{"id":751,"date":"2015-04-03T21:13:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/?p=751"},"modified":"2015-04-16T00:44:30","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T00:44:30","slug":"jesus-and-simon-on-good-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/jesus-and-simon-on-good-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus and Simon on Good Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up I always looked at Simon as an incredibly good servant or ideal friend that \"Picking<\/a>would relieve Jesus of carrying the cross through the streets of Jerusalem. However, as an adult comparing the four gospels, I see something different. Matthew and Mark say that Simon was \u201ca passerby\u201d who was \u201cforced\u201d or \u201cpressed into service\u201d to carry the cross. John doesn\u2019t mention Simon at all. It was Luke\u2019s account that made me stop and say, \u201cHmmm.\u201d Luke says, \u201cAs the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.\u201d As Matthew and Mark portrays, Luke suggests that Simon didn\u2019t know Jesus and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the more important part is \u201cand made him carry it behind Jesus.\u201d Behind Jesus. I sit on that word for a while. Not in front of Him. Not leading Him. But behind. There lies the picture I\u2019ve had in my mind representing Jesus\u2019 words in Luke 9:23 \u201cThen he said to them all: \u201cWhoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never had anyone ask me to my face, but I\u2019m sure they\u2019ve thought, \u201cWhy do you believe in a God that says to follow Him with a painful cross? Why doesn\u2019t He just take it away if he\u2019s such a loving God.\u201d He gave us free will to do what we want, when we want, otherwise we would just be marionette puppets with him controlling the strings. What choices would we have in that? Earthquakes, tsunamis \u2013 now that\u2019s another story. I don\u2019t have an answer to that except for the fact that it certainly WAKES ME UP to the fact that we never know when our time is up here on earth. That wake-up call always makes me ask, \u201cDo I know where I\u2019m going after this earth? Am I really ready? Jesus, I come to you. I\u2019m sorry for the sins I have committed and I want to follow ever closer to you.\u201d Not sure I\u2019d be saying that if I didn\u2019t have big shakeups in my life.<\/p>\n

So regarding carrying your cross behind Jesus, try it. I encourage you to close\u00a0your eyes, bow your head and with as little or as much as you understand who God is, speak to Him in your heart letting Him know that right now you are picking up your cross and following Him. It\u2019s Good Friday\u2026\u2026but Sunday\u2019s coming. There are days I am trashed, frustrated and tired. But I have experienced His peace, His answers and His grace and it has only been due to responding to his challenge of \u201cdenying one\u2019s self, taking up the cross and following Him.\u201d If He\u00a0endured crucifixion, I certainly can endure quadriplegia. Walk, crutch or roll beside me as we follow Him together.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t know how? Begin with daily conversations with Him. Then ask Jesus to lead you to a church to join a class or Bible study where you can ask questions and learn more about your Savior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up I always looked at Simon as an incredibly good servant or ideal friend that would relieve Jesus of carrying the cross through the streets of Jerusalem. However, as an adult comparing the four gospels, I see something different. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":770,"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reneebondi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}