THE ROAD TO GOLGOTHA

LUKE 23:26–33

“For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

(Luke 23:31).

As Jesus was led away to be crucified, the crowd urged a man named Simon, from Cyrene, to help Jesus carry the cross. We know that Jesus was a very strong man—carpenters had to be strong in the ancient world—and thus it is curious that Jesus was unable to do what other criminals normally did: carry their own crosses. It seems that Jesus had been weakened by the cruel beating (Luke 22:63). Jesus had also been severely flogged and beaten by His Roman guards (Matthew 27:26–31), who put a crown of thorns on His head and then pounded it into His skull. Thus, He was physically unable to carry the cross.

As He traveled to Golgotha, which means “The Place called The Skull,” a group of women wept for Him. Whether they had known Him or were simply women who came out to lament over those killed by the Romans, we do not know. Jesus turned to them and told them that they did not need to weep for Him, but that they should weep for themselves and their children. He was warning them that the nation would not repent and that God’s judgment would come upon them, as it would in a.d. 70.

If the nation was ready to kill God’s Son while the tree was still green, what would happen when that grace was removed and the tree of Israel became dry? The greatest sufferings in the Jewish Wars of 66–70 a.d. came not from the Romans, but from the militant factions of Jews who inflicted horrors on each other. In a broader sense, we must apply this warning to the Last Judgment as well.

Luke goes on to tell us that Jesus was crucified between two criminals. Isaiah had prophesied that He would be numbered with transgressors (53:12), and to show that Jesus was ranked with criminals, Luke points out that He was not simply crucified alongside of them, but in between them. The death of Jesus Christ fulfilled prophecy.

CORAM DEO

Hosea 9–11

Revelation 3

The gravest threat the church could envision would be the removal of God’s grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit. This judgment of God seems imminent in some quarters of the church again today. Earnestly pray for God’s mercy on the church, that where necessary she would repent from her sin and waywardness.

For further study: Hosea 10:1–15; tape #B57INT.92/93

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