STATION 5:
SIMON THE CYRENE HELPS JESUS CARRY THE CROSS

As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
— Luke 23:26 (NLT)

They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.
— Mark 15:21 (NRSV)

Station 5

He didn’t volunteer.
Simon was just passing through—
coming in from the countryside,
minding his own business,
when suddenly the Roman guards grabbed him.
Pressed the weight of another man’s burden
onto his shoulders.

He didn’t know Jesus.
Didn’t know what the charges were.
Didn’t know that his name would be remembered
for one unexpected act of compassion
forced upon him by violence.

But sometimes that’s how grace works.
It interrupts us.
It calls us into the story
even when we weren’t planning to be part of it.

Simon carries the cross not for glory,
but because someone had to.
Because sometimes love looks like doing
what no one else is willing to do.

We don’t know how long he carried it.
But we do know this:
he was close enough to feel the weight of it.
Close enough to walk beside Jesus
as he stumbled toward the hill.

And in that walking,
something must have changed.

Let us pray.

God of unexpected callings, you pulled Simon into your story without warning, without explanation — and still he walked the road with you.

We pray for those who find themselves carrying burdens they never asked for: the caregiver, the refugee, the grieving friend, the overwhelmed parent.

We pray for those called to step in — not because they planned it, but because love required it.

Help us not to look away when the moment of need finds us. Help us to walk beside those who suffer — not with pity, but with humility, knowing we are never more like Christ than when we carry someone else’s cross.

Amen.