27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. 28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. 30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. 31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? (Luke 23:27-31 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
There were four sorts of persons which attended our Saviour at his crucifixion; the executioners that tormented him, the Jews that mocked him, the spectators and lookers on, that marked him, and sympathizing friends which lamented him: these last Christ bespoke, Weep not for me, but for yourselves; that is, “Weep rather upon your own account than mine: reserve your sorrows for the calamities coming upon yourselves and your children.” It is very probable, that the tears and lamentations of many of these mourners were but the fruits of tender nature, not the effects of faith, and flowing from a principle of grace.
Learn thence, that melting affections and sorrows, even from the sense of Christ’s sufferings, are not infallible marks of grace. The history of Christ’s sufferings are very tragical and pathetical, and may melt ingenuous nature, where there is no renewed principle of grace. These motions of the affections may rather be a fit and mood, than the very frame and temper of the soul.
There are times and seasons when the roughest and most obdurate heart may be pensive and tender; but that is not is temper and frame, but only a fit, a pang, a transient passion. There is no inferring or concluding then a work of grace upon the heart, simply and barely from the movings or meltings of the affections. Nature will have its good moods, but grace is steady: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, says Christ.
BURKITT | Luke 23:1-12 | Luke 23:13-25 | Luke 23:26 | Luke 23:27-31 | Luke 23:32-33 | Luke 23:34 | Luke 23:35-38 | Luke 23:39-42 | Luke 23:43 | Luke 23:44-56 |