Why tell us this guy's kids' names? (Mark 15:21)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church exploring the background, context, meaning, and significance of the account of Jesus of Nazareth in the book of Mark.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are diving deep into the book of Mark for Lent. So we've just finished the part of the account where the soldiers they dishonor, they seek to shame, humiliate Jesus. And then in chapter 15 of Mark, verse 20, we're told they led him out to crucify him. And then what happens next is uh a certain man from Cyrene, uh Cyrene was a town uh just to the west of Egypt, uh modern-day Libya. Um and we know there's a Jewish community there. Um, a certain man uh from Cyrene, uh Simon, and so probably Simon is a faithful, um uh faithful Jew who's there celebrating Passover. Uh the Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. And Roman soldiers uh were allowed to do this, we're allowed to force um the local populace uh to carry things for them. You know, Jesus' family said if someone asks you to carry something one mile, carry it two. Um, and this uh was born out of that context where Roman soldiers could could force uh the local population to carry uh items for them. So Jesus uh he's been flogged um and he's physically weak. Uh and then what he would have to do is to carry the crossbar for the from the cross. The cross uh had you know traditionally these two elements, the steepes, which is the upright um log, and then the patibulum, which is the cross beam, and the patibulum is what um the victim would carry. It could weigh estimates are like 75 to 125 pounds. Um, and um, and Jesus is unable to carry this. I think uh which other is it Luke that talks about Jesus collapsing? I don't know if I'm gonna be able to find that really fast. Um yeah, I'm not sure. One of the other gospel accounts talks about Jesus collapsing on his way there. Um, and anyways, so uh he's unable to carry this, and so the soldiers can script this man, Simon from Cyrene. But the way, listen to the way Mark writes it. He says, a certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. Now, the one of the questions scholars have asked over the years is why does Mark tell us this? It's a great question anytime you're reading um scripture. Why, like this precious space on a scroll, um, why does the author uh use up precious space to tell us why is this thing even included in the the book of the Bible that I'm reading? And then another question is why is it included here? Why is it why is it included in the first place? And why is it included where is it where it's included? But you know, why is this included? Um in the in the Jewish world, a lot of people had the same, had um the same names. So Simon, of course, there's other Simons in um in even the Gospels. Simon Peter, Simon the leper. Remember, that's where Jesus um had uh had his meal earlier this week. And so there's other Simons, uh Shimon is the Hebrew name, it's a common um Jewish name, and so a lot of times um people would be differentiated by their their either their father or their town. So, you know, James and you know, James and John, sons of Zebedee. So they're kind of the sons of Zebedee becomes kind of functions of their last name, or Simon from Cyrene kind of functions of the last name. But but Mark goes beyond just telling us this is the Simon from Cyrene. He tells us this is the Simon from Cyrene, um, which would have been unusual in and of itself. Like, why why do you care who carried it? But he says this is Simon from Cyrene, who is the father of Alexander and Rufus. Like, what how does Mark know this guy's son's names? What is going on here? And this leads back, and I've mentioned this before, but I just think it's it's really important uh to understand. Uh a lot of this comes out of the work of Richard Balcom from Jesus and the eyewitnesses. Um, but he points out time and time again that the gospel writers use these proper names to kind of cite their eyewitness sources. You think about it. If the gospel of Mark is based on the eyewitness testimony of Peter, the preaching of Peter, we are now getting to a part of the story where Peter self-admittedly isn't even there. Peter leaves the story after, you know, he he follows Jesus to the trial before the Sanhedrin, um, denies Jesus three times, and then he he's out of there. And so there's this question where does the eyewitness um testimony come from? I think one of the places that we see is Mark begins referring to the women who follow along, and we'll see that in the resurrection account as well. And I think that's Mark's way of saying this is one of his sources. And then here's another one Simon of Cyrene, the follower, father of Alexander and Rufus. That's that only makes any sense if everybody knows who Alexander and Rufus are. Otherwise, it's just like a bizarre phrase to include in there. It's really interesting. Um, we don't know for sure. Matthew and Luke only say Simon of Cyrene. They don't include the name of his sons, Alexander and Rufus. So maybe Mark had more access to Alexander and Rufus. And then this is really uh, this is not a for sure thing, but just like a what if kind of thing. But in, so you know, okay, Mark, based off the the preaching of Peter, Peter um was most likely in Rome, and Mark is written to the church in Rome, um, right? I think we talked about this way at the beginning of uh the series. Well, really interesting, um, at the end of the book of Romans, um, let's see where it is. Paul makes reference to Romans 16, 13. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother, who's been a mother to me as well. Paul makes reference to a Rufus who's part of the church in Rome. Now, we don't know if it's the same Rufus. There could possibly be multi rufi, like we don't know if it, but it is really provocative. Is this the same Rufus? Rome, the Rome connection, Peter in Rome, Mark writing to people in Rome, referring to Alexander Alexander Rufus and whose dad was there at the moment when Jesus was being paraded through Jerusalem towards his dad. I mean, fascinating. But what I think we can say for sure is, and this is I'm confident of this, that Mark is including this information uh to say these are this is where I'm getting this um eyewitness testimony from. Um Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander Rufus. And I just think for me, it's such a reminder of how much the New Testament is not these, like they're they're not these like high-flying philosophical musings. Over and over again, it's clear that this is things happened among them that they just have to tell the world about. I mean, I think about um, I'm just flipping to uh 1 John here. I think about how 1 John starts, where he says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, and our hands we have touched, this we proclaim. Like, you know, John says, Look, I touched, I saw, I was with Jesus. I have to tell you about it. Um, you know, I think about Luke, who he himself wasn't with Jesus. But when Luke begins his gospel, Luke chapter 1, um uh many have undertaken to draw up an account of these things um uh just as they were handed down to us uh from those who were first eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning. Luke's like, hey, I wasn't there, but I know the eyewitnesses, and I'm done an investigation and I'm passing it on to you. And the the point is, these early followers of Jesus, this was not philosophical musings. This was not like I had an experience when I was out in the woods by myself, or like I was on a mountaintop. This was this Jesus guy showed up in our life. We saw it, we touched it, we we walked with him, and we have to tell you, we saw him die. There was eyewitnesses, and he rose from the dead, and we have to tell you the news. And uh, and I think I just share this as we come, as we come towards the end of the book of Mark, uh to incur to one to just occurrant again, we can trust the historicity of the gospel accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and that our faith fundamentally is uh it's news. It is news that God has done something in human history that has changed things for us. We don't announce a new experience, we don't encounter a new idea, uh we encounter a God who is acted in human history, and that is good news. Praise and peace.