˙
˙
beating themselves in grief and bewailing what is happening. Jesus says to the grieving women: “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me. Weep instead for yourselves and for your children; for look! days are coming when people will say, ‘Happy are the barren women, the wombs that did not give birth and the breasts that did not nurse!’ Then they will start saying to the mountains, ‘Fall over us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us over!’ If they do these things when the tree
PILATE TRIES TO RELEASE JESUS JESUS IS CONDEMNED AND SENT TO DIE
130
is moist, what will occur when it is withered?” —Luke 23:28-31. Jesus is referring to the Jewish nation. It is like a dying tree that still has some moisture left, for Jesus is present and so are a number of Jews who believe in him. When these are taken out from the nation, only a spiritually withered national organization will remain, being like a dead tree. There will be intense weeping when the Roman armies act as God’s executioners against that nation!
The religious leaders make what charge against Jesus? Why does Pilate grow fearful? How do the chief priests get Pilate to have Jesus executed? What does Jesus mean by referring to the tree as “moist” and then “withered”? 297