Jesus asked this to turn the women's tears from His suffering to the judgment coming on their city. He had just told them, "weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children" (Luke 23:28), and spoke of days when people would call the barren blessed and cry to the mountains, "Fall on us" (Luke 23:29-30). This question gives the reason. Barnes suggests it "seems to be a proverbial expression": a green tree is not easily set on fire, but a dry one burns quickly. In his reading Jesus means, "If they, the Romans, do these things to me, who am innocent and blameless," what will they do to a guilty nation? Gill reads it the same way, with Christ as the green tree, full of grace and goodness, and the wicked as dry wood, "fit fuel for the fire of divine wrath and displeasure."

Jesus does not add an answer, and Luke records no reply from the women. The answer is already in what He has said: the days are coming when they shall "begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us" (Luke 23:30). If the innocent One suffers like this, the guilty will suffer far worse. The procession moves on to Calvary, where Jesus is crucified between two malefactors (Luke 23:32-33).

The word for "green" is hugros, meaning moist or sappy, as of living wood. The word for "dry" is xeros, dry or withered. Living wood resists fire; dry wood catches at once.

Jesus had already wept over Jerusalem and foretold its fall, with enemies who would "lay thee even with the ground" (Luke 19:41-44), and He had warned, "when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh" (Luke 21:20-24). On Luke 23:28, Barnes applies Jesus' words to "the desolation of their city by the Romans." On the cry to the mountains, Barnes points to Revelation 6:16, where the same words appear at the final judgment.

Even on the way to the cross, Jesus' concern was for others. He did not want pity; He wanted the women to see what was coming and to be ready. The question shows how seriously He took judgment. Barnes carries it beyond Jerusalem: "The sinner is 'adapted' to sufferings, like a dry tree to the fire." Matthew Henry draws the same line: "If God delivered him up to such sufferings as these, because he was made a sacrifice for sin, what will he do with sinners themselves..."

But Luke does not end the scene with warning. Soon after, at the cross, Jesus prays, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34), and promises paradise to a dying criminal (Luke 23:43). The One who warned of coming judgment is the One who prayed for His enemies' forgiveness.