His muscles ached from the weight he carried.
The skin on his shoulders tore from the splintered wood.
His body was bruised and bled from the stones they threw.
His heart strained within his body, the crowd jeered.
Then… a hand touched his bleeding shoulder,
As He turned He saw love on the face of a stranger.
Only He knew the others heart and how it shared the pain;
As the man lifted the burden from His body unto his own.

He lifted the burden as if it were a feather
Taking on this persecution, as if it were his own.
As they climbed the hill together he began to understand;
The true meaning of this day and that he had only come here by chance.

The trip to the top was long and tiring;
But today they would neither rest nor sleep.
The honor he gained would forever remain with his people as …
Simon, a black man helped his Savior to Calvary.*

* Simon was from Cyrene, on the coast of North Africa
Poem, written for my good friend, Kwame Salter, circa 1977, for Easter.

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Taken from:  http://gotbible.blogspot.com/2009/04/simon-of-cyrene.html (see short article on writer below)

*Some support the argument that Simon was black by arguing that the Roman guards had a dilemma on their hands. They could not carry the cross. That certainly makes sense, doesn’t it? The whole point was to have the person being crucified carry the cross. Some even argue that the Romans wouldn’t have asked a Jew to carry the cross because it was Passover and simply by carrying the cross he would be defiled and would be unable to participate in Passover. You might ask why the Romans would even care, but they had orders not to interfere with the religious practices of the Jews. If this holds true then Simon could have been a black man….a non-Jew.