#BTColumn – The Black man who carried the Cross

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by Guy Hewitt

This United States America took to a significant step towards forming a more perfect Union as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to be elevated to the Supreme Court. Senator Cory Booker’s statement on her nomination brought tears to my eyes as it did to the Justice-designate.

Sen. Booker’s remarks were as follows: “As Judge Jackson ascends to the United States Supreme Court, I see in her, the affirmation of our ancestors who suffered the indignities of this country yet sacrificed to bend the moral arc of our nation towards justice. They knew that America, though haunted by its past failings, was not bound by them and believed that a day like this would eventually arrive.”

His words echoed the sentiment of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. who stated in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, “I refuse to accept the view that [humanity] is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war, that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

What does this have to do with us or Good Friday?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu held that: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” As the church, we cannot be silent about what is going on in our nation particularly on issues of inequality
and injustice as we know our Lord stood with the vulnerable and marginalised.

Moreover, in her book Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Du Mez, demonstrated how White Evangelicals have systematically replaced the Good News of Christ with a Christian nationalism that is highly patriarchal, authoritarian, ambivalent towards #MeToo Movement, and in opposition to a multifaith perspective, Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community.

In contradistinction, the Episcopal Church through Sacred Ground – an exploration of Indigenous, European, Africa, Asian and Pacific histories in America – has been promoting a vision of beloved community where all are recognised, honoured and nurtured as belovèd children of God; where we weep at one another’s pain and seek each other’s flourishing.

I subscribe to the view of the author Audre Lorde that “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognise, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

One of the most experiential parts of the Lent season is Stations of the Cross. Of particular significance, from a child, is the Fifth Station: “Simon helps Jesus carry his cross” as told in the Synoptic Gospels. Each of the accounts tells us something about Simon of Cyrene and in turn tells us somethings about our life in Christ.

First, it is not to be overlooked that Simon carried the cross. Matthew and Mark clearly state the object Simon carried: “his [our Lord’s] cross.” This might sound obvious, but it is profound that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who all the gospel writers clearly understand to be God-incarnate, needs assistance at his moment of suffering. Is God not the one who bears the suffering for us? Why, then, does he need the assistance of what seems to be a random man?

Simon carrying our Lord’s cross is our reminder of the humility of God. This is an attribute God does not need, nor is it an attribute ever expected of him. We probably more cleanly align with those who would shout at him to prove himself and come off the cross, or to send a legion of angels to rescue him, or to shame him towards a power we want him to display for us. To us, it would make sense for God to flex his omnipotent muscles during these moments of agony.

And yet he does not. This withholding is the very nature of Christ, who, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of humans” (Philippians 2:6–7). Shockingly, our Lord allows a man he created to help him carry the cross. What kind of God accepts the help of his own creation?

The strange, discomforting, beautiful, mysterious, and scandalous thing about God is that He often chooses not to act like it.

The second remarkable thing about Simon of Cyrene, is that he is named.  Mark gives us the longest introduction to who he is: “a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus…” (Mark 15:21).

The significance of Mark naming anyone, let alone this man who assisted our Lord, is that it is a clear signal of the authority of the story. At the time of the circulation of Mark’s gospel (near 65 AD), Simon of Cyrene – and even more certainly, his children, who are also named – could have been tracked down to corroborate this event.

One can imagine someone hearing this and seeking out Simon or his children Rufus and Alexander to ask, “Did this really happen? Was Jesus really who he said he was?”
Mark is certain of their answer. These are the eyewitnesses (1 Cor. 15:6, 1 Jn 1:2, 2 Peter 1:16). It is suggested by many scholars that the “Rufus” mentioned and thanked by St. Paul in Romans 16:13 is Simon’s son.

But it is also important that Simon is named here because, oddly, there are just not many names in the Bible. As we read the Bible, most anytime anyone is given a name with a location and a short genealogy, our eyes should focus in. How many “passers-by” go unnamed in the New Testament?

How many scores of families, crowds, and even those who were healed from illnesses go without any proper name attribution? Countless.

When the New Testament authors give someone a name, it shows us their significance in the story, and for one verse and one short moment, it appears Simon of Cyrene is honoured in that he is remembered. Billions upon billions of human beings have lived and died since this time, and we know Simon for what he did on Good Friday.

Perhaps this is a reminder that God himself remembers small acts that serve those suffering.

The third important factor about Simon is he is African. Cyrene was an ancient city in Northeast Libya. This North African aided our Lord at a time when he was weak and vulnerable, walking with Christ in his sorrowful Passion. Not much is known about this man who performed this act of great charity. Yet, with what we know, we can make powerful connections and even more profound interpretations about this seminal character.

This last-minute helper during the Passion of Christ signifies a broader picture for Black believers in the body of Christ. For Christians of African descent, this act of holding up Christ, locates Simon of Cyrene as the representative of Africa and the universal call of its descendants to unite with the Redeemer of the world.

Africa and its peoples have been ravaged by centuries of colonialism, imperialism, political corruption, and natural disasters. Even today, the continent is still plagued by economic and social uncertainty. The continent has surely seen its fair share of insufferable pain. Despite the trials, suffering unjust treatment, and overcoming countless barriers, Africans can pick up their cross with the aid of Christ walking with us.

Moreover, let us look for Christ lying hidden and unknown beneath every person in need and in despair.

Across our world, we see human suffering in the faces of strangers; in the faces of those struggling for democracy, in the faces of those suffering from persecution or abuse, in the faces of those dealing with the loss of property and financial security, in the faces of those dealing with addiction, illness and tragedy, in the faces of those who struggle with the aftermath of the ravages and destructive storms of nature and with the devastating effects of climate change

We can all look to Simon as a source of strength in our quest for equality, justice, and liberation.

Finally, it is significant that Simon carried the cross “behind Jesus,” as Luke mentions in his account. Simon of Cyrene became, in some metaphorical and perhaps very real way, the first Christian. Before his arrest, our Lord said to those with him, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23).

To be a Christian is to live a “cruciform life,” a kind of existence that is shaped by and through the cross. We bear the cross that Christ provides for us. This is precisely what Simon did and precisely what we are called to do. As St. Paul tells us (Philippians 3:10) we can “know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.”

Accordingly, can it not be said that every African, indeed every person who suffers, is in some sense a member of the family of Simon of Cyrene and helps Christ to carry his Cross and climbs with him the path to Golgotha in order one day to rise again with him.

Simon of Cyrene, following behind our Lord Jesus Christ with the cross, is the picture of discipleship. Christ has gone first. He has gone and is going to where we hope to follow. This is why Christians today join with the words of the hymn, I have decided to follow Jesus: “The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back, no turning back…”

Have a blessed Good Friday.

Guy Hewitt is a Florida-based minister of religion and also an advocate of equality, democracy and justice.

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