| SIMON |
| Simon was a common name in Bible times. It was as common then as John and Mary are today. Some people today are named Simon, but not as many. This Simon was a night watchman. Although it was spring and the crops weren't up yet, he made sure wild animals like bears and lions didn't walk all over the field and ruin the little baby crops at night. He was strong and chased the animals away. Simon was coming into Jerusalem early in the morning after he was through working. But there was a big crowd of people. Some of the people were glad someone was going to be killed. But other people were sorry he was going to be killed and they were crying. The man to be killed was Jesus. There were two other men who were going to be killed for doing bad. They were thieves. They had taken things that did not belong to them. Each man had to carry a sign telling what his crime was. The sign given to Jesus read, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." The Temple leaders complained to Pilate about it because they didn't want Jesus to be their king. Pilate refused to change it. He still liked Jesus. The three men were given a big piece of wood like a railroad tie to carry. But Jesus was so weak from all the beatings the night before that he kept falling. So he started dragging his beam. But he kept falling anyway. By that time Simon was close enough to see what was going on. A soldier spotted Simon with all his muscles. He ordered Simon to carry the cross beam for Jesus. Simon didn't want to. He didn't want to help anyone kill Jesus. But Jesus looked at him in a way that he understood it was okay to help. Jesus still kept falling in the street because he was so weak. But sometimes he looked at his friends in the crowd who were crying. Jesus talked to his friends the best he could with his mouth and eyes swelled from the beating. He told them some day the whole city of Jerusalem would be "killed". They didn't understand. But a few years later many foreign Roman soldiers came to Jerusalem and burned down the city. Jesus was thinking of others even when he was about to die. They crossed the bridge out of Jerusalem and started up the hill. Jesus grew weaker and weaker, so the soldiers had to finally carry him the rest of the way. Jesus loved us a lot. |