37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that 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 in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:37-40 ESV)
In order to address the stone-cold hearts of some of the Pharisees, Jesus points to stones. The image, however, is far richer than we may have imagined. I. Howard Marshall notes that Jesus’ phrase in v. 40 has been read by Christians in four different ways (NIGTC, Luke, 716-717). Each reading opens up fresh ways of looking at our spiritual lives through the unexpected lens of rocks. Using Marshall’s list, I’ve added my own twist in this four-part series.
#3 Rock as Mentor
Some Christians have read v. 40 in this sense: “If the disciples stop praising, the stones will start correcting.” That is, the stones will notice that the disciples have stopped rejoicing and they will urge the disciples to change course and start rejoicing once again.
This image is rooted in Hab. 2:11 which pictures a homeowner engaged in behavior that is wrong. When the homeowner does this, “the stone will cry out from the wall.” That is, the stones which make up the wall of the house will notice the wrong behavior and point it out. We have a similar phrase today: “If these walls could talk.” These walls, it turns out, can indeed talk.
James uses the same word when he writes, “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you…” (Jas. 5:4 ESV). Scripture pictures inanimate objects as possessing the capacity for witnessing wrong behavior and crying out against it.
Jesus may be picturing the stones “crying out” against the disciples if they were to stop what they were created to do–praise and rejoice.
In this sense, rocks become a kind of mentor. A tutor. A coach. They hold us accountable. Even when no one else in our life notices that we’ve given up on our God-created task of praising and rejoicing, the rocks notice. The rocks see and hear. And they cry out, in an attempt to correct our wrong behavior. In an effort to steer us back to the right path of praise and rejoicing.
What are the rocks saying to you?
