<p>23:28- see on Lk. 7:9.</p><p><i>But Jesus turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children</i>- He turned and spoke to the women. Luke as a doctor knew that suffering makes one self-centred. It is perhaps because of this that he especially seems to concentrate on the wonder of the way in which the Lord looked out of His own agony to be so concerned with that of others. A.D. Norris has commented (<i>The Gospel Of Mark</i>): &quot;It is he who reports the Lord's prayer for Simon Peter (22:31); who recounts the Lord's sympathetic warning to the women of Jerusalem (23:27-31); and who speaks of the Lord's forgiveness for His crucifiers, and remission for the penitent thief (23:34,43)&quot;.</p><p>Reflect for a moment upon the fact that the women wept, and amongst them were the Lord&rsquo;s relatives (Lk. 23:27). Lamentation for criminals on their way to die was not permitted in public. Suetonius (<i>Tiberius</i> 61) reports that &ldquo;the relatives of the crucified were forbidden to go into mourning&quot;. Likewise Tacitus (<i>Annals </i>6.19), Philo (<i>In Flaccum </i>9,72) and Josephus (<i>Wars Of The Jews</i> 2.13.3,253). This is all quite some evidence, from a variety of writers. So why did they make this great sacrifice, take this great risk? The cross has power. Whether we feel it is impossible for us to be emotional, given our personality type, or whether we feel so lost in our own griefs that we cannot feel for Him there, somehow sustained reflection on the cross will lead us out of this. We will mourn, come what may. Yet the tragedy is that those women who risked so much didn&rsquo;t necessarily maintain that level of commitment to the end. For the Lord had to tell them that they should weep for themselves given the calamity that would befall them and their children in AD70- for they would not listen to Him.</p>