I believe that there are a lot of things which the various writers of the books of the Bible saw as being so obvious and common that they did not need further elaboration. Part of the issue for us is to retrieve this proper sense of context, to understand these things from their perspective so as to properly understand them ourselves today. Two examples of this very thing is found in this verse in the "obvious" fact of why a citizen of Cypress needed to be mentioned as participating somehow in the Messiah's crucifixion, and why Jesus would never have carried His cross to Golgotha.

We have discussed what it means to carry a cross before. According to Roman law, the condemned were required to carry their cross through the streets as a public admission of their guilt. The Roman Governor Pilate had, three times, found Jesus innocent, not to mention we know that in reality Jesus was not guilty of anything. So it is an "obvious" testimony that the original readers of Mark would have understood, that not bearing one's own cross was actually a public testimony of innocence, of being unjustly condemned and executed without being guilty.

The involvement of Simon of Cyrene is a little more obscure, but that is because we do not segregate the world the same way as God sees it. Our map of the world revolves around the historically recent phenomena of the city-state, whereas the biblical view is based on the table of nations which sprang forth from Noah. In God's economy, all people are traced back to Noah through one of his three sons Shem, Japheth, or Ham. With the involvement in Jesus' death by the Jews, the Romans, and Simon of Cyrene, all three sons of Noah are represented. It is a picture of the full circle of salvation for the whole world coming to fulfillment in Christ.

I am not pointing these things out as part of some sort of Bible "trivia" quest, but as the greater reason why we need to take each and every little detail in Scripture seriously. Every single word in the Bible matters. Every single event mentioned surrounding Christ's death and resurrection has a greater message tying together the whole of God's Word. Our study of His Word needs to aspire to something greater than merely stockpiling facts and information, but of the greater application to our life._††_†

 [Email this Journal Entry]  [Print this Journal Entry]

This journal entry is filed under 41: Mark. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.