“Do Not Weep for Me” (Part 1 of 2)

The record we have in the gospel that talks about Jesus. Final steps toward crucifixion. Include information about a man named Simon his role in these unfolding events was of voluntary and yet his simple act of carrying the cross paints a very striking picture today untruthful life. Alister Bragg describes the futility of a crustless Christianity are reading this morning is from the gospel of Luke and from verse 26 of the 23rd chapter, Luke, chapter 23 and verse 26 as they 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. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, doctors of Jerusalem, do not weep for me weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say Blessed are the barren woman the ones that never bore and the breasts that never nursed then they will say to the mountains following us and to the hills cover's for if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry God as we study the Bible we ask for your help in speaking and listening and hearing and understanding Luke alone to you and we pray in Jesus name, amen. While we are dealing with the looks record of Jesus. Final steps towards the cross.

He has been for some three years now, touching and changing lives the people who had been walking in darkness have seen a great light. He has declared himself to be the light of the world.

Some people have been illumined by this lightened of walked into its orbit and have been transformed by it but the majority of the people have chosen darkness instead of light and of course Jesus had said that that would be the case. And they merely fulfill by their own inclinations what he said would be true of them. But now, at this juncture, the teacher from Galilee who in turn the other cheek who had walked the 2nd mile now finds himself being a lateral letter way outside of the city to be crucified as the opening phrase in verse 26. It sets the context as they led him away. We've reached in Luke's gospel. A defining moment of pivotal event. Indeed, world history will never be the same again in the history of the individual lives of men and women also will be altered for all time is a definitive moment is a pivotal moment in history and I found myself as I was writing my notes I reaching for what is no longer contemporary song lyrics, but actually ancient song lyrics the song lyrics known only by grandparents and I wrote down in my notes the line. It is drawn, the curse is Slow and now will later be fast. The present now will later be past the order is rapidly fading in the first one now will later be last for the times they are a changing. Now these are the words of Bob Dylan and some of you have had an unfortunate childhood will know and they actually concur with the at least part of what Jesus said namely that the first would be last in the last would be first, and he has called people again and again through the course of his ministry to a defining moment in their lives and in the events that have just unfolded. We've seen how Pilate has responded to the challenge of Jesus Simeon back in chapter 2, had predicted, taking the baby Jesus in his arms that this child would be the cause for the rising and falling of many in Israel. In other words, he would be the cause of division people said Simeon would be divided on the basis of Jesus in the events that are before is now almost appears as though Simeon was wrong because the people seem to be uniting rather than dividing and they are uniting against Jesus, Herod and Pilate had been antagonistic to one another, but neither become friends. Why because they are actually united against Jesus. The Roman authorities and the Jewish officials who have frequently been at loggerheads with one another are now working in cahoots with each other. Why because they are united against Jesus as the story unfolds, it will become apparent all over again that the ministry of Jesus is oriented towards and is embraced by those who live beyond the margins of religious orthodoxy and is going to be a centurion in a couple of weeks, he says, surely this man was the son of God is going to be the by standing proud to be the breasts and say to themselves. There was something dreadfully lot wrong here and it is a reminder to us a brief reminder in passing, but a necessary reminder of the whole orientation of the gospel in Luke's unfolding of it is that Jesus is reaching out to the lease than the last. On the left out. He is not gone to put together a group of religious professionals is not gone to put together a marina full of evangelical boats that are all sailed around in the harbor where we can all pointed one another's little craft and comment on one another's articulation of our sailing principles. Rather, he is called people to himself in order that we might go out and wrestle with those who are on the troubled sea, that we might follow the pattern of William Booth of the Salvation Army when he said some seek to live within the sound of church and chapel bell but I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell and Jesus here is rescuing men and women and continues to do so know what all that, by way of introduction, we come to these five versus the not the easiest of versus at least they weren't for me.

You may find them easier than I did. I made three headings in my notes and I'll tell you what they are, in the hope that it might help help you along. My first heading was simply a strange thing happened on my way to the city. A strange thing happened on my way to the city if that makes you think of a funny thing happened on my way to the forum, then your mind works is mine does to these words on putting into the mouth of Simon who is the principal figure here in verse 26 and 27 gentleman with a wife and at least two children because they are identified as being Alexander and Rufus. Mark tells us their names in his gospel and this man Simon Had Left His Home Pl., Irene or Cyrene, which one mean much to many of us until we take an ancient Atlas and compared with an atlas of the contemporary world. And then we will realize that Cyrene is Tripoli in modern-day Libya and that's where this man came from. He was presumably a Jew living in part of the Diaspora in Tripoli and Libya in Cyrene and when he left his home in order to journey to Jerusalem. He surely could not of had in mind.

What would take place in his life. On this particular visit and as he made his way finally is Luke tells us from the country into this at the city of Jerusalem.

He was confronted by commotion and not only was he confronted by this crowd.

Following this, sorry individual who was at this point bearing the cross beam of his symbol of execution, but he was grabbed somewhat unceremoniously, presumably by the soldiers and they said to him hey you a year Before he knew what was involved. He was walking behind the bloodied body of this Galilean carpenter, whom if he had not known before. He quickly discovered was none other than Jesus of Nazareth. There is nothing to suggest that he had gone to Jerusalem on anything other than a routine journey and here in a moment in time is life is completely scrambled and he is walking behind Christ. Incidentally, the interest in the soldiers transferring the cross beam from Jesus to Simon is presumably not compassion but rather concerned that they will be able to complete the execution. They don't want them dying or succumbing.

On the way to the skull Hill and so and since Jesus looked to be in such a dreadful physical condition.

They grab the passerby and thrust him into the action so as I say if grandfathers tell stories to their grandchildren as they do, then this was probably right on the top of the list in the years that followed. When he sat with his grandchildren and he said you know I want to tell you that there was a day when I went to Jerusalem and it was the strangest day of my life. A very strange thing happened to me on my way into Jerusalem.

The very fact that his boys are mentioned in Mark's gospel points is in a direction. Admittedly, we need to be careful about this kind of conjecture but I think there is a basis for it. The reason that Mark mentions that he was Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus is presumably because Alexander and Rufus was known to the early church. The Gospels were written in the early church received them. And when the people read them.

The initial group that read them it wasn't for them.

They weren't saying or where Cyrene knew what it was when it said that it came from moderately knew who he was and when it identified Simon as being the father of Alexander and Rufus.

They knew that those boys were to and presumably the reason that they were included is because they also were part of the believing company that somewhere along the line.

Simon, who had been press gained in debating the cross had come to believe in who Jesus was and what he done and he had himself become a cross bear. He had taken seriously, then the words that he discovered that Jesus had spoken. Whoever does not carry the cross and can and follow me cannot be my disciple may well be that in sharing the story of that with his boys Alexander and Rufus. They too had become followers of Jesus. If that is the case, it's a wonderful little touch on the part of the gospel writers kind of an insider piece of information for the early church, allowing them to read it and recognize that when Jesus was at his weakest when Satan was at his strongest when the hell was unleashed in all of its fury, the grace of Christ was working in a silent way in the life of this little family bellwether. There is substantial basis for that are not what we have to recognize is that Simon carrying this cross behind Jesus is a reminder to others in these final moments of what it means actually to be a believer that Jesus has already explained that discipleship is about carrying across that the disciples of Jesus were not individuals who dressed in a particular way. There's nothing to suggest they did that the disciples of Jesus were not marked by particular songs that they like to say they would've sung the same songs as many of their content. It was not. They listen to Christian music.

The disciples of Jesus were not known because they carried around books with them and in the flyleaf of the booklet written their name and declare the fight that they were believers in Jesus never had any books to carry around with them. Nothing in which to write their names or declare their testimony know the disciples of Jesus is what identified as being the people of the cross, the disciples of Jesus were cross carriers at least metaphorically be understood that the story of Jesus was a story that centered in this pivotal event that Jesus was moving inexorably towards the cross and there in his death was the answer to their sins, but being recognized to that, the story of the cross was not if you like the Maxine bit, which afforded them personal forgiveness and then you could forget about you know the story of the cross was to get you to realize the wonder of Jesus atoning death and then when you've done that then you should've put that behind you and you carry on with your life know. They understood that the message of the cross was actually imprinted on their line. They were for ever to be identified with Jesus, who had borne their sins on the cross and to the extent of that was true in the first century is supposed to be true in the 20th century and in the 21st century.

Therefore, in seeking to live out the message of the gospel in our culture are methods as well as our message need to be cross shape. If we are going to make an impact in our culture along the lines that Jesus says to do in the gospel, then this picture of Simon moving behind Jesus under the burden of the cross is a good picture to have in our minds as we anticipate another Monday morning because it is to our shame that we present to our culture across less Christ that we are tempted to present to our culture across less Christianity. What would a crustless Christianity look like it would look like this it would be expressed in terms suggesting that real Christianity means being successful, having it all together, knowing all the answers to the questions never making mistakes and straining through the world as if we owned.

In other words, my dear friends crustless Christianity is a lot like contemporary evangelical whereby our presentation to our culture is largely made in terms of the categories I have just given you, and it is an act futile useless dangerous and catastrophic because it conveys to our culture as standard by which none of us live rights. You know all the answers you don't even know all the questions. Is your life completely together know I speak to a congregation of those who lived their lives in quiet desperation. And yet our presentation to the culture so often is made in terms of these categories so we can be a standard that we do not live by and we make zero contact with those whose lives are broken and buffeted and fallen and downhearted who feel themselves not to know the questions are the answers who feel that the world is crushing them, who feel that they have no hope and no possibilities. And the last thing in the world they need to meet is some self-satisfied smog know it all clown who emerges from the walls of Parkside church to present a cross less Christianity as I drove to the airport Friday night about 11 o'clock.

I told her people yesterday will know that when as leaders we met for prayer that he was 102.1 and there's a lady please music and she sings the she plays songs to encourage you and lift your spirits. I was thereby chance, not by design, and know that I need my spirits lifted by their end. And as I listened, I only one call in one song. The call came from a young lady. She identified herself as Amber, the nice voice with music playing underneath it said, and where are you tonight Amber.

I'm at home. So, how's it going tonight Amber long silence.

Not very well. I sometimes feel completely overwhelmed. She says she's crying out from nowhere in our whole to our radio station this morning on my cell phone.

A message left to me by someone hundreds of miles away from here successful in the world's eyes rich by any standards. Wealthy. The message says in a faltering voice will you pray for me, will you ask people to pray for me. I ran away from the center in which I'm trying to deal with my addiction. I am in my whole trying to do it. Cold turkey. I need your prayers know what use do they have a crustless Christianity.

What is it have to say to them, nothing.

Yes. Strange thing happened on my way to the city. I took up my cross and I began to follow Jesus. Secondly, I wrote in my notes don't weep for me Jerusalem. If it sounds like don't cry for me Argentina then your mind also is warped and works like mine.

Yes, that's it. The shouts that had been coming from the crowd of crucify, have now abated their mission is been successful pilot to send him to his execution, and now you only have the ambient sound of the interaction of the people the shuffling through the streets. The pressure into the narrow thoroughfares there around the via Delarosa as they begin to move into the street that will lead them.

Finally, to skull Hill and in the middle of the throng that follows him. There is says look a number of women among the people and these women were morning and wailing for Jesus and did their tender compassion towards the sufferings of Christ could actually prevent them from seeing what awaits Jerusalem. If the inhabitants, including themselves, persist in their unbelief you are listing to Truth for Life and Alistair Begged with a message titled, do not. If you been enjoying this current series from the Gospel according to Luke, you might be interested to know that all 11 volumes in this gospel according to Luke series are available on one USB at all of Alister's teaching through the entire Gospel of Luke on the USB drive for only five dollars. Listening to this study is the perfect way to spend time during your commute to or from work each day. You can pop the USB player in your car is USB drive. You might even consider buying a second USB to give away to someone you find all the information about the USB drive online@truthforlife.org/store a Truth for Life. We love being able to provide free online messages and these at cost USB drives and books so that everyone has access to clear relevant Bible teaching. All of this is made possible by a special group of people.

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