Facing Jesus #9 - Simon and the Weeping Women

Follow this sermon series on our YouTube channel.

Matthew Mark Luke John
Words of Jesus are underlined

Simon was forced to face Jesus in an ugly and cursed fashion as they forced him to carry the cross of Christ.  How did this abrupt face-to-face affect him? We get a clue by the listing of his sons in Mark’s Gospel.  Apparently the audience who first read this are expected to know his sons, who had become followers of Jesus.

The Weeping women faced Jesus with grief, not yet knowing the big picture of God’s plan of salvation – nor of the complete destruction of Jerusalem that Jesus prophesied here and that would happen in AD 70.

How do you face Jesus?  Will you carry His cross gladly?  Will you stand in awe of the sacrifice of Christ, letting the grief of your sin wash over you, but also rejoicing in the Friday we call “Good”? 

Jesus is Led Away to be Crucified

As they led him away, they forced a man coming in from the country, who was passing by, to carry Jesus’s cross. He was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. 

A large crowd of people followed him, including women who were mourning and lamenting him. But turning to them, Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. Look, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the women without children, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

(Luke 23:26a; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:27–31 CSB17)

According to Roman law, a Roman soldier could compel a Jew to carry something for him for one Roman mile – 1,000 paces.  Jesus had once shocked Jewish listeners by saying if that happened to them they should cheerfully add another mile (Matthew 5:41).  This is where we get the phrase: “Go the extra mile.”  Do you? Or do you insist on your rights?

The cross was a cursed object to the Jews (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13).  How do you think Simon felt about this experience?  What did he pass on to his sons?

Jesus asks you to take up your cross and follow Him.  Your “cross” is whatever you suffer for His sake.  Is there anything like that in your life?  Do you see that coming for Christians in the United States?

Jesus once again predicts the Fall of Jerusalem that happened in 70 a.d.  Why do you think he took this painful moment to do that?

 Follow this sermon series on our YouTube channel.