3. Imagination helps us to fill in what tradition tells us about this victim of brutal power who was compelled to take part in the crucifixion of the Saviour. He may have been a proselyte who had come all the way from Africa to observe the Feast of the Passover at Jerusalem. He had, perhaps, never previously heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and was not thinking of Him at the time when he saw Him on the way to execution. Probably, instead of pitying the sad case of the Sufferer beside him, he was occupied with the hardship of his own case, and filled with resentment on account of the odious service so ruthlessly exacted of him, including even Jesus in his indis- criminate wrath. But forced, in spite of himself, to accompany our Lord to Calvary, bearing the hated cross, he was made a witness of all the memorable incidents of the transcendent tragedy that took place there. He saw the Divine meekness and patience of the Sufferer ; he heard the wonderful words of love and pardoning mercy that flowed from His lips ; he beheld the supernatural darkness gathering round the cross, and felt the ground trembling under his feet ; and, dismayed by these awful portents, he heard the loud cry with which Jesus gave up the ghost. And when the darkness cleared away, he saw the centurion transfixed with awe before the central cross, glorifying God, and exclaiming, " Truly this was the Son of God." All this could not but have deeply impressed the mind of Simon. He must have learned enough in the brief companionship of a few hours with the Prince of Sufferers — in such unexampled circumstances — to
ST. MARK 459
change the current of his whole life. He must have been one of the first who were drawn to Christ when lifted up upon the cross in fulfilment of His own words. Coming to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, he found in the cross of Christ the true fulfilment of the great historical rite ; he found in that dying life a perfect example, and in that death an atoning sacrifice. Simon of Cyrene, the cross-bearer of Christ, was the first-fruits of Africa to Christianity.
From all thou boldest precious, for one hour
Arise and come away, And let the calling Voice be heard in power;
Desert thyself to-day; If with thy Lord for once thou turn aside, With Him thou'lt fain abide.^
ii. A Forced Disciple.
1. The Chance Meeting. — It was the time of the great Pass- over feast, and Simon, no doubt, had come all the way from his busy and beautiful town in North Africa to keep, like a pious Jew, the sacred festival in the holy city. At such seasons Jerusalem was always densely crowded, and many of the pilgrims who could not get lodgings in the city itself stayed in the huts and booths which were erected on the hills or in the valleys outside, or put up in some of the quiet villages like Bethany, which were within easy reach of the capital, and, above all, of the Temple. Simon had either not been in the city the night before, and so had not heard of the arrest and trial of the prophet from Nazareth, which had caused such ex- citement amongst those there, or else, if he did know of it, he cared so little about it that he was not in the slightest hurry to get back to Jerusalem and hear the news. He was walking j quietly and leisurely towards the town, ignorant of, or utterly uninterested in, the tragic events which were happening there, ' knowing nothing of the Nazarene, and not troubling himself about His guilt or His innocence, when his attention was arrested ^ by the approach of a strange procession. He had no doubt seen executions before, but there was something about this procession which roused his curiosity. The soldiers marching by the side
1 J. E. A. Brown.
46o THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
of the malefactors, who bore their crosses^ fastened to their shoulders, the rabble who followed after, were no strange sights to a man from a big and busy town like Cyrene ; but Simon had never before seen scribes and priests and doctors of the law demeaning themselves to join the rifif-raff, who were always ready for a day's enjoyment of this sort. He had never before heard criminals followed by such fierce shouts of " Away with him ! Away with him ! Crucify him ! Crucify him ! " He had never before seen a long string of women bringing up the rear of such a dead march, and giving way to their grief in bitter weeping and loud lamentations.
Just as the crowd comes close to him there is a sudden pause. One of the prisoners falls beneath the weight of His cross, and Simon comes near to look at Him. The officer, seeing that it is useless to force the fallen King of the Jews to carry His load farther, casts his eye on the stranger, and struck, perhaps, by his stalwart appearance, and seeing doubtless that he was but a common man, orders the soldiers to seize him, and to bind the cross of the Nazarene on his shoulders.
And so Simon meets with Jesus. "Was it chance ? Do we say, " What a singular providence that this stranger should have arrived just at the nick of time to meet the procession, and to take so prominent and unpremeditated a part in it ? " It was the same wonderful coincidence that the funeral pro- cession at Nain should be passing through the gate at the very moment when Jesus and His disciples were entering in. How often do events, upon which the whole course of our natural and of our spiritual life turns, seem to hang upon trifles ! The Providence of God arranges not only the great, but also the small, occurrences of human life and destiny.