👑 FOLLOWING THE KING

By:  Pst JK. Woodall

Simon of Cyrene may have been the closest man to Jesus on the road to Calvary who wasn't one of His disciples.

Think about that.

Jesus had been beaten.
Jesus had been scourged.
Jesus was bleeding.

Then Simon was pulled out of the crowd and commanded to carry His cross.

But Luke gives us a detail we can easily read past:

“...that he might bear it after Jesus.”
— Luke 23:26

Simon was FOLLOWING the King.

But this wasn't the King people expected.

This King had no royal robe.

He had a crown of thorns.

His body was wounded.

He was bleeding.

And Simon was carrying the very cross Jesus had been carrying.

The text doesn't say Jesus' blood got on Simon.

But let's use the minds God gave us.

Jesus was bleeding.

The cross was in contact with His wounded body.

Simon took that cross and carried it behind Him.

What do you think was on that cross?

🔥 Simon wasn't just carrying wood.
He was carrying evidence of the King's suffering.

And here is where it gets uncomfortable:

Jesus had already said,

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
— Matthew 16:24

Simon literally became a picture of it.

He took up the cross.
He followed Jesus.
And he followed a bleeding King.

Maybe that's the revelation:

We love following Jesus when He looks victorious.

But...

Can you follow the King when He doesn't LOOK like a King?

When He's leading you through a painful season.

When the road doesn't make sense.

When all you can see is the cross.

He's still King. 👑

And there's one more mystery...

Mark tells us Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Later, Paul writes about a man named Rufus, calling him:

“chosen in the Lord.”
— Romans 16:13

Was it the same Rufus?

Scripture doesn't explicitly say.

But if it was...

Simon carried the cross—and his encounter with the King may have changed his entire house.

Don't miss this one.

🔥 FOLLOWING THE KING

Can you follow Him when He doesn't look like a King?