On Palm Sunday—the start of the week of Easter—churches usually preach and teach on the Scripture most commonly referred to as Jesus’ Triumphal Entry, which recounts Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on the week of Passover, five days before his crucifixion.
As the story goes, the crowds welcome Jesus in celebration and honor by waving palm branches and laying them down on his pathway (a customary form of honor in that day for notable, public figures)—hence the name, Palm Sunday. But while the crowds are cheering and praising, the religious leaders are criticizing and complaining. They tell Jesus that he ought to rebuke the crowds, because after all, their cheering and praising is probably misled, fickle, or somewhere in between.
Ironically, these religious leaders are not wrong—as the crowds who chanted, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord” will later cry, “Crucify him!” only 5 days later. Yet, Jesus’ response to them is somewhat mysterious, highly prophetic, and incredibly profound.
Perhaps you’ve heard it before, and even scratched your head:
“Even if these [the crowds] are silent, the very stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40)
What does Jesus mean, “The very stones will cry out”?
Does Jesus mean that if the crowds stop praising him, then the literal rocks will literally grow mouths and start singing Hillsong’s, “If creation sings your praises, so will I” worship song? Will a Christian version of the ‘Rolling Stones’ come out of this?
I don’t think Jesus means that, literally… But here’s what it can mean, and some biblical scholars have helped me out here. As with most of the Bible, it is much more complex than our cursory reading might suggest.
There are, I believe, 3 different layers of meaning baked into Jesus’ phrase, “the very stones will cry out.” But together, they communicate 1 overarching idea: Namely, whether you acknowledge the truth of God or not—and specifically how He has revealed himself in Jesus Christ— the truth still stands on its own accord.
Let’s dive into each layer of meaning here.
1.The first meaning of ‘the very stones will cry out’ conveys that creation will ‘speak’ to what is true—whether we, as humans, acknowledge it or not.
When God made the universe, He created it with a certain design. It works a certain way. There is a certain ‘grain’ to reality. There are governing, built-in truths that guide, frame, and endow it with a sense of meaning and flourishing. Scientifically, mathematically, biologically, morally, sexually, relationally, etc. And we can choose to live in a way that ‘goes with the grain’ of reality – or not. We can acknowledge what is true of its design and framework – or not. And whether we acknowledge its truth or not, it still ‘speaks’ on its own accord of its truth.
Take, the laws of physics and gravity, for example: Those governing structures constrain us to live in a certain way. And we can acknowledge its design, framework, and truthfulness—or not. But our acknowledgement of it—one way or another—does not change the reality of it.
This same principle extends to every area of life.
Take marriage, for example: God’s design for marriage is between one man and one woman. Or, take gender for example: God’s design in reality for gender is male and female. Or take sex, for example: God’s design in reality for sex is that it be enjoyed within the context of marital covenant. And when we make marriage or sex or gender—or absolutely anything for that matter—different than its inherent truthfulness, we ‘go against the grain’ of reality’s built-in framework for it. Whether we choose to acknowledge the truth of something, our personal decisions do not change what is actually true of it.
Whether we acknowledge what is true, the creative order, in a sense, will. It will hold us accountable. When we violate it, it will “speak out against us,” in a sense, and it will speak out to what is true—regardless if we do or not.[1] Truth will stand on its own accord; it is not dependent on anyone’s acknowledgment.
So, when Jesus says, “the very stones will cry out”—he’s conveying the idea to the Pharisees (and to us) that, “Whether you acknowledge the truth about Me or not, it doesn’t change what is actually true.
2. The second meaning layered into the phrase, “The very stones will cry out…” refers to Jesus’ prophesy about the crumbling of Jerusalem and the Temple, and specifically, its physical rubble of stones.
Naturally, you might, “Where in the world does this idea come from?” We actually have to keep reading the next several verses in Luke 19 to know this:
41 And when he [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
What is going on here? There is an enemy coming to destroy Jerusalem and its Temple? Following Jesus’ mysterious comment, ‘the very stones will cry out,’ He further elucidates by prophesying that Jerusalem and the Temple will be barricaded, destroyed, and torn down—so that not ‘one stone upon another’ is left.
In fact, in 70 BCE—a mere 40 years later from Jesus’ statement here—this very thing happens. Rome barricades Jerusalem and then tears the city and the Temple to the ground.
Note, Jesus’ statement about the ‘very stones will cry out’ (v. 40) is connected to the ‘stones that will not be left upon another’ (v. 44). What does Jesus mean? Jesus is saying that the Jerusalem’s destruction—most notably the imagery of its rubble—will be an image that “will cry out” to their judgment for rejecting Him.[2]
When you see something that is torn down, burned down, and destroyed, the image itself communicates something weighty. For example, when you see pictures of 9/11—the planes crashing into the buildings, the buildings crumbling and falling down, firemen pulling people out of the rubble—that communicates something. The very imagery of it all—on its own accord—cries out, expressing many things, does it not?
In the same way, Jesus is telling them that the imagery of the rubble—the stones overturned, burned, and toppled—will ‘cry out’ against the Jews’ as a statement of their judgment. And the Jews will know it is precisely because they rejected Jesus. And unfortunately, this should be nothing new for them anyways. Throughout the Old Testament of Israel’s history, whenever Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, it was a clear pronouncement of God’s judgment for their rejection of Him.
Significantly enough, in the statement—“the very stones will cry out”—Jesus is connecting Israel’s history and their own judgment to himself; i.e., if they have rejected Him, then they have rejected God himself. To the Jews, their judgment gave them further clarity about what was true.
And the same principle applies to us as well:
When we do not recognize what is true of life—its design, its frameworks, its ‘grain’—our judgment (the negative consequences we bring about on ourselves) will further make clear what is true.
When we disobey gravity, for example, our “judgment” (falling, breaking a leg) will further make clear what is true. When we make marriage and sex, for example, whatever we want it to be, our “judgment” (fatherlessness, regret, broken families) will further make clear what is true. And when we reject Jesus, our judgment will further make clear what is true—whether we acknowledge it or not.
But there’s a third meaning—I believe—layered deeply in Jesus’ statement.
3. When Jesus says, “the very stones will cry out,” He is referring to the true people of God, who will acknowledge the truth of who He is—whether anyone else does.
This meaning is not as apparent like the literal stones of Jerusalem or the Temple; this meaning is analogous about the what the stones represent. So what I mean? How do ‘the very stones’ here refer to the people of God, true believers?
Throughout the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, the people of God, is referred to as the ‘House of Israel’ over 100 times.[3] And the people are the ‘stones’ that make up that ‘house.’
Here’s what I think is going on…
Earlier in the Triumphal Entry, we see that the crowds chanting a line from Psalm 118:26, which reads, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.” Interestingly, however, immediately before Psalm 118:26 is a comment about how the builders [the leaders of Israel] will reject the Cornerstone [of the house of Israel].
Let me read it for you. Psalm 118:19…
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
That sounds like a Triumphal Entry, no?
20 This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
21 I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
Throughout the Bible, Jesus is referred to as the ‘living stone’ and a ‘stone that the builders rejected,’ that nevertheless became the ‘cornerstone’ of the House of God, the people of God.
A cornerstone is the first stone laid when constructing a building, and it sets the alignment for the whole thing. The idea is that the whole ‘House of God’s people’ is built on the ‘cornerstone’ of Jesus.
So, when Jesus says, “even if [the crowds] are silent, the very stones will cry out…” I think He means, “Even if you reject me, the Cornerstone, the very ‘stones’ will cry out—i.e., the true believers, the ‘stones’ who are connected to the Cornerstone. Those are the ones who will still acknowledge the truth of Me.”
The Apostle Peter actually echoes this entire idea in 1 Peter 2:
4 As you come to him [Jesus], a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion [Jerusalem] a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Who are we, as believers? As Peter says, we are like “living stones being built up into a spiritual house” (v. 5) and for what purposes? “that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light” (v. 10). True believers are, according to Peter, living stones who are crying out, acknowledging of the truth of Jesus—our Cornerstone!
The good news is that through faith in Christ—you don’t have to be ‘rubble’ in judgment. You can be a living stone, connected to Him, the Cornerstone. And similar to the physical Temple which housed the presence of God, by faith in Christ and in connection to Him, we can now be full of the presence of God, the Holy Spirit.
***This post is an adaptation from the following message, which you can listen to in full here:
[1] See Genesis 4:10; Hab. 2:11; James 5:4; Psalm 19:1-4.
[2] MacArthur, Part 2.
[3] Logos Bible Software, Search: “House of Israel” Fuzzy Results, personally counted 107 individual verses.
