“If they do these things in the green tree what will happen in the dry?”

Luke 23:27-31
“If they do these things in the green tree what will happen in the dry?”

It was 600 meters (about 4/10 of a mile) between the Praetorium where Pilate passed judgement on Jesus to Golgotha where He was crucified. The traditional path between the two is called in Latin the “Via Dolorosa,” or “Way of Suffering” and is still traveled by pilgrims today through the old city of Jerusalem.

 
In Luke’s account of Jesus’ painful journey to Golgotha (Aramaic, “Place of the Skull” or in Latin “Calvaria,” Luke 23:33), a crowd followed. In the crowd were a group of women that included those genuinely grieving Jesus’ suffering as well as some who were professional mourners whose services were perhaps purchased by wealthy benefactors sympathetic to Jesus and His family. In some cases of Roman execution, especially those for treason, mourning after death is prohibited and the body was unceremoniously discarded by the executioners. Thus, the shame and punishment continued even after the victim’s death. 

 
At what was perhaps a moment of respite, while a stranger was enlisted to carry the horizontal beam (patibulum) of His cross, Jesus briefly addressed these “Daughters of Jerusalem” (Luke 23:28).

He urged them not to weep for Him but for themselves and the destruction that was ahead of them. It was most likely a foreshadow of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the annihilation of the city’s population that occurred a mere 40 years later. Some of these women, certainly their children and grandchildren would be victims of the unconstrained, homicidal wrath of the legions under the Roman general Titus.

 
While a dying tree is still green there is hope. There is yet some life flowing through the xylem and phloem of the tree’s circulatory system: water and minerals upwards from the roots and sugars and organic compounds throughout the leaves and branches. It can still draw strength from its roots. It can still bear fruit.

As it dies, it dries.

Roots decay and the tree can no longer draw strength from the soil.
Leaves fall and it can no longer draw energy from the sun.
Rootless and leafless, it is dry wood good for nothing but fire.

 
Empires silence dissent. That’s what they do. The more numerous the dissenters, the more vigorous the response. The louder the voices, the greater the rage, the more brutal the suppression. In AD 70, Titus’ legions burned Jerusalem and the Temple to the ground. Stone and masonry walls collapsed in the heat of the conflagration. The citizens who didn’t starve during the siege were slaughtered or sold as slaves. 

Wood burns. Dry wood burns more easily.
Today, if we could speak to the dying forest, if the terebinths would listen, we would tell the trees:
“Remember your roots. Turn your leaves towards the Son.”