Weep Not For Me

Text: Luke 23:27-31 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

Introduction:

So far we have studied:

I. The arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and Peter’s subsequent denial.

II. The rejection of the Jewish people of their Messiah, and finding in Him nothing of value.

Now, we find the Lord:

o Already thrice beaten, and weary from a long night and turbulent morning as He enters the beginnings of His sufferings.

o His back has already been laid bare (the half-death), and the smiters have driven deep furrows there. His precious blood was already spilling to the ground.

o Exhaustion is surely setting in.

o As He walked the path to Golgotha, the hardened Roman soldiers, in fear that the beaten, swollen, bloody Son of Man would expire ere ever He reached the place of His blessed mediatorship: His altar of burnt offering, hanging between Heaven and earth, that they conscript one Simon the Cyrene to carry His cross the rest of the distance.

What excitement this must have aroused in the bloody city of Jerusalem! A great company now follows the Spotless Lamb to the place of His execution.

Whom think ye do we find in that crowd?

o No doubt the scoffers are there. They will have there say before the day is through. “Physician, heal thyself,” will they render as due payment for their scorn of all things holy and pure.

o We also can trace in that crowd the bloodthirsty, who seek nothing less than to be entertained by the sufferings of others. Oh, fallen nature of man! Is this not enough? Is your depravity and blood lust not yet fully spent? But no, there awaits more than forty million followers of this very Lamb that will fall into your hands before His full return to exact final justice and hold thee responsible, when He comes into the physical inheritance of His kingly throne.

o Perhaps even good men are there, though they be scarce, and have come to see that justice is had. But however good such an one may be, are there not black stains of sins as yet unrepented that soil their garments? They have not come to mock the Son of Man. He has done them no injury. But their tragedy is that this Son of Man means nothing to them! He, who knew no sin, is numbered with the transgressors for the sins of the people. But, alas, good men also perish, and in their end, what preparations were made for eternity? For goodness alone can never purchase pardon, and by upright and refined character no man has ever purchased passage into that Celestial City. Will ye cling to your goodness as merit for forgiveness? Oh, foolish hearts! In this will ye trust and eternally taste of unspeakable horrors! Every breach of integrity is as the sounding of the gavel announcing thy guilt. Will ye resist your conscience? “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

o Daughters of Jerusalem: But to none other does the Lord direct His attention than to the daughters of Jerusalem, these that pity the Lord of Glory. These grieving daughters see in His Royal Person His innocence. They weep for Him as a mother would over a son. They weep to see such injustice befall one of their own. These are true tears. The streams that flow from these eyes spring from the fountain of sincerity.

Jesus’ Reply: And yet with such a display of sorrow, what words do we hear uttered forth from the Saviour in response to the mourning women? “Weep not for me.” How so could He who is in such a desperate plight bring forth words such as these? That is what we want to look at this morning.

I. Jesus Rejects Their Pity “Weep not for me…” (v.28a)

A. He rejects their grief as mistaken, and judges their tears as useless and unprofitable.

B. He reproves all those who devotion to the cross or to Jesus personally is driven by pity because of tragic end to someone so righteous and undeserving of suffering as He.