Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
The unnoticed player: Simon from Cyrene
FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #11
Disclosure: I’m not a Messianic. I’m an NT Saint who has been exposed to my OT Heritage. This post continues the rag-tag series on the closer examination of some of the aspects of the Passover/Last Supper. If you have come in part-way through the series, there is some explanation in the earlier episodes to be found in FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
Spoiler alert: This graphic shares no resemblance to what is written in Scripture.
A bit-player
Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26 present a man, Simon from Cyrene, without prior introduction. He could be mistaken for an anomaly if not for the role he was to play. He was press-ganged into carrying the Cross behind Jesus. This now makes sense because of the deplorable physical condition of Jesus as He set off on the procession discussed in FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #9. Simon from Cyrene met his Saviour very early in the procession. There are a few clues about what happened to this Simon (a popular name in those days by the looks of it) but the situation is not crisp so I’ll leave that for you to fathom out — if you are interested.
Extracurricular reading
In this project, every effort has been made to work inside the information provided by the Holy Spirit within the bounds of the Scriptures (excepting, of course, Geodesy) but some extracurricular reading can be useful in providing a firmer foundation for understanding. However, great care must be exercised when doing this. Going outside the Bible can be dangerous because it opens the gate for eisegesis. This danger will be briefly discussed at the end of this post.
Some general background on the Roman crucifixion.
- They were not spontaneous. Three crosses were ready so three men were planned to die that day. It didn’t matter whom.
- The intention of the process was to indelibly stamp Pax Romana onto the keeping of the peace. Rome practiced a ruthless rule and demonstrated absolute power by occasionally showing ‘mercy’ by the capricious releasing of some condemned prisoners. The message to the populous was, “You belong to Rome!”
- The objective was to inject fear into the subjected peoples so that they would behave. It was not so much that victim died. It was that he was seen to die — horribly.
- Part of the process was to humiliate the guilty by forcing the culprit to carry the instrument of the imminent excruciatingly painful death to the location of the execution. Something similar would be someone digging their own grave. Everyone could see it and tremble.
- The reality is that Our Lord was not guilty! I can’t put thoughts into God’s Head but it seems not unreasonable that the Father would not allow His Son to be paraded before all Creation, through all Eternity, as guilty. That was the whole point of the Cross that day — an innocent person would die.
Some speculations about that particular day.
- Pontius Pilate had been in Judea long enough to write the placard above the Cross in Hebrew (Luke 23:38) so it is not unreasonable to deduce that he knew that every capable able bodied Jewish man would be there. It would also not be surprising if the executions were deliberately timed to give most bang-for-buck.
- The Religious Leaders did not want Jesus to be taken on the day before the Feast of 15th Nisan (no names allocated, yet). They were not stupid either. The disproportionate number of Jewish men, coupled with what would have been extra security, was a powder keg ready to be ignited. If that happened it would incur the wrath of Rome and, as debated in the discussions in the Sanhedrin, render their position of privilege unstable.
- Jesus would also have known the situation. It was Him who goaded the she-wolf (Romulus and Remus) by preempting the Religious Leadership — triggering the run of events during the Last Supper.
- Various speculations place Calvary about one kilometre distant. (I’m not getting into that. Argue amongst yourselves. But it was outside the walls of the City.)
Was the Lord actually capable of carrying the cross that far? What physical condition would He have been in?
It is not necessary to speculate on this. There is more than enough information in the Bible. It starts right back in Genesis 3:21 where Yehovah Elohim presented Adam and Eve with tunics of skin to replace their attempts with leaves. For that to happen, an innocent animal had to be killed. They had just committed the first Human sin so the dead animal’s skin was the covering from a sin offering. But that has been covered in FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #9.
Extracurricular reading — eisegesis — History versus Prophecy
As usual, I’m open to correction but it seems to me that there is a posse of
(small ‘s’)scholars in the Seminaries/Bible Collages, in my part of town, bent on gutting the Divine by explaining away everything in the Bible by human records (history) interpreted by human logic and philosophy (often nonsense, though not always).
The fatal flaw of the Gang is blindness to the reality that the best history records and the Bible run counter-current because of the respective Authors. Obviously history records what is past and, as is often said, it is the winners who write it — and they don’t get all of it. But in the Bible, God makes the claim through Isaiah 46:10 || Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’
In other words, the comparison is between a random collection of what has happened to a precise Prophecy (not prediction — another story for another time) of what WILL happen.
It is up to you to accept, or reject, that claim. If you accept the claim, but allow your logic to tell you that human records reign over God’s Prophetic Word, you are violating the first law of Algebra, “Compare apples to apples.”
Does this mean we should not read outside the Bible?
Of course not! There is useful information but discernment must be exercised. Information from outside must fit the Biblical Pattern.
Some people swallow everything
A hack for Extracurricular reading
Treat the authors like politicians sprouting statistics. There are routine boxes that must be ticked.
• What is being said?
• Who is saying it?
• Why are they saying it?
• What advantage is being gained by saying it.
• Most importantly, what is not being said.
• What advantage is being gained by not saying what is not being said?
• Some people have something they must say. Some people must say something. Does what they say add any value to the conversation?
• What is your bias? We all have a bias. Mine is that the Holy Spirit holds the Intellectual Property for ALL the Books in the Book. He chose His words well and positioned them exquisitely. It is our job to find why He chose that word and placed it where He did. (It is surprising how many people on this platform think they could write a better Bible than the Bible. Possibly, they are the same ones who could run the World better.)
A recent example
The Iron Dome anti-ballistic missile defence system has been hastily deployed in Israel over about the last five years. One recent history claimed it was >90% effective, while another claimed it was sometimes down to about 60%. Both were true; both were not. Of the rockets that were fired, >90% found their mark. But sometimes there weren’t enough Iron Dome batteries and the attacking rockets got through. One account was pro-Israel. One account was pro-Palastinian. Guess who said what.
Check your bias when you go outside the Bible.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
