Luke 23:31

Luke 23:31. If they do these things in the green tree, etc. In proverbial form our Lord here contrasts what is coming upon Himself, ‘the green tree,' the fruitful vine, the innocent one when He bore our sins, with what would come upon them, ‘the dry tree,' the unfruitful ones standing to bear their own judgment. ‘These things' must be interpreted as a judgment on sin, or the contrast fails. ‘ They' is used impersonally of human agency in general. Other explanations have been suggested; but none of them seem worthy to be final utterances of our Lord as a Teacher. At such a time nothing could be more appropriate than an allusion to His vicarious work. He could not avert the judgment. He must announce, but even at the last joins with it a thought of His work for sinners.