When the Tree is Green, and Dry

They spit at him. Pulled out his beard. Stripped him and whipped him. Then they forced him to carry His cross to that hill. As he lumbered along the Villa Dolorosa, women in the crowd wept for him.


“But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:28-31)


As I read this scene, I thought of God’s question to Israel through His prophet Jeremiah: “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5)


According to a 2017 Fox News report, more than 900,000 Christians have been martyred for their faith since 2005. In 2015 Pope Francis is reported to have said there are more Christians dying for their faith today than in the early centuries.


Does God ask 21st century Christendom a question similar to that which He asked Israel? “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?


If in the relative safety Christians enjoy in America we are embarrassed to bow our head over our food in a restaurant . . . and if in the relative safety Christians enjoy in America we are reluctant to tell others what Jesus has done for us – then what will we do when active and deadly persecution comes to our shores?


If we are reluctant to stand for Christ when the tree is green, what will we do when it is dry?


Oh, Holy Spirit, help us be bolder witnesses for Jesus while we are still able to do so. Amen