Mark 15:21

It was customary to require the condemned man to drag his cross throughout the city, bearing in his hand a written accusation of the crime fol which he was to be executed. This heartless precession was designed to act as a deterrent to lawlessness.

As Jesus struggled under the load of his cross, he was accompanied by the two men who were to be crucified with him1. Each of them was guarded by a detail of four Roman soldiers who would not spare the lash if they faltered on the way. Perhaps it was because of the terrible physical strain that Jesus had undergone during the trials of the night before that he found the weight of the cross too much for him. Perhaps it was the intense anguish of his soul that exhausted him.

Whatever the reason, Jesus fell in the street as the procession reached the outer gate of the city. To avoid delay, the soldiers impressed a bystander into service and laid the cross upon his shoulders. All that we know about this man is that he was a native of Cyrene, in North Africa, and that he had two sons, Rufus and Alexander.

The mention of the names of these two sons by Mark would imply that they were well known in Christian circles when the Gospel was written. It is thought that one of the sons may have been the Rufus who is mentioned in Romans 16:13. If this assumption is correct, we may assume that Simon became a believer and that he would eventually lead his sons to Christ whom he met under such strange circumstances.