ACC ~ Luke 23 v26 - 32

OVERVIEW:

How ironic that it is a Gentile, “Simon from Cyrene, a region in North Africa” (present-day Libya), who receives the burden of the cross from Jesus (EPHREM THE SYRIAN). Like Abraham, Jesus is carrying wood to the place of sacrifice (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Christ’s death is not a reason for mourning. It is a passover to life everlasting, for he has been raised from the dead (ATHANASIUS). Jesus contrasts himself to Jerusalem and shows that the tears of the daughters of Jerusalem should not be for him but for Jerusalem and its inhabitants when the city is destroyed (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). If they destroy the wood that gives fruit, what will they do to the dry wood that bears no fruit (EPHREM THE SYRIAN)? It is better to be moist wood now than dry wood then, when the fire of destruction comes.

23:26-27 | Participants on the Journey

SIMON RECEIVES THE BURDEN OF THE CROSS FOR JESUS

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: After he took up the wood of his cross and set out, they found and stopped a man of Cyrene, that is, from among the Gentiles, and placed the wood of the cross on him. It was only right that they should have given the wood of the cross voluntarily to the Gentiles, since in their rebellion, the Jews rejected the coming of him who was bringing all blessings. In rejecting it themselves, in their jealousy, they threw it away to the Gentiles. They rejected it in their jealousy, and the Gentiles received it, to their even greater jealousy. The Lord approved the welcoming Gentiles and thus provoked jealousy among their contemporaries through the Gentiles’ acceptance. By carrying the wood of his cross himself, Christ revealed the sign of his victory. Christ said that another person would not pressure him into death. “I have power over my life, to lay it down or to take it up again.” [1] Why should another person have carried the cross? This showed that he, in whom no sin could be found, went up on the cross for those who rejected him. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 20.20. [2]

[1] Jn 10:18.

[2] ECTD 304**.

LIKE ISAAC, JESUS CARRIES WOOD TO THE PLACE OF SACRIFICE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: When blessed Abraham went up the mountain that God showed him so that he might sacrifice Isaac according to God’s command, he laid the wood on the boy. Isaac was a type of Christ carrying his own cross on his shoulders and going up to the glory of his passion. Christ taught us that his passion was his glory. He said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.” [1] COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 152. [2]

[1] Jn 13:31.

[2] CGSL 606**.

23:28-32 | Four Warnings by Jesus to the Daughters of Jerusalem

CHRIST’S DEATH IS NOT A REASON FOR MOURNING

ATHANASIUS: The Lord over death set out to abolish death. Being Lord, he accomplished his aim. We therefore have passed from death to life. The concept that the Jews and those who think like them held about the Lord was wrong. Things did not turn out at all according to their expectations, because the opposite was true. In fact, “he who sits in heaven shall laugh at them: the Lord shall have them in derision.” [1]

That is the reason our Savior restrained the women from weeping when he was being led to death. He said, “Do not weep for me.” He wished to show that his death was not an event for us to mourn about but rather to be joyful about, since he who died for us is alive! He was not created from nothing, but he derives his being from the Father. FESTAL LETTER 9. [2]

[1] Ps 2:4.

[2] ARL 160*.

THE WOMEN WILL WAIL WHEN JERUSALEM IS DESTROYED

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He was going to the place of crucifixion. Weeping women, as well as many others, followed him. The female sex tends to weep often. They have a disposition that is ready to sink at the approach of anything that is sorrowful. “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep 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 gave suck!’” How did this happen? When the war came on the country of the Jews, they all totally perished, small and great. Infants with their mothers and sons with their fathers were destroyed without distinction. He then says, “Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’” In extreme miseries, those less severe misfortunes become, so to speak, desirable. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 152. [1]

[1] CGSL 606**.

GREEN AND DRY WOOD

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: The Lord said, “If they do that to the green wood.” He compared his divinity with the green wood and those who received his gifts to the dry wood. What is green bears fruit, as these words that he spoke testify: “For which of my works are you stoning me? [1] If I suffer to this extent, although you have found no sin in me, which of you will convict me of sin? [2] Since you have invented a pretext to dispose of me, how much more will you suffer?” Perhaps he was referring the green wood to himself, because of the miracles he had done. He called the righteous who were without virtue, the dry wood. They ate the fruit of this green wood, and they rejoiced beneath its foliage. Then they took it in hatred and destroyed it. What more will they do to the dry wood, which does not even have a sprout? What more will they do to the ordinary righteous people who do not work miracles? COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 20.21. [3]

[1] Jn 10:32.

[2] :1–24:53 PRELIMINARY REMARKS | ON THE GOSPEL

[3] ECTD 304-5**.