- As believers, our job is to pick up our cross daily and carry it. 

- A cross is a place of death. 

- The Christian life is not easy - it involves suffering. 

- But strength comes through strain. 

- Sometimes, our duty is so unbearable that God brings people into our lives to lighten the load.  

- This is the beauty of the church - a community of people doing life together to help shoulder the load when others cannot carry it alone.  

- Jesus, as He carried His cross, met someone along the way who was pressed into helping Him. 

- But notice what Mark says about this man who was pressed into service. 

- vs 21 - “They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.”

- The gospel of Mark was written decades after Christ left the earth. 

- Mark mentioning Simon’s sons means they were known to the apostles in the church when his gospel was written. 

- Because of Simon’s faithful service to carry the cross, his sons’ lives were changed forever! 

- They became well-known Christ followers themselves.

- Alex and Rufus certainly never forgot the day their dad carried His cross. 

- I can imagine years later, when the gospel spread that these two boys had a story nobody else had.  

- “Our dad carried Christ’s cross - we watched it with our own eyes!” 

- Soon after, they placed their faith in the man whose cross their dad carried.  

- As parents, we have a cross to bear.  

- If we pick it up and carry it, faithfully with a heart to honor God, our kids will see it - and they’ll never forget it.  

- We don’t know how long after this episode Alex and Rufus placed their faith in Jesus, but it happened.  

- And I like to think it had much to do with their dad carrying that heavy load for them to see.