In my Bible reading
this morning (Deuteronomy 30-31; Mark 15), I came across the story of Jesus'
crucifixion. Specifically, I read about how Jesus had to carry His own cross to
the place where He would be crucified.
There is a verse
that I found intriguing. It is Mark 15:21 and it says: "A passerby named
Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and
the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of
Alexander and Rufus.)"
One principle that a
reader of Scripture must realize is that nothing, absolutely nothing, is put in
the Bible without purpose. We may not always know the purpose and may not find
out until we get to Heaven. Yet, we can be assured that in the economy of words
used in Scripture, everything that God said through the Bible writers is there
intentionally.
So, that being said,
why did Mark mention that the man who helped carry Jesus' cross (whose name was
Simon of Cyrene) had two sons named Alexander and Rufus? Could it be that Mark
anticipated that some of his Gentile readers would know those guys?
Could it be that one
of those sons was mentioned in Romans 16:13? Could it be that at least one of
Simon's sons would be an incredible blessing to the Apostle Paul? In his letter
to the Christians living in Rome, the Apostle Paul wrote: "Greet Rufus,
whom the Lord picked out to be his very own; and also his dear mother, who has
been a mother to me."
As I pointed out in
last night's Bible study, the Bible is like a puzzle that is beautifully put
together. Even though it was written over a 1,400-1,500 year period by about 40
authors from all walks of life, it is obvious that a divine Author was behind
it since everything fits together so perfectly.
The fun thing about
Bible study is that as you get more and more familiar with the Bible's content,
you will begin to see things fit together more often. Pretty cool!
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