Happy Good Friday or so we call it.

It is a joyful day, even if it is the most solemn day in the church calendar.

We talked about reckoning, the repulsion, and the delight of the cross last time.

Today we talk about one of the little stories of the crucifixion narrative Pastor John specifically,

the figure of Simon of Sireen, a listener to the podcast writes us about it.

Hello Pastor John, reading through the story of the crucifixion this week, something caught

my attention that I read over many times.

In Luke 2326, in the midst of the crucifixion event, we read this.

And as they led Jesus away, they seized one Simon of Sireen who was coming in from the

country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus.

I know that God is sovereign and therefore this was not an accident or a random detail added

into the story.

What's the significance of Simon carrying Jesus' cross?

What does God want us to see here?

This was really good for me to think about because I've read that a hundred times and

have not paused like so many of these questions forced me to do and that's really valuable.

Sometimes when authors are reporting facts, like this is a fact, sometimes when they report

facts in their narrative, they give us clear clues and pointers why they are including

those facts and what they want us to learn from them.

I don't see really clear, decisive clues here or in any of the gospels for why the gospel

writers include this fact.

One of the reasons for that may be that Simon who carried the cross may have become a

...