Commentary - Luke 23:26-32

Bird's-eye view

In this short passage, Luke gives us a glimpse of three different responses to the cross of Christ as He is led to Golgotha. First, we see the conscripted follower in Simon of Cyrene, a man forced into service who becomes a living picture of discipleship. Second, we see the sentimental followers, the women of Jerusalem, whose grief, though genuine, is misdirected. Jesus corrects their focus, turning their attention from His suffering to the impending judgment upon their nation. Third, we see the condemned followers, the two criminals who are led with Jesus to be executed. The entire scene is a microcosm of the world's reaction to Christ: the unwilling but necessary participant, the well-meaning but misguided sympathizer, and the justly condemned sinner who is brought to the same end as the Savior. Jesus, even in His agony, remains the central figure, the prophet, and the King, interpreting the meaning of His own death and its ramifications for the world.

The Lord’s words to the women are a stark prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This is not primarily a word about some far-flung future tribulation, but a clear and present warning to the very city that was rejecting its Messiah. The contrast between the green tree and the dry is a powerful metaphor for the difference between the innocent Christ and the guilty nation. If this is what the Romans do to an innocent man, what will they do to a rebellious city? The cross, therefore, is not just a personal event for Jesus; it is a world-historical event, the pivot upon which the judgment of the Old Covenant world turns.

Outline

Context In Luke

This section is part of the larger travel narrative of Jesus to the cross. Having been condemned by both the Jewish authorities and the Roman governor, Jesus is now on His final journey. This is the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering. Luke places this account immediately after Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified, emphasizing the swift and inexorable movement toward His death. Unlike other Gospels, Luke focuses here on Jesus' interaction with the crowd, particularly the women. This highlights Luke’s recurring interest in the marginalized and his emphasis on Jesus as a prophet who speaks to the heart of Israel's condition. The prophecy against Jerusalem connects directly back to earlier warnings Jesus gave, such as in Luke 19:41-44 when He wept over the city, and Luke 21, which details the signs of its coming destruction. This is not a new theme, but a final, poignant restatement of it just moments before the event that seals Jerusalem's fate.

Key Issues

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 26 And when they led Him away, they took hold of a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.

The procession begins. Jesus, likely weakened from the scourging, is unable to carry the heavy patibulum, the crossbeam. The soldiers, impatient to get on with their bloody work, do what occupying forces always do: they compel a bystander into service. Simon is from Cyrene, in North Africa, suggesting he was a Jewish pilgrim in Jerusalem for the Passover. He is coming in from the country, minding his own business, when he is suddenly thrust into the center of redemptive history. This is a picture of sovereign grace. No man seeks out the cross on his own. Simon did not volunteer; he was "taken hold of." In the same way, God takes hold of us. And notice the arrangement: the cross is placed on him "to carry behind Jesus." This is the very definition of discipleship Jesus had given earlier: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). Simon becomes an unwitting, living parable of every Christian who is called to follow the Master.

v. 27 And following Him was a large multitude of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him.

There are two groups here. First, a large multitude of "the people." This would have been a chaotic mix of the curious, the hostile, and the confused. A public execution was a spectacle. But Luke singles out a second group: women who were actively mourning and lamenting. This was not silent grief; this was the loud, public wailing common in that culture. Their sorrow appears genuine. They see a righteous man being led to an unjust death, and their hearts are moved. But as we are about to see, their sympathy, while well-intentioned, is shallow. It is a grief directed at the circumstances, not at the sin that caused them.

v. 28 But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, stop crying for Me, but cry for yourselves and for your children."

Even in this moment of supreme agony, Jesus is the pastor, the prophet. He turns to them. This action itself is significant. He is not absorbed in self-pity. His concern is for them, for the city they represent. He calls them "Daughters of Jerusalem," identifying them with the city that is the object of the coming judgment. His command is sharp: stop this kind of crying. He rejects their pity. Why? Because He is not a victim of circumstance; He is the Lamb of God going to the slaughter according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). The tragedy is not what is happening to Him, but what is about to happen to them because they, as a people, have rejected Him. The tears should be tears of repentance, not tears of sentiment. Cry for yourselves, and for your children, who will bear the full brunt of the covenant wrath that is coming.

v. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.'

Jesus now explains why they should weep for themselves. He points to a specific future: "the days are coming." This is prophetic language, and in Luke's context, it points directly to the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies under Titus in A.D. 70. In that day, the most fundamental of Old Covenant blessings, children, will be seen as a curse. To be fruitful and multiply was a foundational command and promise (Gen 1:28). But in the horror of the siege, a woman with a child would be an object of pity, not envy. The historian Josephus tells us of the starvation, the cannibalism, the utter despair that gripped the city. To have a child would mean watching that child starve, or worse. Jesus is describing a complete inversion of God's created and covenantal order, a direct consequence of Israel's covenant infidelity.

v. 30 Then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, ‘FALL ON US,’ AND TO THE HILLS, ‘COVER US.’

This is a direct quote from Hosea 10:8, where the prophet is describing the judgment coming upon idolatrous Israel. Jesus applies this prophecy to the "Daughters of Jerusalem." The terror of those days will be so great that a swift death under a landslide will seem preferable to enduring the drawn-out agony of the Roman siege. This is not the cry of repentance, but the shriek of sheer terror from those facing the unmitigated wrath of God. They would rather be blotted out of existence than face the judgment they have brought upon themselves. It is a picture of absolute, hopeless despair.

v. 31 For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?

Here is the theological core of the warning, presented as a proverbial argument. Jesus is the "green tree." He is bursting with life, innocent, righteous, the beloved Son of God. "They" refers to the Roman authorities, the instrument of this execution. If this is what the Romans, in their ignorance, do to the innocent Son of God, the living wood, what on earth will they do to the "dry" tree? The dry tree is apostate Jerusalem, the faithless generation, spiritually dead and ready for the fire of judgment. It is a tinderbox of rebellion and sin. If the fire of Roman wrath touches the green wood with such ferocity, how much more will it consume the dry, dead wood? This is an a fortiori argument: from the lesser to the greater. The crucifixion of the Messiah is the ultimate sign that the time for judgment on the nation that orchestrated it has arrived.

v. 32 Now two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him.

Luke concludes this brief section by reminding us of Jesus' companions on this journey. He is not just being executed; He is being executed with criminals. This is a deliberate fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that He would be "numbered with the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:12). This detail is not incidental. It underscores the shame and degradation He endured, but it also points to the heart of His mission. He came to stand in the place of criminals, to take their curse upon Himself. These two men represent the very people He came to save. He is led with them, and He will be crucified between them, identifying with them in their death so that they might, if they repent, be identified with Him in His life.

Application

This passage forces us to examine the nature of our own response to the cross. It is easy to be like the weeping women, to feel a sentimental sadness about what Jesus went through. We can pity the historical figure of Jesus without ever confronting the reality of our own sin that nailed Him there. Jesus redirects our tears. He does not want our pity; He wants our repentance. The proper response to the cross is not to cry for Him, but to cry for ourselves and our children, to recognize that we are the dry wood, deserving of the fire.

Furthermore, we see the nature of true discipleship in the person of Simon. It is not something we choose on our own terms. It is a divine compulsion, a taking hold of us by God, where we are made to carry a cross and follow behind Jesus. It is often inconvenient, unexpected, and thrust upon us. But this is the path of life. We must exchange our sentimentalism for the solid wood of Simon's cross.

Finally, the warning to Jerusalem is a standing warning to all nations and all churches. When a people is blessed with the very presence of God and they reject Him, judgment is not a possibility but a certainty. The green tree was cut down to provide salvation. But let all the dry trees of this world tremble. If God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare those who presume upon His grace. The cross is either the instrument of our salvation through repentance or the signpost of our destruction through rebellion.