When NO ONE wanted to help . . .

For 30 years Jesus Christ worked with his dad, Joseph, who was a carpenter.

“If you were a carpenter in the days of Christ, that wasn’t just someone who worked in furniture building,” says Jordan. “That was somebody who worked in construction. They didn’t just build furniture; they built houses.

“The Book of Mark, when it describes Jesus, calls Him ‘the carpenter.’ In His occupation, He was a builder. It’s interesting that the Book of Zechariah tells you that’s what He’s going to be. It’s just fascinating how the Bible works.

“So Christ was used to physical labor, used to carrying very heavy things. Some people have that physical prowess and Christ had it.

*****

Describing the severe abuse Christ suffered just before His death, Matthew 27 documents, “And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
[31] And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
[32] And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.”

Jordan says, “We sing a song: ‘The Cross became so heavy He fell beneath the load.’ He wasn’t able to physically carry it because He’d become so weakened.

“One verse says they plowed farrows in His back like a farmer goes and digs up the ground. They beat Him with the whips and that kind of thing.

“Notice Simon wasn’t a volunteer. He was just passing by when they conscripted him. He no doubt could have resented the intervention. He’s a pilgrim come to Jerusalem to worship in the Passover. He lives 800 miles away.

“Imagine the only person they can find in the crowd to help Jesus is somebody they had to conscript. There was NO ONE to volunteer to help Him in all of Jerusalem and of all of His followers!

“In I Corinthians it says after the resurrection Christ appeared to 500 brethren at one time. None of them were there (leading up to) the Cross. He’s completely forsaken, completely abandoned, left alone with no one to come along and help.

*****

“The dude’s name is Simon. Do you know another Simon? That’s sort of a subtle rebuke. Where’s the other Simon that just earlier that evening said, ‘Though everyone forsake you, I won’t.’ He’s not there.

“It’s kind of a rebuke to the disciples that they had to go get a STRANGER from an outlying area to come and to carry the Cross; to follow Him.

“Now Simon follows Christ to Calvary and he would have gone all the way to the Cross, seen them nail the Lord Jesus to it and stand Him upright.

“You remember a Centurion stood by the Cross and after he watched what was going on, said, ‘Surely this is the Son of God.’ And at the Cross, Simon had what I would call a Barabbas experience.

*****

“Mark 15:21 says, ‘And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.’

“Mark’s readers know who Simon is. He’s the father of Alexander and Rufus. That little addition wouldn’t have made any sense if nobody knew who Alexander and Rufus were. You see that?

“Mark is writing to the ‘little flock’ in Israel (the remnant of Believers), and they understand who this character is. Something happened to him when he followed Jesus to that Cross that lasted.

“It’s a fascinating thing when you go through the Book of Acts. Acts 2:5 says, ‘And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.’ Verse 10 says, ‘Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes.’

“Cyrene is where Simon’s from. Look at Acts 6:9: ‘Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.’

“Notice they’re there; these guys were a part of the ‘little flock’!

“Acts 11: 19-20 says, [19] Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.
[20] And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.

“You see the message got back home when Simon went back and the message took root and bore fruit in that little flock.

“Acts 13:1 says, ‘Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.’

“Look at there! These guys, the message didn’t just take root, the message took such root that there were people in Cyrene who stayed up with the program and the ADVANCE in the program.

*****

“Obviously Rufus and his family were some of those who were known to Paul, appreciated by Paul.

“Listen, I believe that the Apostle Paul wanted to know every detail of the life and person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He and Luke, one of the biographers of the Savior, were best of friends. At the very end of his life, Luke’s with him.

“You know Paul would have picked their brain like you pick fish bones! It’s Paul in Acts 20:35 that tells you something nobody recorded anywhere else in Scripture says. He writes, ‘And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

 “How did Paul know that? He’s inquisitive about the life of His Savior and about the PERSON of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“It’s Paul who says, ‘though we have known Christ after the flesh.’ When did Paul ever know Jesus after the flesh? Paul had an interest. Rufus and his mom and family would have been somebody Paul would have wanted to know. And Rufus and his mother were obviously open to the advance in the program that came, like Apollos was.”