When we read about "the cross" or "taking up our cross" we automatically think of Calvary and Jesus' death, but that is because we are after the fact looking back. One of the "mysteries of God" that was hid from common knowledge was the fact that Jesus would pay the price for sins on a Roman cross. Before Jesus came and began to talk about it, nobody had even the slightest idea that it would happen the way it did.

The Jewish people never crucified anyone and the practice came from the Romans and other pagan cultures. Even in the Roman world, Roman citizens were never crucified but it was viewed as a death so horrible as to only be for disobedient slaves and the worst of the worst of foreign criminals. When the Romans took over Palestine and began to use their extreme form of the death penalty, the Jewish people were so repulsed by it that they tried many times to rebel against such practices. They viewed it as the most horrible thing that could ever happen to anyone and as such wanted nothing to do with a cross or a crucifixion. It made such a lasting mental image on the Jewish people that a figure of speech entered their language "to carry one's cross" which referred to the Roman custom of having the victim carry their own cross to the place of death. "To carry one's cross" came to mean "to bear a heavy load of grief or pain or persecution as a result of a choice" and it was as common an expression in that day as saying "I feel six feet under" or something similar in today's terminology.

What I want to impress upon you is that when Jesus first used the phrase "pick up your cross and follow me," He was not necessarily referring to His own death -- at least not at first. And when He said it, His disciples did not take it as referring to the way He would die. That Jesus would die on the cross was the furthest thing from their minds.

In Matthew chapter 10, we find that Jesus spoke these words:

Jesus was not speaking of His own death here, but was using a common figure of speech that everyone in the crowd understood. To follow Jesus you must "take up your cross." In other words, everyone there had something in their life that was a hardship or a grief, or pain, or inconvenience, or excuse as to why they could not follow Him and sell out everything to Him. But Jesus said that if you are going to follow Him, you must do so despite your cross -- despite your pain, despite your grief, despite your situation, despite those around you persecuting you -- and you must be willing to carry that cross even if it ultimately costs you everything and requires you dying out to your own wills or your own hurts. Jesus was basically saying "I'm interested in followers, not excuses!" And He said that if you are willing to use anything as an excuse to not sell out to Him, then you are not worthy of Him! But that if you sold out your life for His sake and thus "lost it," then you would find your life in Him! At this point, to His disciples, "taking up your cross" was just a figure of speech for total commitment through anything that might come their way. It didn't shock them, because most of them were already giving everything up to follow Him.

It didn't really bother the disciples until Jesus began in our text in Matthew 16 that He was actually going to be physically crucified like a common criminal. That was when Peter stood up and vehemently rebuked Jesus for what He was saying. To the disciples it was one thing to talk about total commitment but it was another to actually do it. But the real issue here and the thing that I think that caused Peter to rebuke Jesus before he really thought about what he was saying, was that the revelation that Jesus was actually going to be physically crucified was such a shock. It caught all of the disciples completely off guard. Never in their wildest nightmares would they have equated the sinless, perfect Jesus with a death of a horrible criminal and slave. It didn't make sense. It was unexpected and although Peter was the one that opened his mouth, all of them likely felt the same way. Such an event was unforeseen and unplanned. It was an unexpected cross.

I want to preach to you about unexpected crosses. As Christians, we understand that we must "take up our cross" and follow Him. Everyone of us has a cross to bear -- something that we must live with everyday and that we must carry along in our journey. Maybe it's a personality shortcoming. Maybe it's a physical condition. Maybe it's something in our past that we did and now have to live with the consequences. Maybe it's our family situation in which we were born. Whatever it is, we all have a cross to carry. Some people's crosses are more obvious than others, but everyone has a cross. If you are here living for God then there is something that you have had to bring along that has caused you grief, but you're here. You are serving Him with your cross in tow!

And so when we come to God, and begin to learn about Him, one of the first things that we learn is that we must live for Him not using our cross as an excuse. If you have made it living for God for any time at all, then you know about "your cross." And it was not easy, but through prayer and praise and Word and preaching and love and grace, you have gotten to a place where you are willing to carry "your cross" and follow Him! Yes it's still heavy at times and, yes, there are moments that we grow weary in carrying it, but -- after a while -- you grow used to your cross. The human mind and body is equipped with the God-given ability to grow used to almost anything that they are repeatedly exposed to it. And so that persecution or hardship or shortcoming or whatever your cross may be that started out so painful and so hurting, eventually we get "used to carrying it" and as we pick it up everyday, our muscles grow accustomed to it's weight and our shoulders get familiar with the feeling of it's burden resting on our shoulders. As you grow in God, there may be days that go by that you are carrying your personal cross that you hardly even think of it. Because as Christians we understand that we must "pick up our cross and follow Him" and in the joy of following Him and through the course of life, we grow accustomed to our crosses and they become a part of our life.

We Christians get good at carrying and accepting our cross that we must bear, because it is expected and familiar; it's been there for a long time and after a while we just get used to it! And to humanity there is strength and assurance in the expected. We don't like surprises. Like Peter, when something surprises us, it rattles us and shakes us and our immediate response is to be negative about it. At least in the negative sense, humans don't like the unexpected. They would much rather deal with the familiar even in extreme cases.

This trait of human nature explains a lot of things. It explains why an abused wife will stay with a abusive husband and become "co-dependent" upon him so that she doesn't think that she can live without him. She is in a horrible situation, but at least she knows what to expect. And for some reason in many women's minds, staying in the abusive situation is better than having to face an uncertain future. They'll suffer abuse, great abuse simply because they don't want to have to deal with the "unexpected" or "unknown" although the "unknown" would probably be much healthier and better for them!

This trait of human nature resisting sudden change explains why some people will stay in their sin even though they know that it is destroying them and sometimes resist any effort of God to change them or deliver them. In their warped human minds, sin may be causing them great pain and sacrifice but at least it is the familiar. It's comfortable and what they've always done. And deliverance and a Promised Land seem sudden and unexpected and new territory and that tends to make us nervous.

Humans are natural doubters. We resist change naturally even if the change is for the better. It takes the Word of God and the Spirit of God to move us from our complacency and to step forward in faith. We are comfortable with the familiar and we hate the unexpected. It's the unexpected that bothers us the most.

And so I submit to you tonight, that it's not the weight of the personal, daily cross that we must carry that causes the most Christians to get sidetracked or to give up serving God. But rather it is the unexpected crosses. It's the ones that we didn't foresee. It's the ones that we never expected to have to carry. It's the ones that we never thought would come into our life that cause us the most hardship and the most pain. We'll pick up our cross that we've always carried and follow Him, but what about a new one? What about one that suddenly comes in your life? What about an unexpected situation that you never dreamed that you would have to face? What about a friend suddenly turning face and hurting you deeply? What of an unforeseen trial or tragedy? What of the unexpected crosses? It's the unexpected crosses that affect us the most and that have the most power to turn us aside and cause us to act or think or speak unlike we never dreamed that we would.

________________________________________________________________________

In our other text, we read of a man who was confronted with a most unexpected cross. His name was Simon and our text read:

Most of you know the story well, at least from Jesus' point of view. Jesus had been beaten before He was ever taken to Calvary and so when the Roman soldiers placed His cross upon His back and began to lead our Savior to the hill of Golgotha, Jesus was so weakened by the loss of blood that He could not bear His own burden. When He fell with it, the Roman soldiers grabbed a man out of the crowd standing nearby and made him carry Jesus' cross. The man's name was Simon.

That's the view from Jesus' side, but I want you to view it from Simon's side. We know that Simon was a Cyrene and was from the northern coast of Africa which is today known as Libya. That the scripture always mentions this fact is a very likely indicator that he was a black man and thus also born a Gentile. We know from scripture that he was married. The very fact that he was in Jerusalem for the Passover indicate to us that despite being born a Gentile, Simon had learned and decided to serve the One God of the Israelites. Whether he lived in Palestine or was just in the area to celebrate the Passover, we don't know, but we do know that he was coming into the city "out of the country." In other words, Simon was in the city only for the moment and had nothing to do with events of that morning with Jesus' trial and the crowd crying "Crucify Him." Simon had no knowledge of that. It's possible that he had never before this day even seen the Son of God.

I want you to realize that it was the day of the preparation of the Passover, and the great meal would be eaten that night after sunset. In our world, it was like the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve. It was the last chance to go to the market and get what you needed to celebrate the big holiday. And so Simon had no doubt come into the city to run a few errands and perhaps pick up a few things from the market for the missus back home. He'd probably done this before. And so it was just another day of preparation for the Passover and as he was bustling through the crowded city streets with his purchases, his attention was drawn to the fact that the crowd lining one particular street was very loud and very emotional. Curious, he pressed through the shouting throng only to find that it was a crucifixion parade with the condemned carrying their crosses along to the jeers and taunts of the crowd. This wasn't what he had come into town to see but as he turned to work his way back through the crowd, he was shocked to feel a rough hand turn him around and to find himself face to face with a Roman soldier who yelled at him: "you, carry this man's cross." His purchases are discarded and forgotten. His plans are thrown off kilter. He has no choice but to obey the soldier because He is in Roman territory. For the first time he notices the physical condition of the man in front of him and realizes that the cross is already soaked with blood which is about to be all over him. This wasn't what he came to Jerusalem for. This wasn't what he had planned for the day to become. Simon was confronted with a very unexpected cross.

I want you to understand today that Simon, no doubt, had his own cross to bear in living for Jehovah God. To be a foreigner that makes the switch to Judaism was radical enough to bring persecution from his neighbors and hometown area. Maybe he even suffered the persecution of his family for his religious beliefs. Maybe he had moved to Palestine and had to experience the culture shock of living among the Hebrew people who were quite different and educated their children quite differently than the Cyrenians. Maybe there were other things, but there is absolutely no doubt that Simon was worshipping the one, true God of Israel despite a personal cross that was in his life. But he was there begin faithful.

I want you to understand that Simon was just minding his own business and doing absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, he was there preparing to obey God's Word by celebrating a scriptural festival. The name "Simon" means "he that hears and obeys." This was a good man who was obeying the will of God at great expense and sacrifice of effort and time. He was bearing his own cross that life had given him and trying to lead his family in the ways of Jehovah God. He was very sincere and nothing ill is mentioned of him in the scripture.

And yet here he is suddenly confronted with an unexpected cross. Despite all the good things that he has done and his faithfulness to God, now he is being forced to carry someone else's burdens and to have to bear not only the weight and pain of his own personal cross, but the weight and pain of someone else's problems and situations. He has done nothing worthy of the crime. He has not been convicted. And yet here he is carrying an unexpected cross. He didn't understand the significance of it yet -- that would come later. All he knew as he carried the heavy burden out of the city and up that steep hill that he had not asked for this.

As he got the hill, he no doubt waited around to see what happened. You don't carry someone else's cross and become involved with someone's death process without becoming intertwined in the situation. The packages are forgotten. The plans for the evening are forgotten. He stands there weary and fatigued from the unexpected effort. This man's blood is now smeared across his face and clothing. And as they crucify the victims, for the first time he realizes by reading the sign whose cross this was that he had carried. This was the One who claimed to be Messiah. The One whom they said did great miracles! And there Simon was: at a place that he never planned to be, witnessing something that he never planned to look upon, smeared with blood that he at that time knew nothing about, and yet he was there because an unexpected cross had drawn him there.

________________________________________________________________________

As a Christian, you will have to bear your cross. But there may be an unexpected cross in your life as well. A situation that you did not foresee. An event that changes your dreams and your plans. A tragedy that catches you completely off guard. Something that interrupts your life flow and ends up changing you for forever. Like Simon and Simon Peter, we don't like the unexpected. And there's something in us that desires to rebel and push the unexpected back in Jesus' face and say "this isn't my cross and I wasn't expecting that worshipping you would cost me this!" There are many that do what Simon did NOT do. They live for God and overcome the expected persecution and personal crosses, but when the unexpected comes into their life, they get mad and blame God for failing them and hurting them and allowing this and allowing that. And some turn from the unexpected cross and say "I won't carry that" or "I didn't sign on for that." It's the unexpected crosses that cause so many to pull back their commitment to Christ and fail to sell out completely. Unexpected crosses hurt.

Too many Christians immediately begin to try to find out "why" the unexpected cross has come into their life. We seem to think that if we live for God that we will never have bad days or something not go as planned. We seem to think that living for God makes us immune to sudden change or sudden unforeseen hardship. And we seem to think that if such a thing happens in our life, that it was the result of something that we had done wrong or sin in our life. Sure sin brings some things onto ourselves, but understand that the scripture says that the God who causes the sun to rise, allows it to shine on the good and the bad and that it rains on the just and the unjust. God is fair. More fair than we give Him credit for and so just because you have had a great tragedy or are "blinded" by a situation doesn't mean it's because you sinned. Like the blind man it could be that the glory of God would be revealed in your life. Sure there are "perks" to living for God and joys and blessings and protections that come from being with Him. But the simple truth is really this: God never promised that we would not have issues, problems, and tragedy or persecution, but just that He would not put more on us than we could bear, and that "All things" would end up working for the good of those who lived for Him! He did not promise you that you would not have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but rather that He would comfort you and be with you through that valley. He never said that you would never have to deal with the fire or the flood, but He DID say that when you walk through either the fire of the flood, that He would be with you and that they would not destroy you!

God also never promised that there wouldn't be unexpected crosses. It was not brought on by Simon's sin, because he was doing everything that he knew to do that was right. He was there in Jerusalem to obey and worship God when he was confronted with an unexpected cross. But after he willingly picked up the unexpected cross and bore it's burden, he found that it led him to a view of God that he had not even know possible. He was there to kill a lamb and apply it symbolically over the door of his house, but he ended up watching the death of the Lamb of God with the real redemptive blood smeared all over him! He was there to pay his religious dues of a past deliverance of humanity, but he ended up witnessing the greatest deliverance of humanity! He had come to worship Jehovah and got introduced to Jehovah become Salvation. And all of that came from his willingly picking up an unexpected cross!

God never promised that there wouldn't be an unexpected cross in your life. But I want you to remember two things about unexpected crosses: 1.) They don't last forever and you will only be forced to carry them for a while. 2.) If you will bear them, you will find that they lead you closer to God and His love than you ever imagined! God puts unexpected crosses in our lives to draw us to Him and to reveal to us His glory. They are heavy, they hurt. They are unexpected. They shake us out of our complacency and require us to do what we would not have ever done on our own, and require us to take paths that we would have never chosen to trod, but those paths of unexpected crosses lead us closer to God and to experiences in God that will forever change your life. Despite their burden, God uses unexpected crosses to draw people to Him!

________________________________________________________________________

Unexpected crosses do not give you a choice as to whether you or involved in the situation or not. The Roman law dictated that the soldiers could make someone carry a burden for a mile and that the person had to drop whatever their agenda was and carry that burden for a mile. It was this law that forced Simon to carry the cross. From Pilate's sentencing to the hill of Calvary was within the mile limit distance wise. In fact, the distance was almost exactly one mile. Simon had to go the "first mile." But Jesus taught earlier in His career:

"If they command you to go one mile, then go two" is what Jesus commanded! The mark of true Christianity then, is to "go the second mile." That's easy to say, and fairly easy to do in dealing with people, but what about when you are carrying an "unexpected cross?" By law, Simon had to carry the cross of Jesus to Calvary, but no further. The rest was up to him. But the scriptures indicate that Simon went "the second mile." In Mark's account, we have this:

"The father of Alexander and Rufus" indicates to us that this Simon was not only well known to the church thirty years later when Mark wrote his gospel, but that his sons were living for God also! We find out more information about Simon's family from other New Testament scriptures. In Acts 19, we find that one of the local ministers of the church is Ephesus is none other than Simon's son, Alexander:

Not only did Simon go own to be a part of the Spirit-filled, Jesus' name Apostolic church, but his son had become a preacher of the gospel! And then writing to the pastors of the churches in Rome, Paul said this:

Simon's other son, Rufus, was one of the preachers that had gone to Rome to help start the churches there! And Paul refers to his mother -- who would be Simon's wife -- as like his own mother! Simon's wife became the spiritual mother to the Apostle Paul within the Apostolic Church!

Furthermore in Acts 11 we have this scripture:

After Cornelius had gotten the Holy Ghost, most of the Jews still only preached to the Jews, but a group of men from Cyprus and "Cyrene" came to Antioch and began to preach that Gentiles could receive the Holy Ghost also! Church tradition and many Bible Scholars believe that included in this group of "Cyrenians" who were preaching to Gentiles, was a man named Simon, a gentile of whom an unexpected cross had forever changed his life!

It was inconvenient that day, but no doubt Simon later looked back and thanked God for that unexpected cross. He did his mile that was required, but he did much more than that! He picked up the cross of Calvary and carried it for life! He had that same blood that had smeared on his earthly garment that day applied to his spiritual garment through water baptism in the name of the One who shed that blood! He received the Spirit of that One into His life through the baptism of the Holy Ghost! He didn't hesitate that if God could change His Gentile life around, then He could change other Gentiles, too! He didn't hesitate in telling others of what He had found through the unexpected cross.

And his wife was saved and became a part of the ministry. And his two sons became ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ! And one young preacher that his wife took in and mentored and taught became the most famous preacher of the Apostles: The Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul that would preach to the Gentiles the same message that Peter preached to the Jews: this life changing message of Repentance, Water Baptism, and infilling of the Holy Ghost and Jesus as Jehovah God. It's a message that has changed the lives of the Gentiles that are here in Texas under the sound of my voice. But never forget that it all started, not with Peter and not with Paul, but with a man who as he was preparing to worship God, was confronted with an unexpected cross and who was willing to go the extra mile with it.

You will have unexpected crosses in your life. But if you will pick it up and follow Jesus, you will find that one day you will look back and thank God for the day that He placed it within your life. It's painful. It's unpleasant. It's unplanned. But the path of the unexpected cross will lead you to God's glory being revealed in your life. Stay faithful, and like Simon, you will one day be able to say, "Thank God that He placed an unexpected cross in my life!"