Did Jesus Carry His Cross?

This was presented to me by a brother while were fellowshipping on a bus the other day, that Jesus never carried His cross to Calvary!

I've watched the movies the depict Christ carrying His cross and I was stunned to find out in scripture that He did not carry it. Matthew, Mark and Luke tells the story, while John is a little vague, but because of the witness of the other three gospels we need to believe that the 'he' that John spoke of was Simon.

Tradition tells us that Christ fell half way to Golgotha and Simon the Cyrene took up His cross.

Let me put the scriptures forth for your examination from all three.

MATTHEW'S GOSPEL:

Matthew 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this [b]just Person[/b]Matthew 27:31 And after that they had mocked Him, they took the robe off from Him, and put his own raiment on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.: see ye to it.32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear His cross.33 And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,

MARK'S GOSPEL:

Mark 15:14 Then Pilate said unto them, Why, [b]what evil hath He done?[/b] And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify Him.20 And when they had mocked Him, they took off the purple from Him, and put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.21 And they compelled one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His cross.22 And they brought Him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.

LUKE'S GOSPEL:

Luke 23:22 And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath He done? [b]I have found no cause of death in Him[/b]Luke 23:25 And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.: I will therefore chastise Him, and let Him go.26 And as they led Him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.27 And there followed Him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him.

JOHN'S GOSPEL:

John 19:6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye Him, and crucify Him: for [b]I find no fault in Him[/b].John 19:16 Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Him away.17 And he[Simon the cyrene] bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:

The [b]BOLD[/b] words that you see of Pilate saying that Jesus is innocent. The reason why I placed them there is because according to Roman law a criminal must bear his own cross, but Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and did not allow Jesus to carry His cross.

It is my opinion that Simon the cyrene was a Jew coming to the feasts that was taking place at that time. The name Simon is a Jewish name. But don't let my opinion thwart this thread.

Keep in mind also that Jesus was not unable to carry the cross the entire way... He could have, but he chose to humble Himself by accepting human limitations. If He had wanted to He could have picked up that cross and hurled it at the Roman soldiers. But that was not His Father's will.

Krispy

Compliments, I never saw this and I think the LORD allowed me not to see until NOW because I really needed this right now.

Your post brought me to complete tears ~ THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH BROTHER !!!

Quote:
[b]The reason why I placed them there is because according to Roman law a criminal must bear his own cross,[u] but Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and did not allow Jesus to carry His cross. [/u][/b]

BLESS HIS HOLY,HOLY,HOLY NAME !

Thank you.

P.S. edit: As I was just typing this, the song "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe is playing.

Oh Yeah !!!

Annie I am so thankful that you were blessed, it's always a joy when we lift up the name of Jesus together. Thanks for the encouraging words. :-)

Philip said:But Jesus did carry His won cross until He was outside the Gate, or scripture is wrong.

Yes.

John 19
16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led [i]him[/i] away.
17 [u]And he bearing his cross went forth[/u] into a place called [i]the place[/i] of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
18 Where they crucified him,

Remember, John was actually there. Peter, on whose testimony Mark's is based, had gone out to weep and Matthew had run away.

Now, this doesn't mean that Simon didn't carry it part of the way, but, Jesus did carry it to start with.

Hey Compliments!

I just looked at your leading post and see you [i][b]added[/i][/b] Simon of Cyrene's name into John's gospel.

:-o

Isn't that strictly forbidden [u]and[/u] [i]not at all[/i] scholarly?

Maybe he copied it from somewhere/one else ?

Could be why I 'never' heard it before ?

Thank GOD for all the Body parts of the Body.

I doubt that he would purposely deceive.

Of course I know that is truer than true brother Paul. It's just how it was posted, as if he had discussed it with someone and posted that part about Pilate thinking Jesus was innocent and all and I was surprised I had never heard that but was open to not knowing everything ... ha ... believe it or not. :-)

I trust folks, until they give me reason not to.

I'm full blown Berean, but in this instance, I didn't check on his post. I don't want to be suspicious neither. Fine balance between Berean and fine tooth combing 'every' post. Phew.
That was hard enough to do on the Israel thread.

Bless ya and 1% arsenic in a gallon of cool-aid can kill. I truly do understand. 8-)

Paul, you have always been a gentlemen.

He said the emphasis was his, so I think he can explain why he did it ... but it's not that you are too hard. You're the type of Christian that I wish I were in explaining things. I try not to sound blunt, but sometimes I just 'assume' folks know that I mean no harm.

Bless you brother always.

Bless you brother TJ. I learn from everyone here and have been blessed by everyone here.

Even in contentions, I'm trying to learn to temper this side of me. I just fear divisions among us and it took a long time for me to figure out that that's what makes me go off the hook. I'd laugh but it hasn't been funny to me at all. I'd go off-line and not be able to sleep because of what I posted, but could only pray that GOD would initiate the Rom 8:28 to it.
I like saying, I don't know everything. It always gives me an inner joy to say that. I like reading everyone's posts as if they are my Family (we know we are :), but each person matters here. I try to look beyond the monitor into what the person is --- in the sense of what they're really saying from their hearts, I guess I mean. Some folks can post really rough, but I've felt such a softness under all those typed words ... it's really neat. I think God took most of my brain away so I could 'feel' more. Sorta like when a someone becomes blind, their hearing gets better. I was just used to Apologetic debates before and strictly that, so this has been my "retirement" place now where I can chill and enjoy our Fellowship - Amen.
I still have a very long way to go but that's why I like coming here, to be refined and all's I can do is put people before doctrines, and only put doctrines first if the doctrine has the potential to rob salvation or cause dangerous deception. Yet God keeps telling me, if my motive isn't birthed by Love and Love alone for that person to be helped, then I should shut my computer off and go off-line again. Whatever it takes, we have to stay together with no regrets.
I see you feel that way too and so do most here.
We're in GOOD company here.
My husband asked tonite if I wanted a notebook he compiled on Christology or anything like that, while he was going through his Den.
I told him, "On SI --- No way, those folks are Cool".
I really feel that with all of my heart.

SI folks are cool. I've been on a few forums or just looked at them and when you see folks arguing over the Trinity or Deity of Christ and a whole host of basic doctrines being torn to shreads, that's when you really know we're in a safe place here. It's a pleasure to come here to grow and not to fight over essential doctrines or blatant heresies. Praise God!
We're ONE BODY. Ha, I love saying that too.

Bless you TJ & thanks for being our brother.

Brother Paul, that verse wouldn't leave me since this conversation started, even during dinner earlier. I've read so many books about "dying to self" and of course that verse is in all of them, but I figured, "well, I'm not innocent - Jesus was the only innocent One." when I read Compliments post.

We do need to be jealous over His Word without question, I just feel in my case, the human element factored in this time, as I said earlier.

You are right of course.