These Stones Cry Out

“These Stones Cry Out”

Luke 19:37-40

A sermon for 3/28/21 – Palm/Passion Sunday

Pastor John Bright

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!”

39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Back in the days when they let me do Children’s time in the front of the sanctuary, this was always a Sunday to talk to the kids about praising God. Maybe they had already processed around the room with palm branches waving above their cute, little heads. I liked to tell them that we carry around our own palm branches of praise all the time. Holding up my hand with fingers spread wide, I talk about how we don’t need to be at church or talk in fancy words. We can lift our hands, like the palm branches, and just say – “Praise the Lord!” Praising God is such a simple thing.

The scene that day was probably chaotic with folks going in all different directions. There was a large number of people that day headed for Jerusalem. You know how bad the traffic is when there is a NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway? Here is some info about Jerusalem in Jesus’ day – “According to the noted scholar Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem had a population of about 20,000 to 30,000 people. But at Passover, one of the three festivals that must be celebrated in Jerusalem mentioned in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16, the Holy City’s population swelled by another 150,000. Imagine every room filled, with campsites popping up on every available hillside, inhabited by Jewish people who had traveled from throughout the world.” https://www.chosenpeople.com/site/passover-in-israel-past-and-present/

Jesus comes riding on a donkey with folks laying clothing and palm branches on the road. Some are waving palm branches. Then, as we read this morning, the disciples begin to speak – shouting – and they repeat Psalm 118:26 – “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” They add to it, referring to Jesus as the King which fits with the original psalm depicting a king, leading worshipers to the Temple. The whole Book of Psalms is a type of hymnal used by the Israelites. Psalm 118 was a song used during the Passover celebration.

Not everybody likes what is going on that day – just like last week – the religious leaders want Jesus to stop what is happening. Actually, Jesus couldn’t stop it even if He wanted to stop it. Why? This is fulfillment of a prophecy from 500 years before: Zechariah 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.” That’s why the stones would HAVE TO CRY OUT if folks did not. What’s happening that day was set in motion before the beginning of time and the ancient prophets were given the details hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

The disciples did what they were supposed to do back then. What about us? What about today? Do we understand praise? Do we offer praise to our God as we should? Let’s talk about this as we enter into Holy Week.

We praise God because of WHO HE IS

Psalm 118 “1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

2 Let Israel now say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

3 Let the house of Aaron now say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

4 Let those who fear the Lord now say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

There are some ways Believers, through the centuries of the Church, have agreed we describe WHO GOD IS. We start at this point (always!) – God reveals Himself to us. The Creator shows the created all we need to know about the Creator. If we don’t start there, it always leads to trouble and that’s part of the problem in the Church today. Some folks today – not us right here – some folks think they done got to be smarter than God and they have figured out that God is not who He says He is. WOW!

Let’s start where we should start – how has God revealed Himself to us. We usually discuss four ways: