But He (Jesus)answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
We do come across some strange and unbelievable narratives in the Bible: For example, the serpent speaking, sun and moon standing still, donkey talking, sun dial back tracking, to top it all a virgin conceiving.
So stones crying out is no big deal for God, the Creator of the Universe.
From the tenor of the phrase ” if these should keep silent”, we may deduce that “these” are not meant to keep quiet. They are doing what they are supposed to do. Let’s read the passage in Luke 19.
37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works 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!”
Murmurs and dissension are not far behind, from the usual suspects!
39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
What is their problem? They cannot accept that Jesus is the “King who comes in the name of the Lord!’
That is the setting for the verse:
40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Do you think that is an exaggeration? Read Psalm 114.
When Israel came out of Egypt,
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
Let’s read on:
5 Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.
When the mountains, the hills, the sea, Jordan are dancing at His presence, fat chance do the stones have of keeping quiet!
If you are still not convinced, see what the devil says:
Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Matthew 4:3
Ah…these stones again!
Now, God is omnipotent and nobody knows this better than the devil.
I don’t think this point needs to be pressed any further.
So it comes back to the Pharisees’ problem with accepting Jesus as king. But these supposedly learned pundits somehow seem to have missed out on prophet Zachariah. Read 9:9
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.”
And this is not an isolated reference. The scriptures are peppered with verses alluding to Jesus as King.
John 18:36-37 – When Pontius Pilate questioned Jesus about His being a king, He responded, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” This indicates that Jesus’ kingship is not earthly but spiritual and heavenly.
Philippians 2:9-11 – “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Luke 1:32-33 -Angel Gabriel tells Mary, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Revelation 19:16 – “And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Bow down before Him