The first encounter in these verses is the man Simon who helped Jesus carry that heavy cross. I am familiar with a song we sang in a nursing home about 50 years ago. The lines are this, "Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free. No there's a cross for everyone, and there's a cross for me." Would you have liked to help Jesus carry that cross up that rugged hill Calvary?
Two of his sons Alexander and Rufus were probably known Christians later on. Then there was the wailing women and what Jesus said to them. These were Jewish ladies. Jesus knew what the Jewish people would go through about twenty years later. The Romans would come and ravage the city and it would prophetically happen on a future date as well as we find recorded in the book of Revelation. Then there is the mocking of the Roman soldiers and the Jews. However, the last of these is the thief who was crucified with Jesus. This is dear to my heart as this is one of five stories in the book of Luke about true repentance. I sometimes read these five stories to people I lead to Christ. As this man looked at Jesus dying on the cross God must have spoken to his heart. This is a story of true repentance. Here he is observing a dying man who he believes has a coming kingdom and after scolding the other jeering man turns to Jesus and says, "Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom." We who are Christians have prayed some kind of a similar prayer. Have you?
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