Green or Dry

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

GREEN OR DRY

Luke 23:26-31

26 As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' 30 Then "'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" '  31 For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?" 

NIV

Once again, Luke does not give the gory details of the physical pain and abuse Jesus suffered at the hands of the Romans and how his body was so weakened to near exhaustion that the Romans were forced to seize this man, Simon into service to carry that old rugged cross, upon our Savior took our sins. Interestingly Jesus takes the time to respond to these women who are wailing over his being led to his crucifixion. His words could be seen in two different ways. First, he could be prophesying about what was to take place when the Romans burned Jerusalem. He could be referring to himself when he spoke about the green tree in that while he was with them, an innocent man, of course, he was extremely innocent because he was God in the flesh, the government could do such an injustice, what will happen when the government takes active against the guilty. However, this second way of seeing the words of Jesus could be about things yet to come. While we are in the age of grace, the tree is green, yet evil men do horrible things. Evil has prevailed and continues to prevail, even in the supposed halls of justice worldwide. But their punishment of the innocent will not last for an eternity. For a day is coming when the tree will no longer be green, the age of grace will come to an end, and those who are dry, those who are evil, without any of the grace of God within them, bearing no fruit, no justice, will be burned up in the lake of burning sulfur. Jesus made, and in fact, continues to make through his written words, references to us being like trees and whether we are a good green tree with our roots deep within the stream of living water, Jesus, and bearing fruit in our season. Our leaves will not whither and whatsoever we do, (for the kingdom of God) will prosper. However, the wicked are not so, they are like the chaff that is blown away by the wind, dry, and useless,  and might be like a dry tree that does not have its roots in Jesus, the stream of living water, thus it is dry and its leaves whither and bears no fruit, and is cut down and thrown into the fire. When the age of grace is over, and the final justice will be handed out, they might try to run for the hills, but the earth is going to burn. Let us do what we are supposed to do, bear fruit so that others, people who have yet come to Jesus might enjoy the fruit we bear, so they can taste and see the Lord is good. Let us be that green tree bearing the grace of Jesus.