Palm Sunday – Can I Get A Witness? Luke 19:28-40 Pastor Barry Kerner
Palm Sunday – Can I Get A Witness?
Luke 19:28-40
Pastor Barry Kerner
Today is Palm Sunday and we have palms available. In ancient times, palm branches symbolized goodness and victory. We give palms out today to help us remember Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, praise him for the gift of salvation, rejoice in his victory over sin and look expectantly to his second coming.
Have you ever listened to a private conversation? Maybe you were standing by a door or in a hallway and you heard people talking about someone else you know. And you could not help it. You paused… you perked up your ears… and you listened.
You knew, of course, that these people were not speaking to you. You eavesdropped.
To eavesdrop means to secretly listen to the conversations of others. Some types of people are very good at eavesdropping. Nosy people, people who like to gossip and spies are all good eavesdroppers.
On the other hand, if you accidentally happen to hear something that doesn’t concern you, you may say that you have overheard it. Overhearing is more innocent than eavesdropping. You can overhear something by being in the wrong place at the right time.
English has another expression related to listening to other people’s conversations: the walls have ears. This means be careful what you say as there might be people listening.
Some word experts say this expression may come from the story about an ancient Greek ruler who had an ear-shaped cave cut and connected between the rooms of his palace. This allowed him to listen to conversations in other rooms.
But, what if the walls of your house really had ears and could bear witness to what goes on in your home. Would the report be good or would there be things you’d want the walls to refrain from speaking about. Would the walls speak of the good that goes on in your home or would they cry out in judgment for what goes on there? Would they sing your praises or would they talk about the poor way that you treat your spouse and kids? Would they bear witness to the trash being read and watched on TV? Let’s pray that their witness would glorify God.
If you open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 19 we’ll be looking at verses 28 through 40.
These verse speak of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
28 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
The scene is the “Triumphal Entry”. Jesus is on a donkey colt entering Jerusalem as people spread their cloaks on the road in front of him, joyfully shouting praises to God, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:37-38) This declaration of Jesus as the king of Israel, the son of David, the One who comes in the name of the Lord, provoked a rebuke from the Pharisees.
39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
That sounds more like a Star Trek episode in my mind than it does the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
Kirk: Spock, what it is?
Spock: Captain, my sensors indicate that the words we hear aren’t coming from carbon- based creatures at all.
Kirk: My God, Spock, what are you saying?
Spock: Yes, Captain. My sensors have correctly deduced that these words are coming from the very rocks under our feet.
Kirk: Scotty, beam us outta here, will ya!?!
This statement by Jesus is the subject of some choruses and has brought about many statements about how we might see rocks singing the praises of Jesus if we don’t! Jesus wasn’t saying that the stones will sing praises if the disciples stop singing them. You don’t even have to know Greek to see it; I’m talking about what your English translations say (just like the Greek). It doesn’t say the stones will sing praises if the disciples don’t.
What does it say? It says that if the disciples don’t joyfully shout these praises, the rocks will cry out. However, it does not say what they will cry out. To understand what Jesus means by the rocks crying out, I believe we must understand the background to this statement.
The first hint we have to anything like this comes in the 4th chapter of the Bible. Cain had taken the fleeting life of righteous Abel. The Lord declares to Cain, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10) What was Abel’s blood crying out? It was crying out guilt – Cain’s guilt.
This particular incident gets mentioned later. Hebrews 12:24 tells us that we have come to the blood of Jesus which speaks “a better word than the blood of Abel.” Though Abel’s blood spoke of guilt, Jesus’ blood speaks of forgiveness! Both had fleeting lives; both were taken in the prime of life; both were unjustly killed by a jealous older brother (figuratively in Jesus’ case).
In Joshua 24, Joshua warns the people of Israel of what the Lord requires to serve Him, and what the consequences are of turning away from the Lord. They chose to serve the Lord, so Joshua set up a stone under an oak tree and said,
“See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” (Joshua 24:27)
The stone had been present when all the warnings were issued by Joshua; the stone heard the people’s commitment to serve the Lord. In the event that the people failed to keep the covenant they couldn’t deny that they had made the commitment for the stone was present. Therefore the stone could serve as a witness in a court case against the people if they failed to keep the covenant.
In Habakkuk 2:9-11 we read of the stones of a wall crying out against those who had, in their presence, made and plotted their greedy plans. Once again the stones hear and testify against those who did wrong in their presence. Of course, this all seems to be a figurative way of saying, “you will be brought to account for what you have done… and will not be able to deny it. These stones will serve as witnesses against you.”
Habakkuk prophesied of the coming Righteous One (“The Righteous One by faith shall live”) and continued with a diatribe against a “selfish man”:
Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, To put his nest on high, To be delivered from the hand of calamity! You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many peoples; so you are sinning against yourself. Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, and the rafter will answer it from the framework. . . . For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 12:9-14, ASV)
The meaning behind the “shame to thy house” isn’t covetousness, but the Jews’ exclusion of the Gentiles from the Gospel. Read the verses again, substituting “Jews” with the selfish man and you’ll see that Habakkuk says that they’ve brought shame to their nest on high “by cutting off many peoples” because, in the end, “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.” The stones that cry out of the wall are a metaphor for the Gentiles who have been locked out of the Gospel house.
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (I Peter 2:5, KJV)
In 1 Peter 2.5, Peter calls born-again believers “lively stones” that are built up as a spiritual house — an echo to Habakkuk’s prophecy. In Peter’s house, the very stones of the house are to offer up spiritual sacrifices, that is, praise, acceptable to God. These “lively stones” are also consistent with Paul’s exegesis of Ezekiel’s prophecies:
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh. That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 11:19-20, KJV)
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26-27, KJV)
For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. (2 Corinthians 3.3, KJV)
Given this insight, we better understand John the Baptist’s own use of the crying stones:
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. (Matthew 3.9, KJV)
John rebukes the Pharisees for their “nest on high” smugness — that they are saved because of their lineage to Abraham — by the pejorative declaration that “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” Was John pointing to the rocks under the Pharisees’ feet or to something else? The Gospels show us that John didn’t just have a clan of repentant Jews at the Jordan river, but also a lot of ne’er-do-well Gentiles:
And the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” …Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?(Luke 3:10, 12, KJV) And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? (Luke 3.14, KJV)
John, by telling the Pharisees that their unfruitful tree was being hewn down, was echoing
Habakkuk’s prophecy that God would not let the Jews corner the Gospel, but that “the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.” We see the fulfillment of that prophecy in Galatians:
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. (Galatians 3:7-9, KJV)
When I read Luke 19:40 I don’t envision stones singing, I imagine stones witnessing the rejection of Christ by those who saw the miracles and deeds crying out guilt in the face of their impending judgment.
When we arrive in Luke 19:40 it is best to read the background into the statement Jesus makes. In other words, “If after seeing all these miracles and deeds I have done, no one shouts out praises and honors me as the Messianic King, your judgment is sure and the stones will cry out in judgment against this city!” It will be taken from you and given to another.
So when the Pharisees told Jesus to make his disciples stop praising God, Jesus didn’t point to some inanimate rocks and tell the Pharisees that they were about to burst out in song. No, instead he was saying that if the Jews didn’t accept Jesus as the Messiah and offer praise for “the king that cometh in the name of the Lord,” then the very stones of Jerusalem would cry out in judgment and as to their rejection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus had prophesied his rejection by the Jews in Mark 13:2, when he told his disciples, “Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.'” In 70 ad the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem and Jesus” prophesy was fulfilled. The fallen stones cried out in judgment for the Jews rejection of Jesus Christ.
May we respond and sing the praises of the King! Hebrews 12:24 tells us “His sprinkled blood speaks better things…” It speaks of our forgiveness rather than our guilt! And that will produce many praises for Jesus Christ our King.