The Significance of Jesus' Journey to the Cross

Show Notes

Episode 396:
Join us in this moving episode of The Bible Guys Podcast as we delve into the poignant moments leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. In this episode, we discuss the significance of Simon of Cyrene and his unexpected role in carrying Jesus' cross. We also explore the powerful message Jesus shares with the women of Jerusalem and what it means for the future. We also reflect on how witnessing Jesus' journey can lead to transformation.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, Jeff, good morning. Was that a late intro? Did we wait like a second too long? I think we did? It was the mystery, Yeah, it was just mysterious. People like, what what what's going on? We were short there? We're actually talking to we're talking during the role, which is a no, no, yes, we should. We should be engaged. Okay, by the way, I am engaged. You are the well congratulations, thank you very much. You're going on a date with your wife tonight. I am We's date night tonight. We're going to see The Chosen. Oh nice, Part three release. It's not really part three, it's whatever season we're in. Was it for I don't know. It's a third part of season four? Yeah, oh good for you. Yeah. Tons of fun, a lot of fun. Hey, well today Jeff free Wow, yeah, Jeff, Only my mom calls me Jeffrey, and that's when I'm in trouble. Okay, well, Jeffrey, Michael, it just came out. Yep. We're going to start with a game, a segment called law or Flaw. Oh, those are fun. But this is the Old Testament version. Remember when you did the Old Testament version of me. Yes, so Desiree has got some questions for you. Okay, here, so here here it is. Is it an Old Testament law or is it a flaw? A flaw? Okay, okay, are you ready? Yes? Number one, if a thief breaks in at night, the owner has the right to use lethal force law to defend their homes. The law it is a lot. Yeah, Exodus twenty two, that's correct. Okay. Number two, yep, you're allowed to defend yourself. Number two you cannot wear clothing made from wool and linen. That's a law. That is a law that is true. Leviticus nineteen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, those Yes, I don't know why. To be fair, those were two pretty easy ones. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't know why you're not allowed to do that back then, right, you're not. You weren't. It had been symbolic, right something, because blending God did so many things that were It might have been about comfort. It might have been a comfort thing too. You think you think it's practical. Yeah, when when back then, when you mixed different fabrics that made those fabrics heavier and they didn't breathe as well, so like, so it could have been I want what's best for you. If you go pure cotton, you're going to be more comfortable, or I should not be uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah, I should not be uncomfortable. All right? Well, you know, hey, who knows? Number three? Homeowners are not allowed to have strangers falling onto their roofs. That's a flaw. That's a law, onto their roofs, onto their roofs. Now, it's supposed to be falling off of their roofs. I think that that was a mistake. You want to look it up. Let's do it. Yeah, okay, just like google it all right, deuteronomy or you know, yeah, use version yeah, version Deuteronomy twenty two Bible. You don't use Deuteronomy. What twenty two twenty two, verse verse eight? Yeah, what does it say? It's gonna be about falling off? I tell you, when you build a new house, you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof that you will not be considered guilty and murder if someone falls from the roof. I knew that's what it was. So they build flat roofs, right, and then they would go up on there and use the flat roof like a living room, like you and I did when we were in the islands. That palmetal bug climbed up and bit you on the neck, that's right. But they would use those those flat roofs as because we could go up on the roof looking over top of the mangroves and see the ocean from where we were at. So they would do the same thing because what was up there besides the pal metal bug that bit you, what else was up there? It was a breeze. Oh yeah, sure, right right, So you get up above the town, you go there, And so they would use their flat roofs like a like a living room. And so you were required by God's law to put a railing around the flat roof so that if somebody fell and died off your roof, you weren't guilty because you put up some prevention. Well look at you. So I knew it. So the way she worded it was a flaw. Yeah, there you go, you'll fall onto your roof. They fell off of your roof, right right right? Yeah? And well, hey, is it possible that somebody can fall off a roof and land on another all right, number four, Number four, you should not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a smethsala. That is a low. Yeah, that is a lot. You'donomy twenty five, that's correct. And then finally last one a man. And by the way, that means you're four for four. Yeah. And that was a business thing. What they would do is they weight out gold to pay for things, and so crooks would have lighter weights for like for one hundred dollars, you'd have the heavy weight for when they paid you. So that way, I mean a lightweight, so that when they paid you, they paid you less. But then when you paid them, they'd pull out of their bag the weight again, but it'd be a heavier weight. And that way, when you paid them on the scale, you had to put more gold on to pay them back. And and it looked like the same It looked like the same weight, but they were filling it full of lead or whatever to make it heavier on the scales of justice, yes, yeah, yeah, And so that's that's what that now that one I had no idea of why the two weights. That totally makes sense. All right, Number five here it is, and again just as a reminder, you're four for four. There's no pressure here, jet all right, no pressure, okay, because you're you're about to get an A plus or nothing. That one five one out of five is B B minus four out of five or one out of five, meaning can you miss it? I'm not going to miss it, though. Okay, here we go. A man shall pour oil onto his offering of barley flower. That's a law. It says, it's a flaw, is it really? It says, which, by the way, what a clever thing for for offering barley oil. But she did four and then one. It was a gotcha at the end. Uh huh. A man I'll pour oil onto his offering of barley flower. Huh, he's saying. She's saying, no way. There were pouring offerings over top of other things, but I guess not barley flowers. She says, no way. But well she knows because she's the one who picked it. Of course, I don't know. Can we trust a person who says fall onto a roof and that was just you know what, That wasn't a mind thing. That was probably a keyboard typing thing, right, that's where that was. Okay, Well, I'm just saying, all right, well I'll take four for five. Hey, wouldn't it be funny if she copied and pasted it from some website and it was actually the person who did the website's fault or AI or AI's fault. Yeah, you can't trust everything that happens on the internet. No, yeah, we'll not true anyways, so we're giving desra the benefit of doubt. Yeah, good job, Desrae. All Right, buddy, Well today we are launching into Jesus being led away to be crucified. Yeah, so we don't have a lot of verses to read today, right, but uh, this is kind of packed with a lot of interesting things. So from a devotional standpoint, this should be a movie moment because the event itself is heading towards the most significant thing that's ever happened in human history. Right, and John is the only one that doesn't include this portion of chronological events. Yeah, Matthew, Mark and Luke are doing their thing together again. Right, Okay, so we will read Matthew chapter twenty seven, Mark fifteen, and Luke twenty three and Matthew twenty seven. It says along the way they came across a man named Simon who was from Syrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry jesus cross all in one verse. There you go. In Mark chapter fifteen, verse twenty one, it says a passer by named Simon, who was from Syrene, was coming from in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry the cross. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. And then in Luke chapter twenty three, verses twenty six through thirty one, it says as they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Syrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief stricken women. But Jesus turned and said to them, daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are coming when they will say fortunate. Indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not born a child, and the breasts that have never nursed. People will beg the mountains fall on us and plead with us, plead with the hills Bury us for if these things are done when the green For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? Wow? So a lot of things. One, hey, shout out for North Africa, right, because that's where that's where Simon was from. So that's kind of cool. And do you know where side what country Sirreene was in a modern day country? I do not know. But have you ever heard have you ever Billy Graham talked about this? No? Are you kidding me? No, I'm not kidding. I'm just kidding. No, I don't know Simon of Syene, Simon of Sirene. Excuse me, look at us. We're both on our phones. I know we're looking stuff up. Oh Libya, Sirene is in modern day Libya. So Billy Graham talks about the man carrying his cross? Tell you what? Why don't you give me like twenty seconds just a little bit? So so riff what had other things to say? And to make it up, scoopy doop. I don't know what you want me to do, scoopy, scoopy. So anyways, the uh uh, the tradition or the rule for Romans when they were going to crucify somebody, is that they would take the cross beam and they would they would make that the the person who's going to be crucified carry that through the streets. And it was a sign of shame. It's very heavy, it was very difficult to do. And then you add to the fact that in Jesus' case, this would not normally be the case. But in Jesus case, he'd been beat thirty nine times with what the Bible would describes as a cat of nine tails and lethal. Forty was considered lethal, and so thirty nine lashings, he's almost beat to death, and then they put this crossbeam on him to walk through the city. It's inconvenient, it's uncomfortable, it's shameful. The crowds are big, everybody's bumping around on him, and he just couldn't carry it all the way. And so it's in that case that then finally the Roman soldiers turned to Simon, because they can compel anybody to do anything, right just about Roman soldiers compel Simon to carry this thing. So Roman soldiers could compel you to carry a burden for a specific distance valent of like not a mile, but in our minds, you know, like a mile, so you couldn't go. They couldn't compel you to go more than a mile, and but they could compel you to go. That's one of the reasons why they believe that the Golgatha was right barely outside the city walls, because the distance from where you would have had to walk from Pilot's palace to any of those places where they would have been crucifying was just inside those limits on distance. So yeah, so they stopped the way, make this African man carry the cross, which is why Jesus said, if anybody forces you to go one mile, go to Yeah. Yeah, that's that lines up, by the way. So this this scene, by the way, is it is very popular. It's just a very quick I mean, it's just a few seconds. But I figured why not play an audio Billy Graham because it is extremely inspiring and and and and and he says, don't you He starts off by saying, and don't you black people forget one thing? And then at first you're like, what what is he saying? Right? And then you listen to it and you're like, this is amazing. Okay, all right, so let me see when you get here. And don't you black people ever forget one thing. The man that helped Jesus carry that cross was a black man. And don't ever forget another thing. Jesus belongs to Africa as much as he does to Europe and Asia. He was born in that part of the world that touches Africa and Asia and Europe. And Jesus was not a white man like me, nor was he as black as some of you. We don't know what the color of his skin, but it must have been a dark color like the people of his day, because he was a man like them. Don't ever say it's a white man's religion or a black man's religion. It's a world religion. He belongs to the world. And isn't that unbelievably inspired. I have heard that he pre sat in Chicago, did he? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just incredibly inspiring. It's like only Billy Craham could deliver like a statement. And you're like, that is one of the best statements ever. Yeah, yeah, Well that is always an amazing thing to me. That Israel is right there on the edge of the three major global continents, right, and so the only ones you're missing would be down towards Australia and over in South America, but for the mass majority of humanity throughout history, Jesus came from the crossroads of those three continents, right, So anyways, the Bible also mentions here only in Mark, that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus, which is kind of an interesting thing. Alexander, that's kind of a cool name. Sure, you know, Alexander conquered the whole world, not that Alexander, but clearly he was not well because this is substantially after Alexander the Great. But he was probably named after Alexander the Great, right, So that city, Sirene in Libya was a major city for the Greek Empire and then for the Roman Empire, so it was a trading city right on the coast. So that's probably why he got the name Alexander. But can you imagine having your brother have the name of one of the coolest people in history, the conqueror of the world, and then your dad goes, I ran out of the names. We're gonna call you Rufus, right right, But by the way, Rufus is mentioned in Romans, So I think the reason why Mark includes Simon was a father of Alexander. Rufus was because we know Alexander and Rufus are famous in the church. Later on, so in they're mentioned a couple of times, but Rufus specifically is mentioned in Romans sixteen. Well, it would make sense that the reason why they would be standing by, yeah and watching Jesus, Yeah yeah, followers of his you know, believers in Christ. Yeah. Well, they had just come in from the country side. So I don't know that they were Christians then, right, they had just come in from the countryside. They're with their dad. Well, perhaps this might have been if it is the same, this might have been that moment. This might have been that moment, right, yeah, right, which is so they followed let's play this out a bit so, so Simon then carries the cross the rest of the way. They find themselves at the location of the Crucifixion, which then included the shaking that were you know, obviously we're about to read them all the things that are going to all the things that are going to come in the next few days. But but the earthquake and then the Roman centurion. Surely this is the son of God, all these different things, Maybe perhaps standing around hearing the stories and yeah, this could definitely be a major conversion moment for that. So you got to remember, you know, there was no TV back then, and so while it seems gruesome to us, it was a common thing. Executions were public entertainment. Right. So here's their dad, who seems to be perhaps a devout Jew. He's coming to Rusalem to celebrate Passover. He brings his sons. And how important is it for us to remember how pivotal different moments are in the lives of our children as we bring them along in our faith. A lot of times, you know, parents will say, oh, I'm gonna, you know, not bring my kids to this church thing, or I'm not going to expect them to be a part of what I'm doing here. It was expected of a good Jewish dad to bring his Jewish sons, and it was expected of the sons to go along with the dad. It was just an expected thing. And it was in that moment when dad was going for a religious event in his life that he had an encounter with Jesus, and so did his sons. His sons were there, and you know, that's my story. My dad came to faith in Christ as a result of somebody left a little track to a little Bible message on a piece of paper in a restroom at General Motors. And over the next couple of weeks, God just convicted my dad. He gave his life to Christ. My dad started taking us to church, and then not long after I became a follower of Jesus. I just wonder about that that in this moment, whatever soldier turns to Simon and says, hey, you carry the cross from here on, What an impact that had on his sons. Right with this encounter with Jesus, that Simon had transformed his sons, and then his sons become pivotal leaders in the church to where Paul mentions them later on in the church. It's kind of a neat moment to see, and it's just one of those little tiny details. It's incidental, but it's just in passing it's mentioned. So there's a note in the Life Application Study Bible that says Luke alone mentions the teams of Jewish women while Jesus was being led through the streets to his execution, he just told them not to weep for him, but for themselves, because he knew in about forty years Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed by the Romans. Then in Versi Nuber thirty one, where it says you know you already read it, it says, for if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? Then it also says right here about that, it says this proverb difficult to interpret. Some feel it means that if the innocent Jesus, which is representative of the green tree, suffered at the hands of the Romans, what would happen to the guilty Jews or the dry tree. That's interesting, isn't it. Yeah, because when I heard it at face value, I was like, I don't know what that means. Yeah, I don't know what that means. Yeah, I've always heard that it's talking about the fact that there was life in Jerusalem while Jesus was there, right, he was the last life, the last opportunity to step a step up to God in Jerusalem like this, and when he left Jerusalem for the most part, rejected the religious system based out of Jerusalem rejected Jesus. So we know that there's an explosion of faith. But the religious system rose up and attacked those Christians persecuted those Christians, and so it was live while Jesus was there, And then it was how much worse is it going to be if, if while all this life is here, if while God's presence on earth is here, the Romans can kill me? How bad is it going to be for you when I leave and this place dries up? And of course we know just a few years later, forty years later, they just the Romans come through and obliterate. Yes, seventy AD they tore it down, and only a wall, the foundation of the wall remains. And the number of people that were murdered was in the tens of thousands, right it was. I can't remember the exact number, but it was tens of thousands of citizens of Jerusalem were just wiped out by the Romans in that moment. So that's why he's saying, after he's gone, the days are coming on to say fortunate indeed of the women who are childless, right is because the only thing worse than being massacred by a Roman guy, a Roman soldier, would be watching your children being massacred. That's what Jesus is saying there right, So here he is and they're weeping for him. Oh, how sad it is that they're killing Jesus, and he said, hey, ladies, it's going to get way worse here. So that's what happened there. But what an amazing thing. I mean, it's a sad time, but it's also even in this time he's heading to his own death, and he has compassion for the people who are crying for him right right and by the way, as a side note, some people may think that we planned this perfectly to end at Easter. It definitely we didn't know that was happening. We knew that was going to happen. But when we were looking for a series, and you know, we said, hey, what sort of you know theme should we you know, pursue in the Bible? Guys, we were just considering all types of themes and the one that jumped out of us was, let's cover the two hundred and fifty events of Jesus's life, which gave us almost two hundred and fifty episodes. So we've been in this series for like over a year A long time, yeah, a long time, and here it is coming to an end, and it's appropriate that it ends here atas Yah. Yeah, it's just crazy. So well, hey, that is our time, and so hopefully we will continue and pick up you know, where we left off, and we'll see then on the Bible guys. Mm hmmmmh mh