visited the Holy Land and Jerusalem on a tour in 1990. As we walked up to this site, at first it seemed such a shame that this possibly significant Christian site stood near a noisy, smelly, highly trafficked area. But, as our guide pointed out to us, in many ways the original Golgotha, whether at this site or under the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, would have been a noisy, smelly, highly trafficked area. It would have been near the city on a main road. It would have been a spot where many people had been crucified, and most likely there would be bones and perhaps even the smell of decaying flesh. It would not have been a pretty site. So, we realized that in many ways this "Golgotha" was a modern-day equivalent of the original site.



Pictured below is the entrance to the tomb located near the rock outcropping immediately above. Notice in the lower left-hand corner of the picture there is a channel. This would have been the "track" in which the large stone used to cover the tomb would sit.

Below is the stone that rode in the "track" seen above.



Stepping back from the tomb entrance, you can now see why Gordon's Calvary became such a popular site for pilgrims. The tomb Jesus was buried in was in or near a garden, and the tomb found in the 1880s was located in a garden, which has been kept serene and beautiful. I found I could stand in this place and really imagine in the cool of the morning the actual events of Easter.

24 HOURS-Week 4: The Sons of Simon from Cyrene

Posted by Randy | Labels: , , , , , , , , | Posted On at 5:50 PM


“A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)” (Mark 15:21 NLT2)

Simon of Cyrene was almost definitely a Jew who had made a pilgrimage, maybe his first ever, to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Cyrene was located in what is today northern Libya in North Africa, so he had come a long ways, most likely on foot.

There has been conjecture over the years as to whether Simon was a black African, based on some possible allusions in Acts, but it’s fairly vague. The truth is, we really don’t know - he certainly could have been - but what’s even more intriguing is the comment in parentheses that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Mark would not have included seemingly random information unless it conveyed something significant, so scholars have tried to figure out why he did this. We do know that Mark wrote his Gospel primarily for Gentiles – non-Jews – in the mid-60s AD, and it was very likely first intended for Christ followers in Rome.

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, probably written a decade earlier, is a very interesting note: “I send greetings to Rufus, that outstanding worker in the Lord’s service, and to his mother, who has always treated me like a son.” (Romans 16:3 TEV)

Is it a coincidence that one of the most revered members of the church at Rome was named Rufus, which also just happened to be the name of the one of the sons of Simon of Cyrene? Is it a coincidence that a document written a decade later, most likely to the Christians in Rome, specifically mentions an outstanding worker named Rufus?

Of course, we don’t really know, but many scholars believe these were the same individuals, and that somehow Simon’s experience carrying Jesus’ cross had had a big impact on him. Jesus had called upon his followers to take up their crosses and follow him – perhaps Simon had done that literally. Perhaps he later married another follower of Jesus, and they moved as missionaries to Rome, where their sons Rufus and Alexander were raised as Christ followers.

There is no absolute proof of this connection, but it certainly explains a great deal about why Mark would specifically mention Simon’s sons. It's something to think about, because it shows us that Jesus can use what seem to be random or even terrible experiences for his good purposes.

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