te fitting that in this Gospel,
in which womanhood is so exalted, a place should be found for this
picture. It is not to be supposed that these were the loyal friends who
had followed Jesus on his journeys and helped to supply his needs; these
were rather residents of Jerusalem whose hearts were bleeding with sorrow
for the loving Prophet who was being led forth to an agonizing death. Our
Lord turned to these women with a message of sympathy and told them that
they were not to weep for him but for themselves and their children. He
was not rebuking them for their compassion; he rather meant to indicate
that while his sufferings were pitiful, their own were more worthy of
tears, for they were to be even more intense. He had in mind the
destruction of the city due to its impenitence and made certain by its
rejection of the Redeemer. Jesus declared that the days would come when
childlessness would be a ground for congratulation because of the
universal distress. He predicted that the horror would be so great that
men would call upon the mountains to fall on them and the hills to cover
them, preferring such forms of death to the torments which threatened from
the armies of Rome. Jesus added a proverb, the force of which is evident
even though its exact application may not be clear: "For if they do these
things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" In other words,
if the sufferings of Christ were so great, what would be the sufferings of
the Jews! If the Romans were putting to death him whom they regarded as
innocent, what would they do to the inhabitants of the rebellious and
hated city? It is quite in accordance with the character of Luke to note
how Jesus, in this very hour of his anguish, thought rather of others than
of himself and pronounced this prophesy, not in resentment, but in
infinite tenderness and pity.

While the actual sufferings of the crucifixion are not described, Luke
tells us of the cruel mockery to which Jesus was subjected. He states that
two malefactors were crucified with Jesus, "one on the right hand and the
other on the left." This was evidently designed to add to the disgrace and
humiliation of his cruel death. The place of the crucifixion was called
"The skull," probably because it was a bare, rounded hill located outside
the city gates.

Of the seven words spoken by Jesus on the cross, Luke records three, all
of them characterized by love and trust. The first is found in no other
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