Luke 23:26-49

They took Jesus away. The most complete notes on the Crucifixion are found in Matthew 27:32-56. A large crowd of people followed him. This shows that Jesus had a lot of sympathizers in Jerusalem. Women of Jerusalem. These are local residents, not from outlying areas. Don't cry for me. Even in his own agony, Jesus thinks of these people and the horrors which they are bringing on themselves (see note on Matthew 24:21). For if such things as these are done. This is a proverb. The meaning is: "If the leaders and the Romans crucify the nation's Messiah, what will they do to the nation itself?" Forgive them, Father. Only Luke tells these words. Jesus must have said this just after they nailed him to the cross. The kind of LOVE which he demonstrates here, is the kind of love Christians are to develop. See John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:16-21. They don't know what they are doing. They don't know they are rejecting and killing their own Messiah. They don't know they are sealing the doom of their own city and nation. They divided his clothes among themselves. See John 19:23-24.