V. Simon helps Jesus carry his cross
When Jesus was carrying his cross to Golgotha, the soldiers came across a man called Simon, and they enlisted him to carry the cross because it had become too heavy for Jesus alone. He was unable to carry it to the place of his execution and needed the help of a stranger to fulfill his mission. Jesus needs us to fulfill his mission. He needs people to carry the cross with him and for him. He came to show us the way to his Father’s home. But he cannot do it alone. The hard painful work of salvation is a work in which God becomes dependent on human beings. For Jesus to become the savior of the world, he needs people willing to carry the cross with him. Some do it voluntarily, some have to be “enlisted”; but once they feel the weight of the wood, they discover that it is a light burden, an easy yoke that leads to the Father’s home. . . . I feel within me a strong desire to live my life on my own. In fact, my society praises the self-made people who . . . set their own goals, fulfill their own aspirations, and build their own kingdoms. . . . And still, every time I am willing to break out of my false need for self-sufficiency and dare to ask for help, a new community emerges - a fellowship of the weak - strong in the trust that together we can be a people of hope for a broken world.
Excerpt from Henri Nouwen’s Walk with Jesus, Orbis Books. Posted with the kind permission of the publisher.
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February 26th, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
My “burden” is a different type but speaks to some of the thoughts Henri Nouwen raised near the end of the section: ..”every time I am willing to break out of my false need for self-sufficiency and dare to ask for help, a new community emerges..”
My first marriage ended in divorce. When I decided to marry a second time, I knew I had to be a different person. I had to listen more and talk less, I had to give less advice and accept more, I had to forgive more and try to forget more, etc.
Nouwen: “To receive help, support, guidance, affection, and care may well be a greater call than that of giving all these things because in receiving I reveal the gift to the givers and a new life together can begin.” Now I am pleased to say we have been married thirty two years (today February 27)and have never had an argument.
I might modify the two words at the end of the story from “the poor” to “a spouse.” The “burden” I carried,in my first marriage, was me.
February 26th, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
Sometimes I’m not sure when to bear another’s burden. Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? Why isn’t anyone else concerned by what they just heard, saw, or learned? Am I overreacting? Am I being or appearing “foolish?”
Recently, I was reflecting on how difficult the call to serve the poor can be. Some theologians give off the impression that the poor are angelic beings whose only flaw is that they’re short on cash. I experience the poor as human. Humans who, yes, are low on cash, but who may also be low on emotional coping skills, who have addictions, who mistreat their children, who curse and hate because of a lack of appropriate education. No, of course, this doesn’t describe all poor people. My point is that the lives of the poor can be messy! It’s not easy to bear the cross of serving the poor. Jesus knows this. Who knew better about struggle and the unfairness of life than Jesus!? So whether we feel foolish, exhausted, confused, fearful that we’re overreacting or underreacting to another’s burden, we can trust and seek strength in Jesus’ example. We can know that we’re not alone in our efforts.
February 26th, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
I think the story about Simon is particularly comforting. Suppose Simon did not really know who Jesus was. It means to me that today, as Jesus appears among us, any of us can be helping Jesus carry His cross, even not understanding what we are doing in helping Jesus in the other. And the fact that some soldiers or someone else in places of authority can enlist us to do this helping of Jesus in the other only points out to me the power of God to get even people opposed to Him to help with the carrying of Jesus’ cross. God is sovereign.
February 26th, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
A few years ago my Pastor asked me to become a Stephen Minister. I declined, telling him that I didn’t think I had a stable enough personality to do it. My Pastor got a call to another church. Then there was just this big hole in my life where my teacher/guide had been. While we were waiting for our new Pastor, a neighbor from the Presbyterian Church down the street was driving by and asked me to join their Stephen Ministry training program. Just spontaneously while I was out in the yard. With this big void in my life, I agreed. (I’m still in my own Lutheran church however). We all spent a year in the training program honing our caregiving skills but also really learning to understand that “God is the curegiver, we are the caregivers. Now that I’ve had carereceivers and know that, in fact, I was never to have the responsibility of being anyone’s curegiver I actually feel pretty foolish about all that stuff I was saying and especially saying to my former Pastor. When our former Pastor left, the Stephens Ministry program floundered and died except for me over there with the Presbyterians. Our current Pastor is considering starting the program up again. Life is ironic in its twists and turns.
February 26th, 2008 @ 10:44 am
As we view the details of the passion and death on the cross, it is important to recognize that the event was designed by the Creator to effect our salvation; nothing is by chance. The assistance is a message to us that if our crosses are not great we need to help someone who is struggling.
February 26th, 2008 @ 7:53 am
Your question is a hard one to answer, Jack, only because most answers would sound like bragging! But I’ll try anyway. For the past 8 years I’ve been both retired & a widower & this has given me more time (and an inclination) to spend time (and enjoy) persons of limitations, persons others would find a bore…or even a “pain in the butt.” Such is a good reminder that I must often be viewed the same by our Creator/Savior!
February 26th, 2008 @ 1:57 am
I’ve always been intrigued by the symbolism of the Panama Canal – you have to go east to get west (and vice versa). Weakness and vulnerability as an opportunity to share and build community? Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (I Corinthians 1:25) So Simon shows us entering into the suffering of God, to be a partaker of His mission and purpose. To share the suffering of God – isn’t it called compassion? To love an enemy? How has your life been “foolish” as you’ve shouldered a burden for someone else?