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Luke Examines the Cross

One of the sermons we often hear on Palm Sunday concerns the fickleness of the crowd.  We hear "the same people who cried 'Hosanna' on Sunday were crying 'Crucify him' on Friday.  While it is certainly possible that some were in both crowds, it is by no means certain.  Luke's Gospel contains a detail of the journey to the cross that none of the other narrators include.

And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.'
(Luke 23:27-30 ESV)

Mark's Gospel tells us that Jesus was already on the cross by 9 a.m. The trial had taken place during the night before.  It is very possible that the crowd that had gathered to shout down Pilate was composed of the cronies and employees of the Chief priests and scribes.  The average person who had cried Hosanna probably didn't even know that a trial was going on until after Jesus was already on the cross.  We at least know that there were some women there who mourned for the verdict against our Saviour.

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