26 As they led Jesus away, Simon, a man from Cyrene, was coming in from the fields. They forced him to carry Jesus’ cross and to walk behind him.
27 A large crowd of people was following Jesus, including some women who were sad and crying for him. 28 But Jesus turned and said to them, “Women of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children. 29 The time is coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the women who cannot have children and who have no babies to nurse.’ 30 Then people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ And they will say to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ 31 If they act like this now when life is good, what will happen when bad times come?”
Read Luke 23:26-31 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
The road to Golgotha was filled with emotions. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, He has been arrested, accused, beaten, whipped, and sentenced to death. It is a morning filled with emotions from almost everyone in Jerusalem.
A crowd was present for Jesus’ trip to Golgotha and this crowd likely had people from almost every segment of society in Jerusalem present in it.
The priests, Pharisees, and religious leaders who were a part of the crowd could not be happier at how the morning had gone. They saw Jesus as competition and as a threat to their way of life, and He would now be crucified.
The soldiers and Romans in the crowd saw this as another job to do, and that some enemies of the empire would be put to death as an example to the rest of those living in Judea.
However, Luke also describes another group of people: some of Jesus’ female supporters. Luke tells us the large crowd of people included some women who were crying for Jesus. But when Jesus sees them, He stops and says, “Women of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children. The time is coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the women who cannot have children and who have no babies to nurse.’ Then people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ And they will say to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ If they act like this now when life is good, what will happen when bad times come?” (v. 28-31)
During one of His greatest moments of pain and in one of the hardest tasks He did, Jesus focused on others who were hurting. In this message to these women, Jesus makes another startling prediction.
Jesus described the present time as being a good one, when “life is good”, but in this description is also a warning about a future time when the situation will be reversed. When life is good, those who are able to have children are blessed and they may also be envied by many women who cannot have children of their own.
But Jesus describes a reverse to this situation. He describes a time when those who can have children will wish they could not, and it sounds like it will be a time shortly before His second coming to earth.
In Jesus’ statement I see a powerful truth for everyone at every point in life: It is easier to focus on what we don’t have and look at other people with the thought that their lives are better than ours. It is easier to see how others are blessed while thinking that we are not. However, Jesus points us to look at our own lives and focus on what He has given to each of us. It is when we stop comparing ourselves to others that we can truly move into experiencing joy in our lives.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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