Luke 23:30

“Then will they begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us', and to the hills, ‘Cover us'. For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?”

And they will then call on the mountains to fall on them and the hills to cover them, in order to save themselves from the anguish that is coming on them (compare Hosea 10:8, which emphasises that this will be because of their sinfulness). And this will come on them because of what, through their representatives they are doing, and because of what they are doing in their own lives. They will have brought it on themselves.

The saying may have in mind a plea for an earthquake to take them out of their misery, or it may simply be strong symbolism indicating the desperation they are in to find a hiding place. The latter thought is similar to His earlier, ‘let those who are in Jerusalem flee to the mountains' (Luke 21:21).

“For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?” Then He gives the reason parabolically for them all to mull over and consider. In Ezekiel 17:24 the green tree and the dry tree represent a nation that is flourishing and a nation that is dried up. Taking this as a precedent we may see Him as here referring to Israel as at present a green tree, but later becoming a dry tree. Thus He may have in mind His own ministry and that of John prophesying within Judaism, revealing that there was still life in Israel, and be comparing it to when the voice of prophecy in Jerusalem has been cut off by His own death and by the departing from it of the Apostles, so that the very centre of Judaism has lost its proffered life, resulting in the behaviour that will end in its forecast destruction (compare the cursing of the fig tree in Matthew and Mark). Or the ‘green tree' here may refer to Jesus Himself so that He may be saying, ‘if they do this while I am alive, what do you think that they will they do when I am dead?' Or He may be referring to Himself as the green tree being cut down by Rome, in comparison with the dry tree of Jerusalem which will also one day be cut down by Rome. Or He may be saying, ‘if they (the Romans, or the Jewish leadership) find it possible to consume live wood like this, think how easy they will find it to consume (or bring about the consumption of) wood that has become dry' (Ezekiel 20:47; Isaiah 10:16;). Or He may be referring to the people of Jerusalem and Judea as being at present still open to the message that He has brought, still a green tree and having an openness that will later cease as they harden their hearts against it and thus become like the withered fig tree (compare Mark 11:13; Mark 11:20). This last could be seen as illustrated by the cursed fig tree and by the first part of Acts when His word goes out until saturation point is reached and Jerusalem's heart is finally closed to Him and His word (as expressed symbolically in Acts 12, especially Luke 23:17; Luke 21:30). But the overall idea is the same in all cases. They are refusing the truth to be found in Him, while life is available to them, and one day it will no longer be available to them, and they will perish at the hands of the Romans because by their hardness of heart they will have become dead (compare Daniel 9:25).

Comparison may be made with the words of a Rabbi being led to crucifixion who cried out, ‘If this happens to those who do His will, what of those who offend Him?' But is unlikely that ‘they' here means God, and Jesus' words almost certainly go deeper than that, for in His final days what is to happen to Jerusalem has been constantly on His mind (Luke 19:41; Luke 20:16; Luke 21:20).