As they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled him to go with them, that he might carry his cross.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 32. Cyrene was the capital of a province in Africa, near Lybia. See Acts 2:10. Some are of opinion that this Simon was a Jew; his name favours that sentiment, and there were many Jews in that province. V.—Saint John says that Christ went out carrying his own cross, while the other three evangelists state that they forced Simon of Cyrene to carry it for him. Both are true: for seeing Christ unequal to the weight, they compelled the other to take it up for him; not a part only, as some painters represent, but the whole, to Mount Calvary, as Jesus Christ had carried the whole before. Saint Augustine.—The evangelists would not have been so particular in this part, had they not wished to inculcate, that all who desire to follow Christ, must also take up their cross and follow him. S. Jerom and Jans.—The latter says, in his Commentaries on the Gospels; as no one liked to carry the ignominious cross, the insolence of the soldiery compelled a stranger to carry it. By this we learn, that the cross is not taken up by many except with compulsion; but, when once taken up, they carry it with willingness. Jans.