TRUTH-- He carried a spiritual Cross
Much like my last post where we saw that 4 were crucified with Christ instead of 2, we will soon learn that Jesus was too abused to carry an 8-12' timber on his shoulder, so the Roman soldiers made someone else do it.
Matt 27:31-32 tells us:
And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. KJV
Mark 15:20-21 tells the same story:
And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.
And Luke 23:26 says the same thing:
And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.
Here we have three very clear accounts of who carried Jesus' cross, where he came from, who his sons were and the fact that he followed Jesus on the way to Golgotha. Whenever there are a majority of clear verse on a given subject, the seemingly ambiguous verse or verses must fit with the majority of clear ones, not vice versa.
John 19:16-18 gives us the seemingly contradictory verse:
Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
Most of the Commentaries say that they believe that Jesus initially carried his own cross but then they made Simon carry it for some unknown reason. Keep in mind that Jesus had just been through roughly 40 hours of torture and beatings and initially took him in the night. He probably had not had any sleep in over 2 days. It is my belief, because of the lack of any other evidence to the contrary, that he never carried his own cross. What he did carry was the figurative cross of our sins that were laid upon him
1 Peter 2:24
Who his own self bare (carried) our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Heb 9:28
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Furthermore, the morning after they had taken him he was bound and led away to be delivered to Pontius Pilate: Matt 27:1-2
When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. The common way to bind someone believed to be a criminal is to tie up their hands or feet or both. Here they led him away so we must assume he was walking and probably being pulled along with a rope.
All 4 gospel accounts show Jesus being led away just as livestock would be led to water:
Luke 13:15
The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? These words in the Greek, apago, is the same
word used in all the above passages. Jesus' hands were bound and he was being led about, keeping him from being able to carry anything upon his shoulders.
Regardless of any suppositions on my part, the 3 three clear verses above on the same exact event should be enough to convince anyone that the cross Christ bore was not a physical one.
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