Unplanned Opportunities To Serve The Lord

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Luke 23:26

Abraham Zapruder. Many of you immediately recognize him as the man who made one of the clearest video recordings of the assassination of John Kennedy. Zapruder learned that Kennedy’s motorcade was going to be in Dallas, so he decided to go film it having no idea that within a few hours, he would become a household name and a part of one of the most tragic experiences in American history.

Much the same could be said about a man who happened to be standing by the side of the road while Jesus was being dragged through the streets of Jerusalem to Skull Hill where the crucifixion took place. The man’s name was Simon from the city of Cyrene in northern Africa.

We know absolutely nothing more about him. Nor do we know why he was standing there on that dreadful day when Jesus came by. All we know is that Jesus was being dragged by the Roman soldiers down the street carrying the top part of the cross on his shoulders. Already weak from the flogging he had received, Jesus likely may have stumbled or perhaps even fell right in front of where Simon was.

That’s why the Roman soldiers pressed Simon into duty. He was forced to carry the cross piece for Jesus to Golgatha where the crucifixion would take place. Simon didn’t ask to do it. No doubt he would have rather done a thousand other things. But the situation presented itself, and that became an unwelcomed opportunity for Simon to serve the Lord.

We too can find ourselves in situations that we don’t expect and perhaps don’t even want but that provide an opportunity for us to serve. For not all ministry opportunities can be calendarized. Sometimes they come in unexpected and unwelcomed ways. When they do, we may discover that they aren’t distractions but rather opportunities not only to help others but also to serve the Lord.

I think of the time when Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem for the last time. He had already told His disciples that when He got there, He would be handed over to the Gentiles to be mistreated and killed. So it’s safe to say that He had a lot on His mind.

Yet Luke tells us that when He approached Jericho, He was willing to stop to minister to a blind man on the side of the road. Later while passing through Jericho, He stopped again to touch the life of a repentant tax collector named Zacchaeus.

No one would have blamed Him if He had passed up both opportunities. But He didn’t. Instead He seized them, and it changed the lives of both of those men.

For us to do this, we will have to adopt what some have called the ministry of being interruptible. Such a ministry means that there are going to be times when we simply have to drop what we’ve planned in order to seize an opportunity to serve the needs of someone else.

So in the coming week, let me encourage you to pay attention to what’s going on around you. You may never know when a seemingly irritating interruption is actually an opportunity for you to serve the Lord.