Jesus Surrendered to the Mob

By mid-morning, Pilate had literally washed his hands of the whole affair and turned Jesus over to the mob and the crucifixion detail of soldiers.

The synoptics tell us that the soldiers drafted Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross for Jesus. Why was he picked out of the crowd? None of the writers give the reason, but something made him stand out as a target for this degrading task.

Probably, something marked him as a foreigner. Cyrene was on the northern coast of Africa and had a Jewish colony. He may have been a Jew or a black proselyte to Sacrificial Judaism. Either way, apparently his family became part of the early church leadership, considering Mark’s reference to his sons.

As Jesus staggered along through Jerusalem’s streets, with Simon who was carrying his cross, he foretold Jerusalem’s coming tribulation. Luke, always alert to those generally ignored by the society of the day, gives us this note of compassion for the women.

All four writers tell us that Jesus was crucified just outside the city, at a place known as Golgotha. Sadly, with the course of history, we’ve lost its location. (Amazingly, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 134 A.D., Jerusalem became unknown as an actual city. It became as “mythical” in Christian thought as Nimrod and other ancient cities were to become later.)