Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Compelled Cross-Bearer: Simon of Cyrene and the Sovereign Humiliation of Christ (Matthew 27:32)

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The Compelled Cross-Bearer: Simon of Cyrene and the Sovereign Humiliation of Christ (Matthew 27:32) · Reformed Thinking

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I mean 75 lbs of rough hewn Roman timber, a human back
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basically laid open by iron and bone.
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It is brutal. And a man from North Africa who
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just, you know, happened to be standing on the wrong side of a
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dirt road at the absolute worst possible second.
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Welcome to reformed thinking. Today we are taking a deep dive
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into an execution March. A very specific execution March.
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Yes, we are looking at one single sentence from the Gospel
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of Matthew, chapter 27, verse 32.
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And we are really opening it up today.
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We really are. It is the moment a man named
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Simon of Cyrene is forced by the Roman military to carry the
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cross of Jesus. So we are drawing from two
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really massive theological and historical essays for this.
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Right. And these sources, they
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breakdown the historical reality, the Greek grammar, and
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the massive theological weight of this one verse.
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At first glance, you know you might read this sentence and
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think it is just a logistical footnote.
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Yeah, like a quick practical detail about how a public
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execution managed to get from point A to point B.
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But when you look closely at the history and the text, you see a
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massive collision. You really do.
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You see the brutality of human reality, the absolute crushing
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weight of imperial authority, and, well, the sovereign decree
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of God, all crashing together on one dusty St. in Jerusalem.
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It is a staggering scene when you slow down and look at the
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details right? Because the natural human
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tendency when reading the historical accounts of the
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crucifixion is to kind of rush past the transitional moments.
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Oh for sure. We want to read about the trial
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before pilot and then we want to skip straight to the hill of
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Golgotha. Yeah, but the text refuses to
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let us do that. It forces us to stand on the
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side of the street and witness the agonizing physical
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procession. The verse we are looking at says
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as they went out they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name.
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They compelled this man to carry his cross.
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And the authors of the essays we're reviewing?
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They make a compelling case that the Holy Spirit does not waste
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ink. Absolutely not.
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Every single word in that Greek sentence is a deliberate
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theological claim. It functions as a hinge.
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Yeah, it connects the mockery and the violence of the Roman
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soldiers to the physical reality of the atonement.
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We are looking at a moment where human malice, total physical
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collapse and divine Providence intersect.
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Right. But to really grasp the theology
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of this verse, the authors insist that we cannot treat this
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as a clean, abstract religious concept.
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We have to ground this entire conversation in the physical
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dirt, the sweat, and the blood of the historical moment.
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Because we were talking about a Roman execution detail.
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Yeah, and before we even bring Simon of Cyween into the
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picture, we have to establish the physical condition of Jesus
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at this specific second. The essays go into significant
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detail regarding the Roman Verboracio.
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And I think people hear the word scourging or flogging and they
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associate it with a standard beating.
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Right. Or maybe a modern concept of
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corporal punishment. But this was not a standard
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beating. No, this was a highly
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calculated, brutal military procedure.
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Designed to dismantle a human body and push it to the absolute
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brink of death before the actual crucifixion even started.
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So the Verboracio was the preliminary scourging required
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by Roman law prior to crucifixion, and it's design was
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medically horrifying. The Roman executioners, they
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were known as lictors. Yeah, and they were specialists.
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They utilized an instrument called a phlegm.
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What is that like a standard whip?
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Well, it is a short whip composed of a solid handle with
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multiple long leather thongs attached to it.
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But braided into the ends of these leather thongs were pieces
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of sharpened sheep bone, heavy lead balls and sometimes iron
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hooks. Oh wow, so the intent of the
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Lichter was not to inflict surface level pain?
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Not at all. The intent was to physically
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shred the anatomy. That up heavy When the whip
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struck the back, the heavy lead balls would cause deep internal
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contusions, smashing the tissue. Then, as the executioner pulled
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the whip back with force, the bone and the iron hooks would
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dig in and tear through the epidermis and the subcutaneous
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tissue. So the flesh would literally be
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ribbons. Yes, the muscles of the back,
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the shoulders and the legs would be laid completely bare.
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I mean in severe cases veins and internal organs would be exposed
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to the open air. Right.
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And the historical sources we are reviewing point out that
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this specific level of trauma induces massive catastrophic
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blood loss. Triggering a severe medical
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crisis known as hypovolemic shock.
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Yes. Let's breakdown hypovolemic
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shock for a second so you, the listener can really visualize
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what is happening inside the body.
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Think of the human cardiovascular system like a
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closed plumbing circuit with a pump.
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OK, that makes sense. Your heart is the pump, and the
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blood is the fluid carrying oxygen to your organs.
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When a person suffers the kind of tissue destruction you just
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described, they lose a massive volume of that fluid very
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quickly. So the body recognizes that it
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is bleeding out. Yeah, so it triggers a desperate
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survival mechanism. The heart starts beating
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incredibly fast, trying to pump whatever limited blood is left
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to keep the brain and the vital organs alive.
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But because there is not enough fluid in the system, the blood
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pressure completely bottoms out. The blood vessels in the arms
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and legs constrict to save the core, which means the muscles
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are suddenly starved of oxygen. Severe, agonizing dehydration
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sets in immediately. So when we look at Jesus
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standing up from the scourging post, his muscles are quite
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literally seizing up. They are filling with lactic
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acid. The brain is on the verge of
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blacking out from a lack of oxygen.
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The body is in a state of total catastrophic shutdown.
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And right in the middle of that catastrophic medical failure,
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the Roman execution protocol required the condemned man to
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carry the horizontal crossbeam. This beam was known as the
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Petibulum. So the vertical post of the
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cross was usually left permanently fixed in the ground
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at the execution site. Yes, but the prisoner had to
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carry the crossbeam through the city streets as a public
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deterrent. And the historical consensus is
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that this rough hewn piece of timber weighed anywhere from 75
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to 125 lbs. You have to picture the scene
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placing 100 LB piece of solid splintering wood across the
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shoulders of a man whose back has just been flayed open to the
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muscle. A man whose body is already deep
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into hypovolemic shock. The fact that Jesus collapsed
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under that weight is a physiological certainty.
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The human frame simply cannot sustain that load under those
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conditions. No, the muscles cease to
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function. The body hits a hard biological
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limit. Wait, I always assumed that
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early church debates about the nature of Christ were just, you
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know, academic arguments held in quiet libraries.
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Oh, not at all. But looking at this, the sheer
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physical horror of the collapse seems to be the very thing that
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proves the theology. That is a great point.
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I mean, if Jesus is fully God, the creator of the universe,
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holding galaxies together, how does his total physical collapse
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right here in the dirt define what it actually means for the
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eternal Son to assume human flesh?
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Well, that physical collapse is the definitive answer to some of
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the most dangerous heresies the early church faced.
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Really like which ones? In the first few centuries there
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were massive theological movements known as Docetism and
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Gnosticism. Right, I have heard of those.
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These philosophical systems were heavily influenced by Greek
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thought. Which taught that physical
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matter like flesh, blood, dirt, that it was inherently evil or
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corrupt. Yeah, and that only the purely
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spiritual realm was good. So because of this philosophical
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bias, they argued that the divine Son of God could not
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possibly have taken on a real, physical human body.
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Right. It was invensive to them, they
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claimed. Jesus only appeared to suffer.
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That is wild. They argued that his body was a
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phantom, an illusion, or that the divine nature of Christ
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abandoned the human shell right before the physical pain began.
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But this verse in Matthew and the catastrophic physical
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collapse of documents utterly obliterates those heresies.
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Absolutely. The eternal Son of God assumed a
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true human nature. He possessed a rational human
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soul and a real biological human body.
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He possessed real human limits. He experienced genuine
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exhaustion, severe dehydration and complete muscular failure.
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His collapse under the weight of the Pettibulum is not a denial
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of his deity. No, it is the absolute,
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undeniable proof of his true humanity.
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He felt the absolute limit of physical exhaustion so that he
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could stand as a true literal substitute for humanity.
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He had to possess a real nervous system to absorb a real curse.
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OK, so you have a Roman center commanding this execution squad
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and he is watching his prisoner bleed out on the cobblestones.
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The procession is grinding to a halt.
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And the Centurion has a schedule to keep.
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All right, if the prisoner dies in the street from shock before
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reaching the execution site, the centurion fails his orders.
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And the Roman military machine does not tolerate delays.
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He doesn't have time to ask the crowd for a volunteer.
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He needs raw muscle and he needs it right now.
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So how does a Roman soldier legally solve that problem on a
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crowded St. This brings in a fascinating
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piece of history regarding the specific word Matthew uses.
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Yes, the text says the soldiers compelled Simon to carry the
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cross. The Greek verb Matthew selects
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here is angurio. Angurio and the linguistic
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history of this word is fascinating.
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Fascinating. It does not originate in the
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Greek or Roman world. Right.
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Really, where does it come from? It actually traces its roots all
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the way back to the ancient Persian Empire.
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Persians. Yeah, Centuries earlier, the
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Persian kings like Cyrus and Darius established a vast royal
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postal Courier system across their massive territories.
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To ensure that the King's messages traveled at maximum
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speed, these royal couriers possessed sweeping legal
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authority. Like what kind of authority?
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They had the right to impress any civilian, seize their
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horses, or commandeer their property into immediate service
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to expedite the King's business. So you could not say no to a
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Persian Courier. Definitely not.
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And when the Roman military eventually conquered the East
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and absorb those territories, they recognize the brutal
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efficiency of the system. Of course they did.
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They adopted it into their own provincial law under the term.
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Angaria under Roman military occupation in Judea.
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A Roman soldier had the absolute, unquestioned legal
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right to tap any civilian on the shoulder with the flat of a
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spear and force them into manual labor.
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Usually this forced labor was limited to carrying gear for one
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Roman mile. So this is forced conscription
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on the spot. Spot on.
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The soldiers are not appealing to Simon's sense of pity for a
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dying man. They are not asking nicely.
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This is an act of sheer, irresistible raw coercion.
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Think about a modern analogy to grasp the sheer shock of this.
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It is somewhat akin to the modern concept of eminent
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domain, where the government simply seizes your property for
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a highway project and you have zero say in the matter.
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Right? But to make it more visceral,
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imagine you are walking down the street in your hometown, heading
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to a religious service, minding your own business.
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OK, picture that. Suddenly, a hostile foreign
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military Humvee rolls up. Heavily armed soldiers jump out,
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point a rifle at your chest, and draft you into grueling manual
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labor right there on the sidewalk.
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That is terrifying. You're.
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Forced under threat of immediate execution to carry their
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equipment. The sheer shock, the public
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humiliation and the terror a Jewish Pilgrim would feel in
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that exact moment would be staggering.
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Since this was an oppressive Pagan legal system designed to
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subjugate conquered people, how did the authors of our text
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reconcile the absolute cruelty of the Roman state with a
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concept of God's perfect Providence?
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That is a massive theological tension, and the essays rely
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heavily on historic Reformed categories to explain it right.
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The authors point to the foundational reality that God,
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from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own
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will, freely and unchangeably ordains whatsoever comes to
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pass. So this universal sovereignty
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includes the actions of Pagan empires.
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Yes. Corrupt governments and cruel
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military systems. The Roman centurion was
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exercising his imperial authority solely to solve a
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logistical problem. His only intent was to expedite
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a state execution and maintain order.
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He had no interest in theology. Yet, without realizing it, the
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Roman soldiers were operating perfectly as instruments of the
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divine decree. God utilized the cruel,
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oppressive legal mechanism of angaria to ensure that Christ's
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physical life was preserved long enough to reach the altar of.
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The worst of human wrath and the most oppressive systems of Pagan
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governance are completely subordinate to the divine will.
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The soldiers acted freely according to their sinful, cruel
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training, and yet their specific actions accomplished the exact
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predetermined purpose of God. Without God being the author of
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their sin. Exactly.
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Well, wait, that is absolutely right.
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Hold on. So you're saying God
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orchestrated the Roman oppression of the Jewish people
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and the specific deployment of this Persian conscription law
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just to ensure this one, one piece of wood made it up a hill
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at the right time? The authors argue that point
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strongly. Wow.
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The historical preparation of the Persian postal system, its
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integration into Roman military law, and the deployment of that
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law on that specific St. We're all sovereignly arranged.
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So God governs the sweep of empires to accomplish the
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redemption of his people. The centurion thought he was
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flexing the might of Rome. In reality, he was ensuring the
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true Passover lamb made it to the site of the sacrifice alive.
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That makes the selection of the individual even more striking.
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Yeah, the Romans used that specific legal mechanism on one
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particular bystander. The crowd in Jerusalem during
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Passover was staggering. Historians estimate the
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population swelled into the hundreds of thousands.
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Perhaps over 1,000,000 people jamming the narrow streets.
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Yet out of that massive sea of humanity, the text focuses on
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one individual. Let's look at who Simon was and
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why he was placed there at that very second.
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The text identifies him as a man from Cyrene.
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Cyrene was a very prominent, wealthy Greco Roman city located
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in North Africa. In the region we would recognize
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today as eastern Libya. Right.
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It was part of an area known as the Pentapolis, famous for its
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architecture and trade. And Cyrene possessed a massive,
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highly influential Jewish population that dated all the
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way back to the reign of Ptolemy the first Sodor.
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Roughly 3 centuries prior to this event.
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These were diaspora Jews, Jews living outside the traditional
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land of Israel. Despite living in a heavily
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Hellenized Pagan city, many of these diaspora Jews maintained A
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fierce devotion to the Temple, the Torah and the annual
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festivals. For Simon to be in Jerusalem
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means he had traveled all the way across the Mediterranean
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Sea. This was not a casual weekend
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trip. No, it required immense personal
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expense, months of planning, and severe physical risk from
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shipwrecks and bandits. He traveled for one specific
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reason. To observe the Passover feast in
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Jerusalem. He is arriving in the Holy city
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for the highest holy day of the Jewish calendar, fully expecting
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to participate in the ancient joyous rituals recalling the
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deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
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You have to imagine the sensory overload for Simon.
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Oh yeah, he. Has saved his money for years.
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He survived the boat ride. He walks through the city gates
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of Jerusalem, smelling the roasting lamb, hearing the
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chanting of the Psalms, surrounded by hundreds of
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thousands of fellow pilgrims. He is looking for a religious
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experience. And right in the middle of this
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massive pilgrimage, on his way into the city, he is intercepted
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by a Roman spear. The essays draw very careful
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attention to the Greek grammatical structure Matthew
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uses to describe this interception.
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The phrase translated as They found a man.
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The Greek verb Matthew utilizes is Huron.
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Huron. Which means they found or they
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discovered. And the others point out how
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Matthew uses this verb to highlight the intersection of
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human action and divine appointment.
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From the horizontal perspective of the Roman soldiers, it was a
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totally random discovery. They scan the chaotic crowd saw
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a physically capable man with broad shoulders and drafted him.
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It was a split second, pragmatic military decision.
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But Matthew pairs this verb with a very specific demonstrative
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pronoun in the Greek text 2 ton, which translates literally as
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this very one. Out of a sea of hundreds of
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thousands of Passover pilgrims, the soldiers seized this very
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one. The authors argue that this
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specific language demonstrates that Simon's selection was
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absolutely not random in the eyes of God.
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From the perspective of the divine decree, God ordained from
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before the foundation of the world that this specific man
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from a city in North Africa would board a specific boat,
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walk down that specific dirt road at that exact microscopic
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fraction of a second, and touch the wood of the cross.
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I want to push back on this for a second because this is a heavy
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concept to digest in our modern context.
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It is a lot. It is incredibly easy to look at
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this narrative and conclude that Simon was just an unfortunate
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guy who had terrible luck. He was in the wrong place at the
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wrong time, a victim of circumstance.
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Yeah, if you look at it purely historically, it looks like a
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tragic coincidence. How did the authors distinguish
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between random historical chance, bad luck, and what
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theologians call the execution of divine Providence?
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The essays argue strongly that in the biblical worldview, there
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is absolutely no such thing as random historical chance.
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Every detail of the universe, no matter how small or seemingly
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insignificant, is actively governed by a sovereign Creator.
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The distinction lies in recognizing the dual realities
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operating simultaneously. OK, on back that.
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On the horizontal human level, events often appear contingent,
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accidental, or chaotic. Simon decided to walk down a
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particular St. because of the crowd.
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A soldier, he made a split second decision to point his
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spear because the prisoner stumbled.
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But on the vertical divine level, God is actively governing
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all his creatures and all their actions.
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The theological point the authors make is that Providence
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does not obliterate human choices, nor does it ignore
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historical realities. Rather, Providence works through
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them. Simon's encounter is the
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textbook definition of Providence.
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God bringing about his predetermined plan through the
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ordinary, seemingly random, and even oppressive events of human
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history. The ultimate comfort for the
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believer is that the cross was not a chaotic accident
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controlled by the whims of Rome. It was an altar orchestrated by
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infinite divine wisdom. That orchestration becomes even
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more apparent when you stop looking at the people and start
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looking at the geography. Oh right, the physical location.
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Simon's conscription happens at a very specific spatial moment
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on the map. The text says as they went out.
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That brief phrase is not just a throwaway transition.
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It triggers a massive theological shift regarding the
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Old Testament. We are looking at a spatial
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movement that fulfills centuries of bloody prophecy.
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The Greek participle Matthew uses is exor kumenoy.
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Which literally translates to going out or departing.
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The authors emphasize that this is not merely stage direction to
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move the characters from the trial to the execution site.
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It identifies the spatial departure from the city gates of
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Jerusalem. To understand the staggering
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weight of this movement, we have to look back to the Mosaic Law.
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Specifically, the book of Leviticus, chapter 16.
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That chapter outlines the highly specific, terrifying rituals for
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the Day of Atonement. Under the Old Covenant, the
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sacrificial victims whose blood was brought into the holy
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sanctuary to cover the sins of the people could not be disposed
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of inside the city. Their bodies had to be taken and
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burned entirely outside the camp.
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The area outside the camp, beyond the city walls, was the
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place of ritual uncleanness. It was the geographical location
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of the curse. It was the place where lepers
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were exiled to live and die. It was the place where
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blasphemers were taken to be stoned.
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Think about the city walls of ancient Jerusalem as a physical
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boundary line of covenant blessing.
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Yeah, that is great way to view it.
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Inside the walls you have the Temple, the Holy of Holies, the
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presence of God, the community of faith and safety.
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Being pushed outside that physical boundary line means
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taking on the full crushing weight of the curse.
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The author of the book of Hebrews explicitly connects this
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spatial reality in chapter 13, stating that Jesus suffered
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outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his
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own blood. So here is the staggering irony.
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Oh, the irony is massive. By driving Jesus outside the
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city, Rawls, the national leaders of Israel, and the Roman
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authorities are unwittingly fulfilling the precise
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theological pattern of casting the scapegoat into the
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wilderness to bear the curse. The very religious leaders who
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are trying to silence Jesus, the men who hated him and rejected
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him as a false prophet, were actually following the precise
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script written in the Mosaic Law centuries prior to accomplish
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the atonement. The.
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Historical irony is huge, and the authors spend a great deal
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of time unpacking it. The religious leaders of
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Jerusalem believe they were purging a dangerous blasphemer
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from their holy city. They thought they were defending
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the purity of the temple by casting him out into the dirt.
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But the essays argued that their act of violent rejection was the
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very mechanism God used to designate Christ as the ultimate
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final sin offering. Jesus is physically driven out
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of the covenant community, pushed through the gates, and
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cast into the godless wilderness of Roman execution.
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Furthermore, the sudden appearance of Simon of Cyrene
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right at this boundary line is seen by the authors as
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typologically brilliant. As national Israel casts out her
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true king, a man from the far-flung diaspora, an outsider
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from North Africa is sovereignly brought in to touch the wood of
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the cross. It acts as a visual historical
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foreshadowing of the gospel expanding outward to the Gentile
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nations. But right as we talk about Simon
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touching the wood, we have to hit the brakes and draw a
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massive bright line between what Simon is doing on that road and
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what Christ is doing on that cross.
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The authors are incredibly strict about this point.
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We are looking at the phrase to carry his cross.
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That single pronoun changes everything.
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Simon is carrying wood. He is not saving anyone.
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The pronoun protects the absolute exclusivity of Christ's
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saving work. The text says Simon was
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compelled to carry his cross. It remains entirely the cross of
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Jesus. The essays provide a rigorous,
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unyielding defense against any form of Co redemptive theology.
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What is that for the listener who might not know?
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Well, throughout church history, it's certain theological
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traditions have attempted to elevate human participation in
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the atonement. They suggest that human beings
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can add merit to their own salvation or aid in the
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redemption of the world by sharing in the physical
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sufferings of Christ. Similarly, modern moralistic
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teachings often reduce the entire event of the cross to a
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mere example of extreme self sacrifice.
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Something we're supposed to imitate to earn favor with God.
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But the distinction the authors make here is absolute.
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Simon bears rough hewn Roman timber for a short physical
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distance. Christ alone bears the infinite
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wrath of God. Simon's work was external, it
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was violently forced, and it was purely physical.
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He added absolutely nothing to the satisfaction of divine
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justice. He contributed nothing to the
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expiation of human sin. To illustrate this distinction,
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the authors point to the incredible Old Testament
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parallel in Genesis chapter 22. The famous narrative of Abraham
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and Isaac on Mount Moriah. In that historical account,
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Abraham places the physical wood for the burnt offering upon the
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shoulders of his son Isaac. Isaac literally carries the wood
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up the mountain for his own sacrifice.
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He stands as a vivid historical type, a direct foreshadowing of
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Christ carrying the cross. But the parallel diverges in a
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crucial, violent way when we move from Mount Moriah to the
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road to Calvary. That divergent is the very heart
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of the Gospel message. On Mount Moriah, Isaac carried
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the wood up the hill, but he was spared from the sacrificial
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knife because a substitute ram was found caught in the thicket.
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God provided a substitute to take Isaac's place on the altar.
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But for Jesus, the true and final son of Abraham, no
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substitute could take the wrath. There was no RAM in the thicket
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for the Son of God. Simon of Cyrene is a substitute
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only for the physical timber. He carries the heavy wooden beam
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solely to ensure that the true lamb reaches the altar alive.
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But when the Roman procession finally arrives at the skull
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shaped hill of Golgotha, Simon steps away.
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He drops the wood. He does not take the iron nail.
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He does not bear the imputation of human guilt.
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Jesus alone is the Savior. He alone is hoisted up.
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He alone drinks the cup of the Father's wrath to the dregs.
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So let me ask a practical question based on this theology.
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If someone listens to this narrative or reads Matthew 27
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and walks away thinking the main lesson is we should all be good,
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hopeful neighbors like Simon, what crucial truth about the
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atonement are they completely missing?
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They're missing the doctrine of penal substitution entirely.
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If we moralize this historical passage and attempt to turn
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Simon into the hero of the story, we strip the cross of its
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saving work. Yeah, an example of volunteering
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to help those in need or being a Good Samaritan.
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The authors argue forcefully that the central point of
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Matthew 27.32 is not Simon's helpfulness.
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Simon was forced at spear point. He did not volunteer.
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He was terrified. The central point is the unique,
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solitary, and entirely sufficient work of Christ.
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If we make this text a story about human solidarity or human
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empathy, we obscure the terrifying reality that humanity
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was utterly, completely incapable of saving itself.
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Christ had to bear the curse completely alone, because only a
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sinless divine human mediator could offer a sacrifice of
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infinite worth to satisfy the justice of God.
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Grasping the reality that Christ alone bore the wrath forces a
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radical reevaluation of how the modern world views suffering,
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success, and the daily Christian life.
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The authors use the harsh, bloody reality of Matthew 27.32
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to shatter modern illusions of comfort.
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There was a sharp, unyielding critique in these essays
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directed at modern health and wealth teachings, often called
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the prosperity gospel. As well as modern pragmatic
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church grief models. The argument is stark.
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If the creator of the universe collapsed under the physical
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weight of a wooden beam in the dirt, promising people a life of
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material luxury and physical ease contradicts the core
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reality of the Via Dolorosa. The contrast is devastating to
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those modern movements. The prosperity gospel asserts
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that physical suffering, bodily weakness, and financial hardship
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are direct signs of a lack of faith or hidden sin.
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They claim that God's absolute will for every single believer
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is continuous physical health, victorious living, and material
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luxury. But our text presents the Lord
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of glory, the Incarnate Son of God, physically exhausted,
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bleeding out and collapsing in total public humiliation.
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If the path appointed by the Father for the sinless Son of
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God was characterized by intense physical suffering and state
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sponsored execution, the claim that faithful Christians are
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guaranteed earthly ease is fundamentally at odds with the
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biblical narrative. Similarly, pragmatic church
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growth models that try to market a comfortable, frictionless,
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consumer friendly version of faith are directly confronted by
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the raw, offensive reality of this execution March.
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The King's path to victory was through intense, sovereignly
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ordained suffering. But wait, unlike the cross that
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pays for sin, then the believer's cross is meant for
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training and growth. Jesus told his followers, Take
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up your cross and follow me. How do the authors explain the
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difference between the cross Jesus carried and the cross we
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are supposed to carry? The theologians often call this
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concept the third use of the law.
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It is not a list of rules to earn salvation.
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It is the training wheels for how a saved person learns to
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walk in holiness. The difference between Christ's
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cross and the believer's cross is one of purpose and efficacy.
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Christ's cross was atoning substitutionary and wrath
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bearing it paid the legal penalty for sin.
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The believers cross has 0 atoning value.
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We do not suffer to pay for our sins or to complete.
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Christ's sacrifice, instead taking up our cross, means
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bearing the reproach of Christ in a hostile world.
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It means enduring sudden trials, resisting sin when it costs us
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our reputation or our livelihood, and submitting to
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sovereignly imposed hardships without viewing them as
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punishment. We accept the difficulties God
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ordains for our sanctification to kill our remaining sin and
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conform us to the image of Jesus.
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But we never look to our own suffering as the ground of our
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justification before God. Think about the modern consumer
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mindset for a minute. We are conditioned by everything
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around us to desire a completely frictionless life.
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We want immediate service, total comfort, 2 day shipping and the
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elimination of all inconvenience.
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Then compare that mindset to the raw offensive reality of an
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execution March where a bystander is drafted by the
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point of a Roman spear. When a person faces a sudden,
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painful disruption they did not choose, much like science and
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being seized by the Romans on his way to church.
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How does this text provide a framework for in doing that
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without falling into total despair?
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The framework it provides is the absolute rock solid assurance of
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God's governing Providence. Simon did not choose his burden.
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It was sudden, coercive and likely terrifying.
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He probably thought his entire pilgrimage was ruined.
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Many people experience sudden illnesses, financial collapse or
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tragic, senseless losses that they did not choose and cannot
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control. We believe the universe is ruled
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by random chance, or that bad luck is just bad luck.
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Those disruptions lead straight to nihilism and despair.
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But this text teaches that the same God who sovereignly ordered
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the darkest, most agonizing Rd. in human history, the road to
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Calvary, is the same God who orders our steps today.
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God used the cruel disruption of Simon's life, the ruining of his
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Passover plans, to bring him into direct physical contact
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with the Savior of the world. The believer can endure painful
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disruptions by trusting that God's hand that is not absent
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when life falls apart. If God can bring the ultimate
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redemption of the cosmos out of the horror and injustice of the
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crucifixion, He can govern our individual trials for our
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ultimate good and His glory. That is a staggering reality to
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wrap our minds around. It really is.
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Let's start bringing all these threads together.
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As we review the core takeaways from today's analysis, a few
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central themes stand out clearly from the authors. 1st, we
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confronted the undeniable physical reality of the
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Incarnation. Jesus Christ possessed a true
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human body that experienced the absolute limits of exhaustion
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and pain. Refuting any ancient or modern
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idea that his suffering was an illusion. 2nd we saw the
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absolute sovereignty of God over corrupt human empires.
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The oppressive Roman law of Angaria, inherited from the
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Persians, was utilized perfectly by the divine decree to ensure
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the sacrificial lamb reached the altar.
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And 3rd, we clarified the sole sufficiency of Christ bearing
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the curse. Simon carried the wood, but
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Jesus alone drank the cup of wrath, securing salvation
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without any human contribution. Those are the massive
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theological pillars holding up this one verse.
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But the fascinating thing about how these authors wrap up their
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analysis is that they do not let the readers stay in the
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comfortable realm of ancient history.
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They press the text forward. They push you to look at Simon
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as the mirror. Consider their final historical
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point. Simon of Serene walked into
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Jerusalem as an ordinary man. He was a Pilgrim looking for a
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religious festival, expecting rituals, massive crowds and
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tradition. He wanted a religious
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experience. But in the sovereign plan of
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God, he was violently forced to encounter the raw, bloody
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reality of the Messiah. He was pulled out of the safety
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of the crowd and brought face to face with the agonizing cost of
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redemption. Which leaves you with a question
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to ponder long after you finish listening to this discussion.
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Are you standing on the side of the road watching the procession
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treating? This is just an interesting
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historical event. Or have you recognized the one
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carrying the curse in your? Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive on reformed thinking.
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We will see you next time.