Gospel

The Tree Is Green or Dry

by Roland Crim
06/10/17
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Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Luke 23:28-31 NIV

Jesus spoke these words to the women that were following as He was being led to Calvary for His crucifixion.

I think Jesus here is referring to the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem, which was only a generation away from His crucifixion, at 70 AD. Women do not like to see their children go through major suffering. So, here Jesus is saying that the destruction of Jerusalem will be so bad that women will wish that they had not borne children than to see the suffering that their children will face. It would be so bad that people would metaphorically wish that mountains would fall on them that they might die a quick death and not face the destruction of Jerusalem. Remember that on entering Jerusalem, that Jesus had wept over the city.

A green tree is one that is healthy and alive, just as is Jesus, our Savior. If the Romans of Jesus’ time would execute Him, how much more would they totally destroy the city of Jerusalem in the next generation (the dry tree signifying the city of Jerusalem).

So, here, as He is being led off to be crucified, Jesus prophesies about the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem. It would be worse for those people and the fate they would face than the fate of our Savior.

I would be willing to guess that the women who heard these words of the Lord did not understand their meaning.