Day Five: Luke 17-20

Sometimes Jesus says things that just blow my mind.  

In Luke 19, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, he receives a kingly welcome.  It is ironic since in a week’s time the tide will turn and he will be crucified.  But in any case, the people are crying out “Blessings on the King who come in the name of the Lord!”

The Pharisees, perennial kill-joys that they are, try to shush the people.  After all, this kind of a thing had consequences.  If Rome found out that the people were welcoming another king besides Caesar, there would be trouble.  Besides this, they didn’t want to believe the implications of this cheer - that Jesus was actually the Messiah, the king who had been prophesied for so long.  So they say, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

And here is where Jesus says it.  “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers.”  Part of me wishes that they would keep quiet just because I want to see that!  But what Jesus is doing is seeing the claim of Messiah and raising it ten. He is saying, “who I am and what I am about to do is so significant that the physical creation itself, the earth, the rocks are ready to cheer.  And if you don’t they will.”

Who is this guy that the rocks are ready to cheer for?  Not just a teacher.  Not just a prophet.  His words would be the height of arrogance and conceit unless he actually is worthy of being worshipped by rocks, worthy of the stones getting up and starting to cheer.  He must be more than a teacher.  More, even than a king.

Either Jesus is the most arrogant person in the world, or he’s actually telling the truth.  And if that is the case, the people are not just welcoming a king.  

This is the one who made the stones.

This is God himself.

Lord Jesus, let me not be silent when the rocks are ready to praise you.  May I live today a life of joyful praise and thankfulness that you have come into my life.  I welcome you into my day today.  Amen.