A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. Luke 23:27
As Jesus walked to Golgotha,
he spoke to some women who
were bemoaning his fate.
He told them not to mourn
for him, but rather to mourn
for themselves and their children.
“For if they do this when
the wood is green,” he said,
“what will happen when it is dry?”
Jesus died that day. When Jerusalem
died forty years later, many
women, children, and men died.
We could give in to despair
that says the wood has been
getting drier ever since.
Or we can be the stubborn plants
that insist on bearing witness to
the continuing life and love of Jesus.
Devotion by Rev. Mike Ruffin
Weep Not For Me
Painting by Mary Thomas
Pencil drawing by Jackson Thilenius
Stations of the Cross 