Daily Devotions
Saturday, March 21, 2026
And as they led Him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. (Luke 23:26)
Jesus is in terrible shape after all this. He has had no sleep since Wednesday night, and no food since Thursday’s Passover meal. There’s no record of anyone giving Him a drink. Instead, He’s been beaten, slapped, and spit on, dragged from place to place, and flogged nearly to death. He’s lost a lot of blood. And there is worse to come.
Jesus is supposed to carry the heavy crosspiece out to the place of execution, to Golgotha. But He’s not up to it physically. The soldiers know they’ll be in serious trouble if He dies before He is crucified. So they grab a bystander from the side of the road—Simon of Cyrene.
Simon must have been horrified. Carry a cross like a common criminal? But the Romans had the legal right to force him to do it, and so he did. He followed Jesus all the way out to Golgotha.
I wonder how long it was before he found out exactly whose cross he was carrying that day—and what Jesus Himself was carrying for him. Because Simon almost certainly became a Christian—that’s why his name and the names of his sons are known to the early church. And so he would have learned what Jesus carried for him and for all of us—our sin, our guilt, our shame. All the way into death—where He destroyed it forever. And then He came back to us, alive again, our Savior and our joy.
WE PRAY: Lord, thank You for what You carried for me. Amen.
Reflection Questions:
- Do you think Simon felt honored, later?
- Have you ever had the opportunity to do something good that you didn’t want to do?
- How do you feel about it now?
Lenten Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Today's Readings:
Numbers 28-30Luke 1:21-38
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