Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Stones Would Cry Out
Luke 19:28-40
28 Having said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. · WEB
He rides in to shouting, is told to silence his disciples, and says the stones would take it up.
He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem Luke 19:28.
The journey that began at Luke 9:51 ends here. The entry is told in the earlier accounts Mark 11:1–19 Matthew 21:1–11, with the colt, the cloaks on the road and the prophecy of a king coming humble on a donkey.
Two things are this telling's own.
The first is who shouts. The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen Luke 19:37. Not the city and not the pilgrims generally — the disciples, and the reason given is what they have watched him do. And the shout has a word the other accounts do not: "Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!" Luke 19:38, which is the angels' song at the birth turned inside out Luke 2:14. Then it was peace on earth; now the earth is refusing it and the peace is reported as being in heaven.
Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" Luke 19:39.
The request is the second thing peculiar to this Gospel, and it is the last recorded exchange with them before the city. It is also the book's recurring instinct in its final form — the disciples silenced the children, the crowd silenced the blind man, and now the authorities want the disciples silenced.
The grounds are not stated and are not hard to guess. What was being shouted was a royal welcome, and Rome executed people for that.
"I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out" Luke 19:40.
The refusal says the thing cannot be suppressed. If the people who know are quiet, the material of the world will do it — and the prophets had said as much, with a stone crying out of a wall against a house built by injustice Habakkuk 2:11.
There is a further edge to it in this place. Within four verses he says not one stone of the city will be left on another Luke 19:44, and within the week the men asking for silence will get it — the shouting will stop, and what speaks will be an earthquake and a torn curtain.
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