Simon's Story - Part 2

There were several women nearby who were crying and wailing over this condemned man. The convicted man turned slowly towards them and that was the first time Simon heard him speak. Breathlessly, the convict stopped and quietly spoke to these lamenting women. Simon stopped with him under the weight of the beam. Simon never understood these words at that time, .. but he never forgot them. This blood soaked, ravaged dirty half dead man turned to the women and rasped ,… “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me …but weep for yourselves and your children.“ He caught his breath, wiped the dust and blood from his eyes with the ragged sleeve of his torn robe and continued…“For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, “Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!” The crowd had already become silent to hear what the accused was saying, because this kind of talk was unheard of in a time when bearing children and mother hood was considered extremely holy and a gift directly from God Himself. It was proof that he must have been possessed! He continued , blood dripping from swollen lips, “Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!!” and to the hills, “Cover us!!” …“For if they do these things While I am with you,…what will they do when I am gone?” …… The sound of a lash slapped across his torn bloody back and he shuffled forward but not before looking directly into Simon’s eyes.. The crowd again took up their noisy, morbid mission. Simon grunted under the weight of the beam and thought they all sounded like a pack of hungry jackals. He was certainly confused and inexplicably terrified. After that gruesome unholy nightmare ended and for the rest of his life while walking the hills, he kept hearing and was haunted by this man’s words over and over and wondered what on earth they could mean. “ Do not weep for Me…but weep for yourselves and your children…for indeed the days are coming in which they will say, “Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!!”...... This, to the people of his time was impossible! Children were a holy gift from God himself. Blessed are the wombs that never bore...and breasts that never nursed?! What could he have meant?