The You're going to do you.

Do you do you do you do you do

do you do Many of us choke back tears when we think about the crucifixion of Jesus.

It's certainly a heart-wrenching event, but Jesus cautioned onlookers then and now to make

sure our sympathy is properly directed. We'll find out what he meant today on Truth for Life as Alistair Beg continues our study in

chapter 23 of Luke's gospel. We're looking today at verses 26 through 31.

31.

My first heading was simply a strange thing happened on my way to the city.

A strange thing happened on my way to the city. A strange thing happened on my way to the

city. These words I'm putting into the mouth of Simon who is the principal

figure here in verse 26 and 27. He was presumably a Jew living in part of the

diaspora in Tripoli in Libya in Cyrene and when he left his home in order to journey to Jerusalem, he surely could not

have had in mind what would take place in his life on this particular visit. And as he made his way, finally, as Luke tells us from the

country into the city of Jerusalem, he was confronted by commotion, and not only was he confronted by this crowd, but he was grabbed, somewhat unceremoniously,

presumably by the soldiers, and they said to him, hey you, carry this.

And before he knew what was involved,

he was walking behind the bloodied body

of this Galilean carpenter whom if he had not known before he

quickly discovered was none other than Jesus of Nazareth. What we have to recognize is that Simon carrying this cross behind Jesus is a reminder to us in

these final moments of what it means actually to be a believer.

The disciples of Jesus were identified as being the people of the cross. The disciples of Jesus were cross-carriers, at least

metaphorically. If we are going to make an impact in our culture along the lines that Jesus says to do in the

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