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If I were to ask you to imagine yourself as someone else, who would it be? Would it be easier if it were a person you could sympathize with or someone you had empathy for? First off, maybe we should define what those words mean and see if there is a difference.

Conceiving a mental image of a person or event is often necessary to plan for the future or in responding to an offer of any kind, as almost every physical action is the result of a mental image or idea. Identifying with someone is to gain such an understanding of who they are and the situation they find themselves in that we are tempted to respond on their behalf or in concert with them. Sympathizing with them then occurs when we share in their mental state and emotions while empathizing entails more of an intellectual identification of their situation and circumstances, seeing what they see and feeling what they feel, yet rising above the emotional response of the moment to a more rational response to whatever problems they are dealing with. Being able to imagine or feel someone else’s joy or pain is instrumental in relating to them as a friend and confidant (Romans 12:15); yet stepping back and making a non-emotional assessment of their situation is often called for. Only then can we make a reasonable decision as to whether we follow their example or involve ourselves in their lives.

Having said all that, I’d like to challenge you now to imagine yourself as Simon of Cyrene. Who? The man selected out of the crowd of onlookers to help Christ carry his cross to Golgotha’s hill. (Matthew 27:32, Luke 23:26) Why would I do that? He deserves our sympathy, yet I would rather you empathize with him instead. To fully understand and identify with him we must first feel for him; the confusion, embarrassment and fear this experience surely brought to him. But a more thorough examination of this man, as far as the evidence allows, and the circumstances he found himself in that day, may allow us to more fully identify with the person he became as a result of them.

Matthew and Luke seem to indicate that Simon was picked at random from the crowd to help a physically beaten and exhausted Christ carry his cross to the crucifixion site. He evidently wasn’t antagonistic to Jesus, so was he merely curious as so many others were, a secret admirer or a sympathetic bystander watching a convicted criminal led away to his death? Either way, was he now being so closely identified with this man as to share in his punishment? If not, would he none-the-less face ridicule for his participation in “escorting” Christ to his appointment with death? Was he offended by the cavalier way Jesus’ guards “recruited” his help? What did he think of all that was happening around him – all that was now being done to him? How closely do you think he identified with this man he was becoming so intimately associated with?

Mark 15:21 makes a point of mentioning Simon’s sons, Alexander and Rufus. And while no specific details are given of either one, a Rufus and his mother are mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:13; praised for their faithfulness to the church and particularly Paul’s needs – tradition holding that this is indeed Simon’s wife and son, followers of the way as a result of Simon’s life-changing experience with the cross of Christ.

Imagine what it would have been like to be Simon, carrying the cross of Christ while following him to Calvary.1What would it have been like to share in the humiliation, ridicule and rejection Christ suffered as He was led out of the city? What would it have been like to feel the sticky warmth of Jesus’ blood as it smeared from the cross on to his clothes and skin? What would it have been like to feel the increasing dread as the place of execution neared? What would it have been like to see the executioner’s waiting impassively with hammers in hand? What would it have been like then, to have that burdensome cross lifted from your shoulders as someone says, ‘This is his cross now- you’re free to go.’?

Do you think he was relieved to get away from the execution site, the press of the crowd, the inquisitive eyes, the questions as to his involvement in this sordid scene, the suspicion that – just maybe – he was really a follower of this criminal and just as guilty? Would he have been pleased at the prospect of leaving this wretched city as he “escaped” back home to the country? Did he rejoice or mourn with his wife and family as he recounted the experiences of his day? And more importantly, do you think he thought about, brooded over and made inquiry into the life of the one he had so closely shared in at its end? And if, as is believed, he himself was later saved from the penalty of sin, becoming a follower of Jesus and His way through the preaching of the word and – at least in part – as a result of his association with Jesus on the way to Calvary; don’t you think he and his family learned to revere and adore the one who brought them salvation at such great personal cost and thereafter lived their lives in obedience to his word in ministry?

How far have you gone in identifying with Jesus Christ? Have you too shown your love and devotion to him, worshipping him as God’s son and your Savior? Will you take up his cross as your own, willingly suffering and dying alongside him as you walk your own “way of the cross”? As his crucifixion on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice for us, so it now becomes our ultimate response to his command to follow him; as “Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27

1Based on a devotional published in Passion With A Purpose, submitted by Anne Graham Lutz from her book, The Joy of My Heart.

"'Christ in You...'" from Dale Krebbs

Origin Of Nations