Condemned Christ crucified on Golgotha Hill

Simon of Cyrene drags Jesus’ cross
all the way to ‘Place of the Skull’

Like a lamb led to slaughter, the Roman soldiers herded Jesus Christ of Nazareth through the serpentine streets of Jerusalem’s bustling market district, then brutally nailed Him naked to a cross on Golgotha Hill.

Even though Pontius Pilate “found no basis for a charge against Him,” the Judean Governor still reluctantly ordered Jesus’ execution, a decision probably intended to placate Jewish religious leaders and pacify the people.

After departing the “Stone Pavement” where Governor Pilate washed his hands of the matter, the convicted Jesus was handed over to Jewish religious leaders who in turn remanded Him to a Centurion, Roman commander of the 100-man company assigned to the crucifixion detail that day.

As a veteran soldier, the Roman Centurion doubted whether this so-called “King of the Jews” could drag the horizontal piece of His own cross-beam to the crucifixion site, which was some distance away.

Jesus had endured quite a bit since His Garden of Gethsemane arrest, the Centurion could see.

Probably awake at least 12 hours before His arrest, the convicted Man must have been tired, weak, hungry and thirsty.

From evening to the wee hours of the morning, Jesus was shuttled from Annas’ house to his father’s Caiaphas’ palace. The convicted Nazarene was then sent to Governor Pilate, transported to King Herod then returned back to Pilate, sources familiar with Jesus’ hastily-convened trial say.

During this period the crown-of-thorns-wearing Jesus serenely and in some inexplicable kind-of-way, quietly withstood being buffeted, beaten, spat upon, tortured and flogged.

The liquid Jesus’ parched palate partook wasn’t thirst-quenching water or medicinal-tasting vinegar, but saliva of the Centurion’s 600 comrades, who continuously spat on this Man when they tortured Him so mercilessly at the Judgment Hall.

Often the Roman Centurion had seen many men walk this road before. But this Man was different, he acknowledged while watching Jesus make the slow, painful, laborious death trek to Golgotha.

For some inexplicable reason, Jesus’ slow pace seemed to incite the crowd yet even more.

Responsible for carrying out the crucifixion sentence, the Centurion was also charged with keeping the peace and if need be, quash any urban discontent that might erupt.

The Roman commander acted. Anxious to get on with the crucifixion so he and his soldiers could get off duty sooner rather than later, the Centurion seized a man watching from the roadside named Simon of Cyrene, who was passing by while traveling from the country.

Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, lifted Jesus’ cross-beam from the Nazarene’s back and carefully positioned the heavy splintered-laced raw wood on his stronger shoulder.

The Centurion seemed less agitated to see Simon, pulling the cross-beam with more ease than Jesus, quicken the pace toward Golgotha.

Behind Simon were two other criminals, led out with Him to be executed at the site known in Aramaic as “The Place of the Skull.”

Source: The Testament Spectator's Jesusaic Amalgamated Four-Gospel Edition, “Condemned Christ Crucified,” Mt. 27:32; Mk. 15:21; Lk. 23:26; Jn. 19:16-17; page 36, Copyright © 2001 The Testament Spectator