And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming from the field, to carry His cross.
Simon of Cyrene unexpectedly enters the path of Christ’s suffering. He was coming from the field as an ordinary passerby, but in God’s providence his path meets the Savior’s path of the cross. At first he is compelled to take up the cross, yet that compulsion becomes a great privilege: to carry Christ’s cross after Him. The mention of Alexander and Rufus shows that Simon’s family was probably known in the Christian community. This episode recalls the mystery of discipleship: the follower of Christ is called to carry a cross, but not in a saving sense, because only Christ bears the judgment of sin. Our cross is the call and the testimony to walk after Christ, to participate in His way with humility, and to become more and more like His image.