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28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 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!’ 30 Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ 31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” ~ Luke 23:28-31
We come to the portion in this narrative that the Lord Jesus speaks to the weeping women who were not the women who had followed Him so closely over the past few years. These were professional mourners. Their role was traditional, they mourned professionally. They were hired to do their duty. They were always counted upon when someone was going to be crucified by the Romans.
Their mourning included the pounding of their chests. It was their cultural way of showing the agony of death. Their weeping included verbal wailing. The scene was quite tragic. There was the bloodied body of the Lord Jesus, struggling to get to Calvary, assisted by a man who was confused to be caught up in this unjust moment. Then, there were the wails of these women who were beating their chests profoundly.
Clearly, not everyone hated the Lord Jesus, and these women represented the feelings of those who felt sad for the Lord Jesus, those who who found in the Lord Jesus a uniqueness who didn't deserve this moment.
In v.28 we read, "Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children."
The title "Daughters of Jerusalem" is found in Zechariah 9:9 which reads, "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
The Lord Jesus speaks to those who had just a few days before this were shouting "Hosanna" from the hope that they were experiencing in their hearts. Now, they were finding that their joy had turned to mourning because they lacked the biblical understanding to recognize that the Messiah must suffer for the sins of the people.
Very often, if we give the Lord just a little more time to reveal truth to us, it is then that we begin to get it. If Israel had just as much been aware of Zechariah 9:11 as they were Zechariah 9:9, the outcome would have been different. Zechariah 9:11 reads, "As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit."
The Lord Jesus implored these women to weep for themselves. Their sympathies were misdirected for they were the recipients of the wrath of God for their sins were not forgiven them.
Notice the Lord Jesus did not give a final invitation to the people who were along the way. He rather pronounced a final doom on them. Their perspective was totally skewed. They didn’t get it. They needed to shed tears not for Him, but tears of terror and tears of fear and tears of remorse and tears of repentance for themselves in the light of the coming judgment of God.
In v.29-30 we read, "29 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!’ 30 Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!"
When the Romans invaded Israel a few years after this occasion, the terror was so bad that they begged the mountains to fall on them. This was a reference to the invasion of the Romans in 70 A.D. And so, the hours of grace had gone fleeting away. There would be no more invitation to grace but only judgment. It was in John’s gospel that Jesus said, “Whoever believes not in me is condemned already because he does not believe.”
The phrase in v.29, "Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed" was a strange beatitude that was the opposite of all Jewish hope. In their culture, the worst thing that could happen to a Jewish woman was to be barren. This was like a divine curse in their culture. Jesus was saying, "When the judgment of God falls, the destruction will be so vicious that those who have no children will have the least suffering."
The words, “They will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” This is a quotation of Hosea 10:8. The prophet Hosea prophesied to the wayward northern kingdom which never had any good kings. From the outset, they were idolatrous, adulterous, and apostate. And so God pronounced judgment on the northern kingdom and it was in 722 B.C. that the Assyrians came and slaughtered them.
In v.31 we read, "For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?" These are the Lord Jesus' final words as He stumbled to the cross. The green tree symbolizes life, fruitfulness, and blessing. If the Romans could do this to the giver of life, imagine what they will do to the nation of Israel which is like a dried twig, ready for judgment.
