Let us turn to God's word in
the portion of scripture that we've read Luke chapter 23 reading
again at verse 27 through to verse 31 Luke chapter 23 and
reading verses 27 to 31 and there follows 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 which they shall say, Blessed are the
barren and the wombs that never bear, and the paps which never
go 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? Previously we've been considering
the mockery of a trial that the Lord Jesus Christ had to endure
initially. He is taken before the Jewish
council, remember back in the end of the previous chapter,
verse 66 of chapter 22, we read of him being brought to the Jewish
council and then at the beginning of this chapter as a whole multitude
of them arise and lead him on to Pontius Pilate who has the
authority as the Roman governor but when Pilate he is mentioned
of Galilee he sends Christ to Herod who was at Jerusalem at
that season because Galilee of course was Herod's jurisdiction. Now he is mocked and ridiculed
by the soldiers of Herod. They array him in a gorgeous
robe and then they send him back to Pilate and Pilate then ultimately
is the one who sentences Christ to death, verse 24 Pilate gave
sentence that it should be as they required, as the Jews required
and he released on to them him who for sedition and murder was
cast into prison whom they had desired but he delivered Jesus
to their will and as they led him away they laid hold upon
one Simon a Cyrenian coming out of the country and on him they
laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. So they lead the Lord Jesus Christ
away away to the place of execution away to the hill called Calvary
where they will put him to death with these malefactors. Here
then is the Lord's last journey. He considered something of that
previous journey that He had made, the last time that He had
come up to Jerusalem. Remember back in the 19th chapter,
verse 41, when He had come near to Jerusalem, He beheld the city
and wept over it. saying if thou havest known even
thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto
thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes he wept over
the city of jerusalem as he approached it for that last time and it
was there of course in the city in the environs of the city that
he had suffered so much in the garden of Gethsemane in this
mockery of a trial and now he is led forth on his very last
journey outside the city to that place called Calvary and as he
wept as he approached the city so there are those who now begin
to weep over him and I won't to center your attention more
particularly this morning on what we read here in verses 27
and 28 Luke chapter 23 then and that's it verses 27 and 28 and
there followed him a great company of people and of women which
also bewildered and lamented him But Jesus, turning unto them,
said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children." The weepers after the Lord Jesus
Christ. First of all, let us consider
this manifestation of sorrow. Sorrow for the Saviour. I want us to view this sorrow
from two perspectives. Firstly, we can see it from the
viewpoint of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we see as we consider
the Lord's response to all this bewailing and all this lamenting
over Him? Do we not see the selflessness
of the Saviour? What does He say to them here
in verse 28? Weep not, for my weep not for
my he had endured many things as we've already intimated there
in the garden of Gethsemane we've considered something of those
sufferings that came upon him as he was contemplating the cross
the very purpose of his coming into the world was that he might
die that death that death whereby he would make the great atoning
sacrifice this was the reason why he had come that he might
make that one offering for sins forever but now as he contemplated
that will of God that he must execute how he was burdened in
his own soul in the garden being in an agony we're told He began to sweat a peculiar
sweat. He prayed more earnestly and
his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. The intensity
of the sufferings of the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ are
clearly indicated in what we have read back in chapter 22
and verse 44. the sufferings of Gethsemane.
But then the trial, we've looked at the trial in some detail. And what a mockery of a trial
it was. And ultimately he's brought to the place called Gadasa, the
pavement, and it's there that he is condemned. And yet he is
condemned as an innocent man. We observed last time, I was
at three times Pilate, who is his human judge, has to pronounce
his innocence. In verse 4 here, then said Pilate
to the chief priest and to the people, I find no fault in this
man. Clearly he's innocent. Verse
14, He hath brought this man unto me as one that perverted
the people, and behold, I, having examined him before you, have
found no fault in this man. touching those things whereof
ye accuse him, no, nor yet herald, for I sent you to him, and no
nothing worthy of death is done unto him. And then at verse 22, He said
unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have
found no cause of death in him. He's an innocent man, clearly.
Three times Pilate must tell the Jews that there is nothing
in him that is worthy of death. He is the innocent one, holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and yet he is the
one who is condemned. Verse 24, Pilate gave sentence
that it should be as they required. He must die. And he must die
the just for the unjust. to bring sinners to God. But
what a mockery his trial is! And now he is taken and passed
from pillar to post. Ultimately he is condemned. He
said, Awake! Another must bear his cross.
They lay hold upon this man, Simon the Slavenian. On him they lay the cross that
he might bear it after the Lord Jesus Christ. here we see that
something of his sufferings there's an external aspect to them of
course there is as he's arrived in this fashion before these
various judges but we know that it's not so much the external
aspect of his sufferings that we should take account of it's
those things that are transpiring in his soul, the travail of his
soul, as we have it declared there in Isaiah 54. The travail of his soul. He makes
his soul an offering unto sin. Oh, he is a real man, you see.
He is in possession of body and soul and those inward suffering
the hymn writer says the pangs of his body were great but great
are the pangs of his mind he is that holy man he is that one
who has ever walked in obedience to his father how he hates sin
and yet he who knew no sin is made sin he is to suffer as the
great sin bearer and to bear that punishment that is due to
the sinner how these things must torment him in his holy soul
as he comes to the cross and he is all alone in these things,
is he not? I have trodden the winepress
alone there was none of the people with me he is the only holy,
righteous, sinless man that has ever lived though Adam and Eve
were created in that state of course when they came pristine
from the hand of their creator God how soon our first parents
fell but this man never fell, this man never sinned and he must therefore suffer
as the great sin bearer in the room and in the stead of others
the great doctrine of substitutionary atonement Christ in the sinners
place and all alone and how he will endure these things, and
he will have not them coming and weeping over him. He is so
selfless, you see. It's not himself. It's for others
that he will endure these things. It's for others that he will
lay down his life as a great sacrifice, having loved his own,
which were in the world, he loves them until the end. It's a selfless
sacrifice. It's not so much that they are
able to take his life away, he gives his life. It's a voluntary
sacrifice. He has that authority from God
to lay down his life, as he says in John chapter 10, no man shall
take it from him. I lay it down of myself. This
commandment have I of my Father. Weak not for me. He is so selfless
in when we view him here as a lament and bewail. but then we can view
it also from the angle of the people do we not conclude that
in some way we see that there is some sympathy there there
is some sympathy there followed him we read in the 27th verse
a great company of people and of women which also bewildered
and lamented him who are the women that I've spoken of here? well it's not the same women
that we read of previously we read of the women who also
followed him but they were women that came from from Galilee That was where, of course, he
was exercising so much of his ministry, in Galilee. It's not
these women then that we are reading of here in verse 27. We're told quite specifically
with regards to those women in a previous chapter, are we not,
in chapter 8, as a were very careful to minister to him of
their substance those remarkable words at the beginning of the
eighth chapter certain women which had been healed of evil
spirits and infirmities Mary called Magdalene out of whom
went seven devils Joanna the wife of Cusa Herod Stewart and
Susanna and many others which ministered unto him of their
substance. It's not those women that we're
reading of then. Who are these that are spoken
of in verse 27? Well, they're the daughters of
Jerusalem. They're those in Jerusalem at
this time. Many would gather, you see, to see the spectacle
of public execution. These things are done quite openly. And Christ refers to them, does
he not, in verse 28, as daughters of Jerusalem. Jesus turning unto
them said, daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children. What is it that they are manifesting
then, these people and particularly these women who will be wailing
or weeping over him? It is but a natural sympathy. It is but a natural sympathy
for this man. Matthew Henry makes this observation,
he says, many bewail Christ, but do not believe in Him, and
lament Him, but do not love Him. When we consider the spectacle
of His suffering, it does touch us, often times in our natural
feeling. to see a man have to endure all
these things that this man must undergo. But we need to discern
between a natural reaction and a spiritual reaction. We're not
to weep over the Lord Jesus Christ as someone that we simply feel
sorry for because we see him as a man. and a very real man
who's enduring terrible things. We're often touched when we see
people in situations and circumstances and we wonder how we would be
if we were in those situations. Our natural feelings are scurred
within us for our fallow beings, are they not? But we're not to
simply look upon Christ as one who is suffering terrible things. and be stirred in our human emotions
we need to see something deeper than that we need to see the
spiritual significance and this is what these women are not really
observing they are not those spiritual women who followed
him from Galilee who ministered to him of their substance because
they had received so much from him Theirs is just, I say, a
natural reaction. And what we need to do, surely,
is to weep over Christ as that one whom we see as the great
sin-bearer. And we weep over Him because
we see that it's our sin. That's the wonderful thing, when
we're brought to realise that, that it's our sin. and he's suffering
in our room and in our scale. What a favoured spot that is.
Let us, our loved, redeem and meet. We pour his pierced hands
and feet and view his wounded side. We just sang in our opening
praise. As we come to worship God and
as we desire to know something of that ministry of the Holy
Ghost, there we need him to come as the Spirit of Christ and to
make these things so real to us. and to make them real in
our soul so we see the ugliness of our sin. When God grants us the Spirit,
isn't that what we do? There is that great promise that
we have in the book of the Prophet Zechariah. God promises to pour
out of His Spirit Zechariah 12 and verse 10 I will pour upon
the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the
spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn. ever come to that
word and desire to pray over that scripture that we might
know that ministry of the spirit, the spirit of grace the spirit
of supplications poured upon us so that we see Christ and
we see him as that one who is fierce and fierce not because
of anything that he has done, it's the sins of others All the soldiers pierced his
side, it is true, but we have pierced him through and through,
says Joseph Hart. There should be that spiritual
mourning, and that's not what we see here, it's just human
sympathy that is manifesting. And so, in the second place,
I want us to consider something of what it means to know a real
sorrow over sin. What does Christ say? Weep not,
For mine is this, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming
in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren and the worms
that shall never bear, and the pups 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? Here we have reasons
for weeping. Weep for yourselves and for your
children, says the Lord Jesus Christ. And three things we see
in this portion. What does the Lord speak of?
He speaks of those things that were about to come upon them.
The destruction of Jerusalem. This is the historical context,
you see. Behold the days are coming in
the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the worms
that never bear, and the pups which never gave suck." What
are the days that the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of to these
people? It's those events that were shortly before Jerusalem. The events of the year 17, when
the Roman legionaries under their general Titus laid siege to Jerusalem. and Jerusalem was destroyed.
And now the Jews had to flee for their very lives. Now the
Lord had previously spoken of these things by way of prophecy
in chapter 21. Chapter 21 and there at verse 5 The tension is drawn to the temple. Some spake of the temple, how
it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts. And Christ said, as
for these things which ye behold, the days will come in the which
there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down. That's what happened in that
year, that fateful year of 17. And see what Christ goes on to
say later in that chapter. Verse 20, When ye shall see Jerusalem
compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is
nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains,
and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let
not them that are in the countries enter therein too. For these
be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written
may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with
child, and to them that give sock in those days! For there
shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon these people,
and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led
away captive, into all nations and Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Now you see how the language
is so similar that he speaks here in verse 29, he is referring
to the same events. And what does he say in verse
29? Well, what he says is so contrary
to what would be said in the normal circumstances of life.
Children are a blessing. Children are spoken of in the
psalm, are they not, as God's blessed heritage to his people. You are familiar with the words
of the psalmist there in the 127th psalm. Verse 3, No children
are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is
his reward as arrows. are in the hand of a mighty man.
So are children of the youth. Happy is the man that has his
quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but
they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. That is true in
the normal circumstances of life. But these are not normal circumstances. These are times of great catastrophe
that are going to come upon these people. Weep for yourselves,
he says. Weep for your children. The days
are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren and
the wombs that never bare, and the pups which never gave sight. For there is going to be a terrible
destruction that will come upon this people, this nation, the
rejecters of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came unto His own, His own
received Him not. It was the Jews, was it not,
who were so bent upon His destruction? though his human judge pronounces
him three times to be the innocent man yet ultimately he gives sentence
as they required and then he gives them over to their will
all of his blood be upon us and upon our children they said and
so it was but then the Lord is not only referring to the events
the historic events of the year 7th is also speaking of the Day
of Judgement because what happened in that year that fateful year
is a foreshadowing of the Great Day of Judgement in that 21st
chapter where Christ is speaking those prophetic words concerning
Jerusalem He also goes on to speak of the day of judgment,
does he not? Verse 25 you see, he goes on
from 70 to speak of other things. There shall be signs in the sun
and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth, distress
of nations with perplexity, the sea and waves roaring, men's
hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth. For the powers of the heavens
shall be shaken and then shall they see the Son of Man coming
in a cloud with power and great glory and he goes on to speak
of those who must stand before him he comes as the judge has
not the father committed all judgment into the hands of his
son verse 36 there in chapter 21 watch ye therefore and pray
always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things
that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. Oh, this is that great day of
which the Lord is speaking. And He makes reference to it,
you see here in verse 30, Then shall they begin to say to the
mountains, Fall on up, and to the hills, Cover us. This is the day of judgment,
is it not? This is a language that is taken up, remember, in
the book of the Revelation concerning that death. In the sixth chapter
there in the Revelation, chapter 6 verse 15, the kings
of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief
captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free
man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains
and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us
from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath
of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who
shall be able to stand oh there is that day coming Joseph and
these are not ready for it weep for yourselves weep for your
children says the Lord Jesus Christ Will you stand in that
day? In that psalm from which we sang
just now, the metrical psalm. Psalm 1 we read, the ungodly
shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation
of the righteous. There will be that awful pronouncement
of their just condemnation. condemned because of their sins. But how the language is so graphic,
how they desire to hide themselves from that judgment and from that
wrath that is yet to fall upon them. They will seek to hide
themselves and even in caves and dens of the earth, they will
begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, cover us, because
they will not want to face the wrath of the Lamb. Oh, the language,
you see, is so similar to what we find even back in the Old
Testament in the book of the Prophet Isaiah, there in the
second chapter of Isaiah. Remember how Isaiah, in the opening chapter,
certainly speaks of the great sins of the nation, the great
sins of the Jews, and those judgments that were to fall upon them in
the time of the Babylonian captivity, the exile. It's interesting that
the language you see is similar here in the second chapter. Verse
10, Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust for the fear
of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty. Verse 19, they
shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the
earth for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty
when he arises to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man
shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they
made each one for himself to worship to the moles and to the
backs, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops
of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory
of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. And this conclusion sees ye from
man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted
on. to be those friends who understand
something of these things of which the Lord Jesus Christ is
speaking so solemnly. Wait for yourselves, he says,
and wait for your children in view of these things that must
come. Except you are found in the Lord Jesus Christ, except
you have some spiritual perception and spiritual understanding of
his suffering. These have no understanding of
that. They might bewail, they might lament, they might weep
and cry over him, expressing a natural sorrow, but do they
understand the real significance of these things? This is what
we must come to. We must understand why it was
that Christ suffered thus. It was that the sinner might
be delivered from that wrath to come. Time and again the Lord
Jesus speaks so solemnly of these things we cannot avoid it when
we read through the gospel we turn back to the 13th chapter look at what he says there at
verse 28 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye
shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in
the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out that day of judgment,
that final separation when Christ sends the goats to their appointed
place and they are thrust out, thrust out of His presence, separated
from Him forevermore. He speaks then here in these
verses of the destruction of Jerusalem, that that came in
the year 7 and now that is but a foreshadowing of of a greater
day, a more dreadful day, even the last day, and the day of
final judgement. And then also in verse 31 he
says this, For if they do these things in a green tree, what
shall be done in the dry? Weep not for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children. For if they do these things in
a green tree, what shall they do in the dry?" Now, what are
we to make of this particular figure that Christ employs? Well, it's a simple figure really.
We're aware, I'm sure, that green wood does not burn well. We like Dry wood for burning. It burns so much the better. Now, the believer, the child
of God, should be like the green tree. Again in the psalm from
which we sank, he is like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also
shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. There
we have a description of the godly man. And we might say,
isn't that then the child of God, isn't that the true believer?
Well it is, but surely primarily the godly one of whom we're reading
there is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that green tree, that fruitful
tree, whose leaf doesn't wither, who brings forth an abundance
of good fruit. He is the green tree. He is the
innocent one, remember. He is the innocent one. We have
it, as I've already indicated, time and again, even from this
Roman governor Pilate, I find no fault in this man, he says. And yet again he has to tell
them, behold I, having examined him before you, have found no
fault in this man, nor your Herod. And then the third time he says
it. Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death
in him. Christ is the innocent one. Christ
himself is that green thread. He is holy, he is harmless, he
is undefiled, he is separate from sinners, he is made higher
than the heavens, and yet he is the man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Here is one who is a man of deep
feelings, a man who grieves, over sins and over the consequences
of sin? Do we not see him in John 11
at the grave of his friend Lazarus? And how he is touched there,
you see? We have that statement that Jesus wept and they were
real tears. How he feels the awfulness of
that sin that is all about him as he is here upon the earth
as the man of sorrow. This world you see that he's
under the curse, this world that lies in the wicked one, how these
things move him and touch him. He is that, that green tree,
the holy one, innocent, righteous, and yet this terrible penalty
must be executed upon him, he must die. and he must die the
cruel death of the cross, he must be crucified. He must bear
the curse of that broken Lord of God. Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree. And Christ made a curse for his
people. Now if this is so with regards
to the green tree, what is Christ saying? If the flame of God's
wrath collides in this passion upon the innocent one, oh, what
must be the end of those who are guilty? What must be the
end of those who are likened to a dry tree? If they do these
things in a green room, what shall be done in the dry? Then God's wrath is poured forth
Oh, no wonder we are exhorted in Scripture to flee from these
things, to flee from the wrath to come. Not to desire in that
terrible day of judgment to be covered and hidden from the wrath
of the Lamb of God, but to be those who would flee to Him in
this day of Christ. To weep for ourselves, to weep
for our children, To know that spirit of grace, that spirit
of supplication to be poured upon us, to come and to pray,
to plead, that we might be those who, by God's grace, do have
an interest in these things. To know that assurance of our
salvation, that it was even for us. That is, you know, the full
assurance of salvation, to have that persuasion in our hearts
that all that Christ endured all that he suffered, not only
of the contradiction of sinners against himself, but all that
he bore of the wrath of God, that it was for us, that it was
in our room and in our stead. Are we those who desire that
the Lord might grant to us such a knowledge of that, to be those
who, as we read in Romans 5, have received the atonement? Or God grant that we might be
those who are the recipients of that grace which is in the
Lord Jesus Christ, for His name's sake. Amen.