Carrying the Cross

Basic Info

Matthew 27:31–33, Mark 15:20–22, Luke 23:26–31, John 19:17

The synoptic Gospels―Matthew, Mark, and Luke―do not report Jesus’ carrying his own cross. In these Gospels, Simon, a Cyrenian, is made to carry it for Jesus. John, who emphasizes Jesus’ being in control, reports Jesus’ carrying the cross by himself the whole way. The devotional practice known as the Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, as well as many artists throughout the years, combine the two stories and depict Jesus’ carrying it for a way, but then Simon’s being pressed to help Him when he fell a third time.

The idiom “having a cross to bear” is obviously related to the story of Jesus’ having to lug his own cross up the hill, but the Christian interpretation goes beyond this literal aspect of the story. Interpretations of the Jesus story suggest that only Jesus, only God’s Son, only a person with both human and divine natures, could die to redeem human sins. So Jesus’ “cross to bear” wasn’t just the physical cross; the whole suffering and death experience was his to bear. The physical cross often symbolizes this larger burden.

The devotional idea for Christians behind this theme is that no matter how heavy a burden you are currently carrying, it is smaller than the burden carried by Jesus Christ. The Simon aspect of the story is that sometimes we are required to carry a cross simply because we were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

What to Look For

• Whether Jesus or Simon the Cyrenian is carrying the cross
• The heaviness of the cross as it is depicted
• How spent / tired / beaten up Jesus looks
• Jesus’ emotional state
• Simon’s emotional response to the situation
• Whether other people are following or lining the path along which Jesus walks
• How the other people are reacting to Jesus’ situation
• To identify the “other people” see the section on groups

Questions to Focus a General Interpretation

Is this just one more artwork depicting Jesus’ suffering, or is there something more here about why Jesus alone could save the human race?

Does Simon’s attitude in carrying the cross present a model for how the viewer could better face the burdens that have been placed on her or him?

Do the people depicted along the road model for Christian viewers the attitude they “ought” to have toward Jesus’ sacrifice, or is the crowd more varied than that?

Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation

How do you relate to Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice? Does anyone in the artwork seem to have a similar response to yours?

What burdens do you bear? Does the artwork’s depiction of cross-bearing offer you a fresh perspective on your own cross?

Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation

From era to era, and place to place, the socially relevant meaning of suffering changes. The worst suffering of someone in England in the year 1135 might be vastly different from the worst suffering of someone in Argentina in the 1978. That being said, what might you learn about suffering in the artist’s time and place based on this artwork?

Does the depiction of Simon shed any light on the popular attitude toward work one had no choice but to do in the artist’s time and place?

Artworks both flow from and form a culture. What does this artwork’s depiction of the other people along the route Jesus took tell you about how the people were already responding to Jesus’ suffering? Might it also be prescriptive, telling viewers how they “ought” to react? If so, which aspects seem to be directed toward that end?