Weep for Yourselves - Luke 23:27-31

With Simon carrying Jesus’ cross, he’s probably making better time up the hill, but all the movies depict him as still falling over, which would make sense with his weakened physical condition. Assuming that because the morning is wearing on and the common people are finding out about what’s been going on while they were asleep, “there followed him a great company o people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.” I don’t know why the women are being pointed out as the predominant mourners, maybe it’s because it was more socially acceptable for women to mourn, where as men at the scene might be enraged by one of their own being executed, and might be more likely to become violent, which would cause all types of trouble for the people. And remembering that crucifixion was generally a punishment reserved for slaves and criminals, there probably weren’t a lot of mourns, generally, for those who were crucified. So Jesus having a large following of people might have been unusual as he trekked toward his death.

But Jesus notices the women and says, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” The IM says, “Luke particularly mentioned that women were members of this group- one of his numerous references to faithful women who revered Jesus Christ. At least some of them had followed Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem.” Reading Jesus’ encounter with these women, I always took his message to be a harsh “well now you’ve done it” kind of stance. But if we think about it, the women who were following Jesus to his death were facing a horrific scene, and they knew it, they were going to be vulnerable to Roman soldiers and they knew it, they would be branded as followers of the traitor, and they knew it. These women were clearly so emotional over the thought of Jesus dying that they were willing to brave all types of terror, in order to show him their love and support. From this perspective, it doesn’t make sense at all that Jesus would be rebuking them.
Holding to the belief that Jesus is the champion of women, I think that he saw these women who exposed themselves to danger for him, and wanted to warn them, to protect them from what was coming. And what exactly was coming? Jesus says, “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.” There is this statement in the Book of Revelation as well, but I never understood it. The IM quotes JTC which gives insight, saying, “It was the Lord’s last testimony of the impending… destruction that was to follow the nation’s rejection of her King. Although motherhood was the glory of every Jewish woman’s life, yet in the terrible scenes which many of those there weeping would live to witness, barrenness would be accounted a blessing; for the childless would have fewer to weep over, and at least would be spared the horror of seeing their offspring die of starvation or by violence.”
It is difficult to think about because this is A.D. 33 and he’s referencing A.D. 70, when Jerusalem will be destroyed by the Romans, so there is a mental disconnect between the women now weeping and the women witnessing the destruction 34 years from now. But the IM is right, many of the women who were witnessing the death of the Savior would have lived long enough to also witness the downfall of their society.
We know that the Lord always warns his faithful people about upcoming destruction, but wait, is that true? We know that Lehi was commanded to leave Jerusalem and go to the Promised Land, but what about Jeremiah? If I recall correctly, Jeremiah was captured and taken to Babylon. So we are not always warned to escape, sometimes it is the Lord’s will be we be put into difficult situations, such as Alma Sr. when his people were enslaved by Ammoron, or Joseph, Isaac’s son who was sold into slavery. Bad things happen to good people, and God allows it to happen a lot of times because we live in a fallen world, but when those circumstances arise, then we can be used as tools in God’s hands to lighten the load of others, to lead and guide others to Christ, etc.
But most times, the Lord warns his righteous people to leave dangerous situations beforehand so that they can be safe, which I believe in this case, he did warn them as well. Jesus finishes his warning, saying, “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For is they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? This he spake signifying the scattering of Israel, and the desolation of the heathen, or in other words, the Gentiles.” This last bit was added through the JST, and I feel like Jesus was saying, “hey you think what they are doing is bad now? Just wait until I’m gone and there’s nothing holding them back.” The IM says, “The ‘green tree’ described in Luke 23:31 represents the time of Jesus Christ’s mortal ministry. The Savior’s statement implied that if the oppressors of the Jewish people could carry out such evil acts at a time when Jesus was among them, they would do much worse things to the Jewish people after He was gone. The Joseph Smith Translation adds a sentence to this verse, which describes the destruction that would occur after the Savior’s death.”
Even though this sounds like a brutal criticism of his own followers or a “preaching to the choir” moment, it appears that Jesus is taking the time to prepare his faithful people for what’s coming, even though, this doesn’t affect him, and he’ll be long done with this world before the destruction comes. He’s not rebuking these women, he’s trying to save their lives and that of their families. And he’s doing this all at a time when he is literally almost dead because of pain and blood loss, this is why Jesus is the champion of women.