Huntsville
Alabama
November 2013
A couple thousand years ago, give or take twenty minutes, in and around Jerusalem, this happened, then that happened and so forth, all leading up to Jesus’ trek on the Road to Calvary. You may recall that the soldiers compelled Jesus to carry his own cross to the site of his crucifixion. That was the custom in those days as this indignity served additional humiliation for the condemned man.
Did you ever carry a cross? Those suckers are heavy. In many common depictions, Jesus carried, or dragged the whole cross. This is unlikely; a cross would tip the scales at well over 300 pounds. Even had The Man not been whipped and fitted with the thorny crown, it is still quite unlikely that he would have been able to convey something of that immense weight. More likely, as was the tradition, Jesus carried only the crossbeam, which itself would weigh about 100 pounds, still quite a load.
Physically, Jesus was in bad shape while on his way to Golgotha, barely able to stand after the lashing episode. When it was clear that he would be able to go no farther, those poopy soldiers picked some guy out of the crowd, Simon the Cyrene as it turned out, and compelled him to take up the cross for Jesus.
At first Simon was angered by and resistant to the call of this service. He had his own agenda going at the time; his calendar was full. But something about the burly set of the soldiers and the swords they carried persuaded him. Simon took up the cross.
As they proceeded up the road, Simon went through a transformation, an epiphany if you will. Whether it was Jesus’ inspiring perseverance, or something more spiritual, Simon realized that Jesus was no ordinary man and Simon became filled with joy and purpose.
Monument to Service here at Oakwood University in Huntsville is the sculpture we are visiting. It’s on the campus of a school designed to serve Black students and it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see that Simon in this sculpture is a black man.
One wonders: Was the real Simon the Cyrene black? The Bible is no help on this issue. While it is chock full of stories, fables and accounts, it is essentially colorblind. For hundreds of years, folks have debated the issue of Simon’s race.
Simon the Cyrene was — now get ready for this — from Cyrene. This area is now the northern coast of Libya, not too far from Benghazi. There was a large community of Jews who lived here and it is generally agreed that Simon was a Hebrew. But was he black? Could have been. If he was of African descent, as some Jews were, he would have been dark skinned. He may have been of Greek ancestry as this area had been settled by the Greeks some six centuries earlier. Or he could have been a Roman; Cyrene was the capital of the Roman district of Cyrenaica at that time. Or maybe he was of mixed descent, or an African who converted to Judaism. Simon could certainly have been dark skinned, black, brown, maybe even olive-toned. We just don’t know. I leave out speculation that he could have been a Pastafarian.
Whatever his hue or ancestry, just take one look at the magnificence and grace and manifest power in the sculpture Monument to Service. The cloak he has thrown over his shoulder? It could be a cape, y’know, like the ones superheroes wear.