"For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Luke 23:31.
The "green tree" in this scripture is Christ Himself, and the "dry" is the Jewish nation. Together with others, the women of Jerusalem followed Jesus on His way to Calvary and, in the natural tenderness of their hearts, they "bewailed and lamented Him." Jesus, turning, bade them weep rather for themselves and for their children on account of the judgment that would soon fall upon the unhappy and guilty city and people (vv. 29, 30), adding, "For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" That is, if such things—wicked malice, hypocrisy, unrighteous judgment, and a degrading death were visited upon Him who was like a green tree (compare Psalm 1:3; Jer. 17:7, 8), what should be done to the people who were as a dry tree, morally dead before God, without fruit or even leaves, and who were now committing their crowning sin in the rejection of their Messiah? For such a state, symbolized by a dry tree, there remained nothing but the ax and the fire (Compare Matt. 3:10.)