32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
Simon the Cyrenian has achieved immortal fame by the role he was compelled to play in the drama of the crucifixion, bearing the Saviour's cross to the hill of Calvary. Was it a rough gesture of sympathy on the part of the soldiers for the One they had so derided, and were they smitten in conscience at what they had done in face of the regal dignity with which He had submitted to their mockery? We do not know, but would like to think that this may have been one of the signs of a dawning realisation of Who He was that led later to the centurion's confession in 54. In his Notes on this passage, the Rev. William Still acutely remarks, 'It was another Simon who should have borne that cross!' Yes, indeed. And when God was unable to get one of His chosen men to demonstrate the meaning of discipleship, He chose an otherwise unknown 'outsider' to bear that testimony. Behold, then, the lonely Son of God, repudiated and rejected by the chosen nation, rejected by His own family, forsaken by His own disciples, cast out of the holy city, lifted up from the earth, as if even the very earth He had made disowned Him, and above all (46) forsaken by God, when He bore the world's sin and took it to Himself, to destroy and put it away. Behold and see if there was any sorrow like unto His sorrow.