Did Jesus Carry His Cross?

 

We have different accounts about wither Jesus carried His own cross. The Gospel of John says, “Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha),” (John 19:17), but other gospels record, “As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.” (Luke 23:26). So why do these accounts differ? They actually don’t, the bridge is in Matthew, “Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross.” (Matthew 27:32). What we see is John records Jesus carrying His cross, Luke that Simon Cyrene carried it, but Matthew provides the key between the two: Jesus was carrying His cross and then along the Via Del Rosa The Romans made Simon Cyrene carry it; plainly Jesus carried his cross till The Romans came across Simon and had him carry it. The reasoning for why The Romans had Simon help carry the cross is that Jesus probably like in The Stations of the Cross was falling under the weight of 200 lb cross beam after being flogged with lead tipped whips, “Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip” (John 19:1). Historical knowledge of the Romans and how they punished criminals along with tradition tells us it was forty lashes, which would have made Jesus body like hamburger meat; it had to be bad for Jesus to fulfill the prophecy in this Psalm, “I can count all my bones. My enemies stare at me and gloat,” (Psalm 22:17); clearly the later part of that verse happened, “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” (Mark 15:29-35) so we can trust He also was beaten so bad that Our Lord could count His bones because he fulfilled the other the part of that verse. 

We know at some point Jesus was drowning, because when He gets pierced in the side and lung, water flows out, “But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out” (John 19:33-35).  Whither it was the lashes, or the weight of cross beam rupturing His lung is unknown, but likely the later, and the Romans noticing something choose to have Simon Cyrene help carry His cross after He had been carrying it for a stretch. The Romans knew execution and a lot about the biology of death, so they most likely saw symptoms of a punctured lung and decided to get Jesus help to carry His cross lest they have to carry Jesus to Golgatha; no Roman wanting to carry a Jew. 

When you see what appears to be contradictions in Scripture do some more digging. Just as Matthew’s account fills in the info between John’s account that Jesus carried His cross to Luke’s account that Simon Cyrene did, the same is true of other Scriptures. If you look carefully enough you can piece together why one account emphasizes something over the other, usually because of where the eyewitness was and what they saw or didn’t. For instance Peter cannot tell us about Jesus on Trial before Annas (John 18:19-24) because he stayed outside (John 18:16) but John went inside because His family, The Zebedees, were a well known family (John 18:15-16). Amen.