Questions God Asks
Sermons for Sundays in Lent and Easter Sunday by Rev. Ken Behnken
5. If Men Do These Things When the Tree is Green, What Will Happen When It Is Dry? Luke 23:27-31
A large number of people followed Jesus on the Way of Sorrows, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 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!' Then they will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!' For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
As he endured the coarse mocking of the soldiers, the painful crown of thorns, and the brutal scourging, Jesus was truly the "man of sorrows, acquainted with grief" whom Isaiah prophesied. As he then was led through the streets of Jerusalem toward Golgotha he was "despised and rejected by men". Occasions like that always draw a crowd. Many on that occasion came just to add their jeers and mocking to that of the soldiers because this "Son of David" had disappointed them and had not proved to be the kind of Messiah-King they expected him to be.
Not everyone made fun of him, however. Some of the women of the city were there to wail in sympathy for "the poor man" as the sad procession passed them. Historians tell us that there was a society of women in Jerusalem who made it their purpose to show such compassion to Jews who had been condemned by the Romans to crucifixion. They were the ones who also supplied the drugged sour wine that was offered to Jesus to ease his suffering. Jesus’ reaction to them seems strangely unappreciative. He indicated to them that their emotional display was misdirected. They should have been crying, he told them, not for him but for themselves and for their children, because awful days of judgment lay ahead for Jerusalem and its inhabitants. Then Jesus asked his searching question – to make them think. It comes down to us as one of the Questions God Asks to make us take a hard look at ourselves: "If men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Jesus obviously was referring to himself as the Green Tree. After all, he is the one who, as the eternal Word, "was with God and was God from the beginning, the one by whom all things were made". He is the one "who became flesh and lived among us so we might see his glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth". He is the one to whom "the Father gave power to have life in himself and to give life to whom he is pleased to give it". He is the one who became "second Adam" to counteract the deadly effect of the first Adam's fall into sin by living a human life in complete accord with his Father’s will. There is great assurance for us in our hearing Jesus call himself the "Green Tree" – for Paul explains that "just as the trespass of the one man, Adam, resulted in condemnation for all, now the obedience of the one man, Jesus, results in justification that brings life to all."
Once Jesus hurled this challenge at his enemies: "Which of you can convict me of sin?" At his trial before the high priest he challenged them, "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil." He was the Sinless One – yet he suffered rejection and ridicule, mocking, flogging, and the pains of crucifixion, and was even forsaken in that awesome moment on the cross by his heavenly Father because, as Peter put it, "he carried our sins in his body on the cross." He was the Green Tree, but in God’s verdict against human sin Jesus was treated as if he was dry wood. He was the only one who could honestly cry out, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" – but on the cross it happened: he suffered hell for us. One of the great Lenten hymns says to us: "You who think of sin but lightly Nor suppose the evil great Here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed; See who bears the awful load; It’s the Word, the Lord’s Anointed, Son of Man and Son of God."
Jesus’ question exposed the dryness of the Jewish people. Some of the saddest words in the Bible are John’s "He came to those who were his own, and his own did not receive him." For centuries the Jews had longed for the coming of the Messiah, but when he came he was not the kind of Messiah they expected, so he was rejected as if he were dry wood and not the Green Tree, not "the living Branch from the stump of Jesse" whom the prophet had foretold.
Forty years later the terrible circumstances Jesus predicted with his "What will happen when it is dry?" did come true. The Jews rebelled against Rome and a Roman army besieged Jerusalem and finally conquered the city, putting its inhabitants to the sword or carrying them off into slavery. Josephus, a historian of that time, said that more than a million Jews experienced the one fate or the other as a result of their rebellion.
As Jesus’ question confronts us today it becomes all the more striking when we remember that Jesus, when talking about the end times, used the destruction of Jerusalem as a picture or prototype of the final judgment, when all mankind will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Our cynical world tries to laugh off serious things it doesn’t want to think about, so hell has become a subject that is just ignored or joked about. Even in the church "fire and brimstone" preaching has gone out of style. But our world needs to hear and know – and we need to hear and know – that apart from Jesus, without him as our Savior we are under God's eternal judgment and condemnation because of our sin.
What will happen when the wood is dry? Jesus told a story about the world being a field in which he sows good wheat seed, but in which the devil sows weed seeds. At harvest time, Jesus said, the weeds will be pulled up and burned in the fire – as God’s angels "weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil". That’s what will happen to dry wood! In talking to those who are his own, Jesus said, "I am the Vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit, but apart from me you can do nothing. Those who do not remain in me are like branches that are thrown away and wither. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." That’s what will happen when the wood is dry!
The Question God Asks us today is not intended to lead us just to agree with him and look with judgment about the world in which we live – nor is it intended to make us ask ourselves how we may best proclaim his Word to solve their problem. It is speaking directly to us, who ourselves are by nature dry wood. The Bible says, "Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin." Do you see yourself in this Bible truth? You surely have to know from your own experience that you, a sinner, cannot just decide to stop sinning and become a holy person. It’s not in your power – or mine – to break the bonds of that slavery.
So we need to listen when the Bible warns us: "The ax is laid at the root of the tree. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire. Repent! – and bring forth fruits worthy of repentance!" You cannot afford to "think of sin but lightly" – nor can I.
We do need to reckon with the fact that we are by nature the dry wood about which God asks his searching question. But as we hear him this morning, we are also invited to see that at the very time when Jesus asked his question he was on the way to the cross to do something about it! The Green Tree was on his way to performing the miracle of turning dry wood into green trees. He did it by becoming a dry tree himself, suffering God's judgment against humanity's sins, atoning for our sins once for all through his suffering and death, and rising again to be our Green Tree forever.
Now he sends his Spirit to us with life-renewing power. He sets us free from sin and death and hell, and he opens up a new life for us to live as children of our heavenly Father. We become green trees – and, in the power of the Spirit, we can even bring forth the fruits of faith and love that please him and glorify his name. Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing!" It is a most basic spiritual truth with which we must agree! But he added, "If you remain attached to me as the Vine you will bring forth much fruit!" As we live in him we find that is true as well!
Then, what the Psalmist wrote long ago becomes our happy experience as Christians: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Word of the Lord, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."
That’s the wonder of your life in Christ – and mine. Dry wood turns green! It’s always Springtime!
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