36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some 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.”
Read Luke 19:36-40 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
While riding into Jerusalem on a young donkey is an event that all four gospel writers include, only the gospel of Luke shares how the Pharisees get close enough to Jesus to actually say something to Him. John’s gospel includes the Pharisees, but we get the impression that they were off grumbling on the sidelines, and not close enough to actually say something to Jesus with all the noise of this celebration.
But perhaps it is both, with a larger group of Pharisees off on the sidelines and a smaller group pressing through the crowd to get a message to Jesus. What was this message they so desperately wanted to get to Jesus? “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples!’” (v. 39)
The Pharisees message to Jesus was essentially, “Knock it off! You are causing too much commotion.”
Of the possible reasons the Pharisees had for wanting to silence the crowd celebrating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, two reasons stand out as being most likely.
The first is from a fear of the Romans. The Romans did not have a high opinion of the Jews, and anything that looked like an uprising would attract the attention of their army. While the Pharisees didn’t see Jesus as the Messiah, they knew the crowd did, and they didn’t want to invite attention from the Romans thinking that Jesus was rallying a band of people together to challenge the Roman forces.
The second, which we can learn from reading about Jewish history, is that several days before a Passover, the religious leaders would ceremonially lead the Passover lamb into Jerusalem, and this was a solemn and sad event. There is a strong likelihood that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem drew all the attention and focus away from their own procession with the Passover lamb, and they did not like it.
This second reason holds interesting implications, because Jesus would become the symbolic Passover Lamb for all humanity, and because of this, we can see an interesting idea played out in Jesus’ response, “‘I tell you,’ he replied, ‘if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.’” (v. 40)
This tells me that when God has chosen a time for His Son to be praised, nothing will stop praise from going to the Son. If the crowd chose to be silent, the stones would have begun to give praise. I’m not sure exactly how that would have happened, and it may be one thing I ask God/Jesus when I get to heaven, but there was nothing that would stop Jesus from receiving praise and glory during His entrance into Jerusalem on the week of that Passover celebration!
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
Subscribe to this blog and never miss an insight.