After our family held a riverside memorial service for my father, we each selected a stone to help us remember him. His life had been a checkerboard of wins and losses, but we knew his heart had been for us. My fingers traced my stone’s smooth surface and helped me remember to hold him close.
In Luke 19, Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem while the crowds waved palm branches, shouted Hosannas, and cheered, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (v. 38; see John 12:12-13). In the Pharisees’ disdain of what they perceived to be a blasphemous claim of messiahship, they ordered Jesus to tell the disciples to be quiet. Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40).
The stones do cry out—in many ways. God has used stones throughout the story of His love for us. Two rough-hewn stones carried ten chiseled commandments to tell us how to live (Exodus 34:1). Stones of remembrance piled by the Jordan River and in the middle of the river reminded generations of Israelites of God’s provision and faithfulness (Joshua 4:8-9 nlt). The one rolled into place to contain Jesus’ body is the same one that rolled away to show He had risen (Matthew 27:59-66; Luke 24:2). We “hear” this stone as it reminds us of Jesus’ words: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).
Listen to the stones and lift your own voice along with them in praise to our loving Father.
How have the stones of God’s work in our world “cried out” to you? What message might God intend for you to take to heart?
Dear Father, thank You for using even stones to speak of Your love.
For further study, read Give Me a Sign
Some scholars believe that Jesus’ statement in Luke 19:40 that “if [the crowds] keep quiet, the stones will cry out” is a reference to Habakkuk 2:11: “The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.” Others suppose that the stones in view are the stones of the very gates themselves, as seen in Psalm 118:19-20: “Open for me the gates of the righteous . . . the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.” Whether Luke 19:40 echoes an Old Testament text or not, it’s an example of poetic imagery where inanimate objects praise God (see also Psalm 114:6; Psalm 148; Isaiah 55:12). Jesus had often refused praise during His earthly ministry. Now He not only accepted it but encouraged it. When humans fail to praise the Creator, the creation itself will praise God.
