SCRIPTURE: As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Luke 19:37-40 ESV
THOUGHT: The Pharisees are caught between a rock and a hard place on the final day Jesus comes to town. They don’t like Jesus, they don’t like people calling him King, and they don’t like the spontaneous worship service that erupts as he rides in on a donkey (of all things).
He came there to die, but they didn’t know that. If they would have been taking notes on what he said, maybe they would’ve just slunk off to their dens and waited it out. But, as usual, they are firmly planted in the soil of righteous indignation, blithering and blathering about protocol, wearing their pride on the sleeves of their hoity-toity garments for all to see.
Teacher, rebuke your disciples! Turn on those who love you and put them in their place. Silence those who are wise enough to give God glory for all the mighty works they have seen…or at the very least, tell them to lower their voices! This is embarrassing. This is everything we educated and important ones don’t want to see and hear.
I hear an echo of a previous admission as they plot death for Jesus and another death for Lazarus, “Look, the world has gone after him (John 12:19).” By all means, if the world begins to agree with him, we are going to look bad. He needs to go!
All of that is just the hard place they were caught in. The Rock was before them on a donkey, and his promise was one I believe he could have kept – if those who had seen the miracles and fulfillment of Scripture and been introduced to the truth of God as a loving father who the Pharisee’s had missed – if they would have been silent, even the rocks would have cried out with loud voices that day.
PRAYER: Oh God, sovereign over nature and sovereign over humanity, making the rocks cry out is a small feat for you compared to making the hearts of stubborn, prideful men and women bow a knee. Nature already knows the truth, and so will every human … someday.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
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