Misplaced Sorrow

The famous American satirist Mark Twain once said, “People laugh at children’s birth and cry at funerals because it’s not them.” Even without such a morbid outlook on life, we sometimes laugh or cry at the wrong time. Lori and I were at a communion service in the largest church in Texas, First Baptist Church of Dallas, and got communion cups with just two drops of grape juice as if someone had failed to fill our cups, and we couldn’t stop laughing that we had to leave the communion service.

As Jesus and Simon were carrying the cross to the place of crucifixion, they were followed by a large crowd of people and women beating [their chests], as was the everyday culture in those days, and weeping for him (Luke 23:27). They were right behind Jesus. So,

“Turning around, Jesus said to them, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not cry for me; instead, cry for you and your children.’” (23:28)

The Israelites thought they were in a peaceful time. Rome claimed Pax Romana, the Roman peace, all over the nations. And to the Israelites, it did seem like a peaceful time. But Jesus knew what was ahead for them.

“The days are coming in which they’ll say: ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that didn’t give birth, and the breasts that never fed milk.’ They’ll begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’” (23:29–30)

While the Jerusalemites thought they were at peace, an imminent danger and disaster awaited them. Historically, this came true within 40 years of Jesus’s life, from 64–70 AD. In a place called Gamla, for example, Rome surrounded them on all sides and was able to invade, so the men, women, and children, nearly 5,000, jumped off the cliff and killed themselves instead of surrendering themselves to Rome. That was why Jesus asked them to weep for them, not for him. What they were to face for rejecting their Messiah, Jesus, would be unbearable, a total disaster. In the figurative language,

“If these happened when the tree was green, what would happen if the tree is dried.” (23:31)

Forest fires spread faster among dried bushes, trees, and branches than among young, alive, and green trees. Jesus was a young tree—vibrant in early 30s. If disaster happened to him, how much more when Rome attacked the old nation of Israel? The disaster would be immense. This was true historically. Rome, under Titus, totally destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and left them desolate for centuries. Knowing this ahead of time, Jesus asked the ladies to weep for them and their children, not for him.

Jesus’s death was preplanned in God’s wisdom; it didn’t alter God’s master plan; instead, it fulfilled it. Perhaps Israel could have avoided their disaster if they had accepted Jesus as their Messiah and followed his path of peaceful reconciliation with God and people.

As I said earlier, even we can become misdirected, not knowing what to weep for and what to rejoice in. This is where we need the Lord Jesus’s guidance to help us refocus.