LUKE 23: 26-31 [JESUS’ LAST DAY SERIES]
ON THE WAY TO THE CRUCIFIXION
[Zech 12:10-14; Luke 19:41–44; 21:20–24; Rev. 6:15–17]
In the next episode on Jesus’ last day, we reach the actual events surrounding the crucifixion. The crucifixion account consists of three parts: the journey to the place of crucifixion (vv 26-31) which we will look at today, the crucifixion (vv 32-38) which we will look at next Sunday, and the story of the two crucified criminals (vv. 39-43) which we will look at in two weeks.
Luke alone describes the way to the place of execution as this incident is not in Matthew or Mark. For Luke it is important because it again expresses Jesus’ concern for the fate of Jerusalem (19:41–44). The terrible destruction Jesus speaks of reflects His previous prediction in Luke (21:20–24).
While on the way to the mount of the skull Jesus was required, like others condemned to crucifixion, to carry the cross-bar of His cross. On the way to the cross we find the women of Jerusalem[, not Jesus’ women friends from Galilee who traveled with Him, but the women of the city,] weeping over His alarming and appalling judgment. Jesus advises them to turn their anguish for Him into mourning for themselves. Such sever rejection of the beloved Son of God puts an individual or society on a course that brings its own judgment (CIT).
I. TAKING UP THE CROSS, 26-27.
II. COMING DESTRUCTION, 28-30.
III. SIN FULL GROWN, 31.
The rulers and the crowd has just had their way. The verdict of condemnation on the sinless Son of Man has been granted. In verse 26 we find Jesus trudging toward the hill of Golgotha with the crossbeam on His shoulders. The solders in charge of the procession observe that Jesus has become too weak to carry His heavy beam, so they lay hold of a “random” man in the crowd and force him carry Christ’s Cross. “And as they led Him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on Him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.”
Like others condemned to crucifixion, Jesus was required to carry His cross. The wood cross-bar was heavy, and Jesus was weakened by the beatings and the scourging (Mt 27:26, 30; Mk 15:15, 19). On to this scene of Jesus’ "via de la rosa" came “Simon.” He was from out of the country and casually drawn into that part of the crowd. He was probably a Jewish pilgrim visiting Jerusalem for Passover.
Simon, was a man “of Cyrene.” Cyrene is a port in Tripoli, or present-day Libya, on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. Jews had lived in the city of Cyrene since the third century BC. Many Jews lived there and had a synagogue at Jerusalem (Acts 6:9 and see Acts 2:10). Simon had probably been saving all of his adult life to make the eight-hundred-mile journey to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. As he felt the sharp, cold metal of a Roman spear press upon his shoulder and heard the command to take up the Cross of the Galilean who had already been beaten beyond recognition, Simon must have wondered, Why me?
The soldiers could press civilians such as Simon into service. Mark 15:21 has the word forces (angareuo), the same word Jesus used in the famous saying about going the second mile (Mt 5:41). Luke says they “laid hold on” (?p??aß?µe???) him. Matthew says (Mt 27:32) that “they compel him to bear His cross.” It would ended up a sweet compulsion, if it resulted in him or his sons voluntarily “taking up their cross and following Jesus.” It appears that our Lord had first to bear His own cross (Jn 19:17), but was physically unable to proceed, so it was laid on another to bear it “after Him.” [From the other gospel accounts, we learn that the reason Simon was called in to carry the cross for Jesus was that Jesus collapsed under the weight of it and was unable to carry it.] Though forced to carry the burden of the Jesus’ cross (Mt. 5:41) Simon of Cyrene is a symbol of the true disciple, carrying the cross “behind Jesus” on the way to the Crucifixion site.
Mark tells us “Simon” was the father of Rufus and Alexander (15:21). The fact that Paul sends greetings to Rufus and Alexander means they were well-known Christians (Romans 16:13). Therefore, the implication is that Simon was saved, perhaps on the very day he carried the Cross. This shouldn’t be surprising, for those who carry the Cross of Christ will always fall in love with Him. Initially, we say, “Oh no. I don’t want to go through that. I don’t want to do that. It’s too heavy. It’s too burdensome. Why me?” But eventually we come to understand the incredible insight Jesus shared with us when He said it is the person who carries his cross daily who finds true life (Matthew 10:39). [Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 414–415.]
In verse 27 we learn of the first pilgrims on the "Via Dolorosa." “And there followed Him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for Him.”
Luke records a touch of human pity on the part of a sympatric crowd. These “people and women" of the city [not part of His precious Galilean followers (Lk 23:49)] were wailing and beating their breasts in grief (ekoptonto) saying, “Poor Jesus!” They were expressing honest anguish over Jesus’ suffering and coming death. But what they needed was not pity for Jesus, but true repentance for themselves. They were concerned for His suffering, but should be concerned for the condition of the human heart, even their own heart, in which such evil could occur.
II. COMING DESTRUCTION, 28-30.
In verse 28 Jesus faithfully reminds them of where their true concern needs to be place by a gentle rebuke. ‘But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.’
Jesus’ noble spirit of compassion rises above His own anguished. In empathetic pathos He sees their future sufferings. Though it is far lighter, it is also without His hope and sustaining purpose! [The background is found in Zechariah 12:10.]
Jesus therefore warns them that the greater cause for tears is unbelieving Jerusalem (Luke 19:41–44) who would crucify the Lord of love, light and life. On the way to the Crucifixion site Jesus informs the people of their coming tribulation. These mourners should save their tears for their own disastrous future. His reply must have shocked them. Remember that to the Jew, “children” were a sign of blessing.
Tolstoy tells a story about prerevolutionary Russia in which a wealthy lady is attending the opera in midwinter while her coachman waits outside. While she is weeping over the death of the heroine on stage, her coachman freezes to death. We can shed sentimental tears over the unreal and remain untouched by the genuine suffering all around us. [Bruce Larson and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Luke, vol. 26, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1983), 339.]
Verse 29 expresses a reference to the blessed barren with three distinct figures. ‘For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’
Jewish women had always considered barrenness a misfortune and children a blessing. Why such a reversal? Because no mother wants to see her child suffer the fate that Jerusalem will face. In the day of Jerusalem’s destruction women would have the horror of seeing their children suffer and would wish they could have been spared that agony. The suffering that is coming upon Jerusalem will be so great that childless women will be considered fortunate, because they have no children over whom to mourn over the wanton destruction that is coming.
Jesus seems to be saying, “Ladies, don’t give Me your sympathy. Save your feelings for yourselves. What I want from you is repentance. Your tears for Me will not save you from the future judgment upon Jerusalem and its inhabitants.”
If an innocent person like Jesus is called upon to suffer such a sentence, what will the suffering of the guilty be? If the Romans do this to Him, what will they do to the city?
In verse 30 Jesus indicates how they will feel when the Roman army surrounds and destroys the holy city with its inhabitants. ‘Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’
In that time a destruction similar the verse from Hosea 10:8 which Jesus now references will occur. Jerusalem’s citizens, particularly its women will seek refuge or relief. [A person standing out in the open in Jerusalem, or in the Judean hills, would probably not think of “mountains” as a means of destruction as much as a means of protection. Therefore, Marshall (Gospel of Luke, p. 864) is probably right in suggesting that] the words from Hosea 10:8 are a plea for protection rather than for quick death. [Walter L. Liefeld, “Luke,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 1042.]
Jesus is telling the women that they will utter a similar cry when Jerusalem is punished for rejecting Him (Luke 21:22). [Hosea 10:8 is a slight premonition of cries of another and more awful kind that is still to come (Isa 2:10, 19, 21; Rev 6:15–17).]
III. SIN FULL GROWN, 31.
Jesus closes His speech to the women in verse 31 with a proverb whose meaning also has been debated. "For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
The proverb is a comparison between a lesser and greater evil. The image is of a green tree and its lumber which naturally resists fire and is hard to burn and with dry wood which burns easily and quickly. Fire spreads much more rapidly through a dry forest than through a wet one. Jesus’ word is warning of a situation in the future even worse than the events surrounding His crucifixion. The proverb seems to means: “If such sufferings falls upon the innocent One, the very Lamb of God, what must be in store for those who are provoking judgment flames?”
Though God is allowing the current disaster to happen, the joining of Romans and Jews to kill Jesus, it hardly comparable with the disaster Jerusalem would face. God would let the Roman government destroy Zion, the city of promise, the city of hope, the city of prophecy, the city of David. All Jewish political, messianic, and religious hopes would be snuffed out. The city of peace would be the scene of deadly warfare in which innocent civilians would suffer as much as defending soldiers. [Butler, Trent. Luke. Holman NT Com. Nashville. 2000. p 392.]
[Others: Tree (????) is used of the cross by Peter, Acts 5:30; 10:39; and 1 Pet. 2:24. Compare Gal. 3:13. Dead wood indicates those who reject Jesus. Jesus’ message was being rejected when He was physically present. How much more it would be rejected in coming years!]
IN CLOSING
Jesus is not angry at these women for showing compassion and sympathy, but He stops and looks at them and He tells them that if they understood at all what had been going on, they would not be weeping for Him but for themselves, because of the judgment about to come upon their nation. Jesus, of course, was referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, which has been called the first Jewish Holocaust. Over a million people were slaughtered by the Romans.
The Romans and Jews think they have the power because they crucified Jesus. The Romans may think they have proved their superiority to the Jews’ religion and their God when they destroy Jerusalem. But things are not always as we think or as we see them. Jesus remains in charge. He knows what will happen and confirms it as part of God’s eternal plan.
[More seriously, however, Jesus’ words are a reminder of the last judgment. We must all stand before the judgment seat of God on that day of great fear and mourning. [R. C. Sproul, A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), 408.]
Father, You have shown us kindness and mercy that far exceeds what we deserve. You alone are deserving of our love and devotion. Help us, Lord, to live a life that pleases You and is in accordance with Your perfect plan for our life. Give us the insight to recognize the negative forces that may lead us astray and assist us in avoiding them. You know what is best for us, so instill in us a desire and zeal to pursue Your will.
Dear Father, You see everything and know everything. Your comprehension is unfathomable, and your knowledge is flawless. Lord, teach us so that we may walk in Your wisdom. Direct our steps so that we don’t wind up on the wrong path, and our thoughts so that we don’t make bad decisions.
You are the source of all heavenly knowledge and the only one capable of guiding us down paths that lead to joy and fulfillment. Give us wisdom to evaluate and correct our thinking, as well as the ability to put away those unwanted thoughts that lead us astray. Make our hearts more sensitive to Your guiding hand, so we can sense, comprehend, and appreciate Your work in our lives. Help us to fully surrender to Your guidance so that our pathways lead us to You. Amen.
