Matthew 27:32: Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross.

The first few times Matthew uses the word “cross” in his gospel, he is referring to the cross that of the disciple rather than the cross of Jesus.  “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me,” Jesus tells His disciples as He sends them to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (10:38).  “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up His cross and follow Me,” He reiterates after Peter confesses Him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God (16:24).

Here, the third time Matthew uses the word cross, it is Jesus’ cross, but it is being carried by someone else, by one Simon of Cyrene, unknown outside of this passage.  Simon is a model of discipleship, bearing the cross along with Jesus, bearing the cross to the place of the skull.  He is an unwilling model.  Roman soldiers requisition Simon to carry Jesus’ cross.  At least he’s there, following Jesus to Golgotha, which is more than we can say for Jesus’ actual disciples, the ones who willingly left their nets and followed Jesus and then willingly fled.

More than we can say, especially, for Simon’s namesake, Simon Peter. The last time we see Peter in this gospel, he denies Jesus before going out to weep.  Peter wasn’t able or willing to bear the light and easy cross of interrogation by a servant girl.  He’s not tortured; nobody pulls out his fingernails or hooks him up to electrodes; nobody threatens him with scourging or death.  A few innocent questions from a servant girl overwhelm him, and he buckles.

Jesus had warned Peter.  Nearly every time Peter is called “Simon” within Matthew’s gospel, it is in connection with the call to share in Jesus’ ministry and suffering.  Peter is Simon when he is called from his nets to become a fisher of men, Simon when he is sent out as a sheep among wolves, Simon when he confesses Jesus as Christ and Jesus instructs him to take up his cross.  But Simon doesn’t come through, not in the court of the high priest.  It will be another Simon, not Simon Peter, who bears the cross and follows Jesus.

Of course, we know from other gospels, that Simon Peter finally conforms to the model of Jesus, the model of Simon of Cyrene.  He finally lives up to his name, finally heeds Jesus’ words and becomes not only a disciple but a leader of disciples.

All this about names and crosses, as you’ve already anticipated, has a great deal to do with baptism.  By his baptism, your son is receiving a name.  He already bears the name that you’ve given him, and that name is a calling and a future for him.  He is Mark, the name of Peter’s companion and the author of the second gospel.  He is Francis, the name of a great medieval saint, a man who quite literally left everything to take up the cross of Jesus.  He bears those names, those names that will be pronounced over him here, and he must live up to those names.

Today he receives another name, the name of Christian.  He will be baptized in the name of the Triune God, and from this day on he will be called to bear that name before the world, and not to bear that name lightly.  But that Triune name comes to a focus in Jesus.  He bears the name of Jesus, and that means that he, like Simon Peter, is called to share in the ministry and in the passion of Jesus.

Your job as parents is simple: Teach and train him so that he lives up to the name He bears, the name of the crucified Messiah, the Jesus who suffered on the cross and calls us to bear the cross with Him.