What does it mean that "the rocks will cry out" in Luke 19:40?

Some of the Pharisees resented this adulation given to the Lord Jesus, and wanted Him to rebuke His disciples. If He had not been Israel's true King they would have had reason for objecting, but the Lord silenced their objections by implying that the disciples were energized by the Spirit of God to speak, and if they would not speak, then God would make even the stones to immediately cry out. How true it is that if people will not give true honor to the Son of God, this will not stop God from using any means He pleases to glorify His Son.

Jesus still acts on His supreme and holy Lordship, knowing, directing and having all things at His command; the wills - for His people shall be willing in the day of His power, and this was a brief demonstration of what He was and His rights - of men. "The Lord hath need of it." All the wills of the people, by this divine influence, burst forth on this occasion, every demonstration of their joyful recognition. It was a wonderful scene, the meek and lowly Jesus, still meek and lowly, no forced pomp to demand honour from the careless, but a divine influence pervading all hearts. Himself in wonted meekness and lowliness, the object of universal recognition and praise, for He had done all things well. Divine influence which wakes, and gives memory, the stubborn and forgetful heart, gives it spring in taking off the load of selfishness. Gratitude in mindfulness of innumerable benefits, sense of divine presence in the Messiah, which awakens the sense of the Source of it all, concur to give life, to raise, and to sound loud the chord of praise thus struck by the presence of Jesus. For what incidents in His life, and how far deeper the truth than all these incidents, they were but as the tops of the rocks which. reaching to the everlasting depths of the sea, were the occasion of the expression of its force in awakened majesty on the surface. Man saw it then, and feared and honoured; but thought taught of God pursues it into the infinitude of what it, as hidden though, thus revealed. But for a moment all was awakened in joy and recognition, the gleam of divine Jewish truth ere the sunset, and the sad night-storm came on. All was calm, but prognostic of far other things. Over against long loved Jerusalem, thus in mercy visited, the sound of praise awoke - awoke to the city plunged in the deepest slumber of unbelief. What a work was here too of Jesus! As far as man's mere heart, that gained; but there must be a new life, and divine power to rescue it from the power and dominion of Satan. Yet it was an evident divine influence at the time, thus distinguishing clearly between a divine influence on the natural man, which may exist to any, the greatest possible extent, and the giving of life from above. This is eternal. But I know of no limit to the extent of the other except life that is not there at all, but to the action of the Holy Spirit, of divine agency, on what is there. It was not properly the Holy Spirit here, i.e., according to the force of the New Testament, and therefore was a reparable departure, quoad hoc. It operated in a Jewish form, recognised Him with Jewish though divine joy as a Jewish Messiah, because of the mighty deeds which He had done. It was the King who came in the name of the Lord. God was the object of their praise. Messiah was the presentation of His power in their favour.

288 - 38. The King coming in the name of the Lord inspires this principle, for they spoke under the enthusiasm of divine influence, that they on earth no longer subject to the consequence of wrath and malediction above, to the malice of Satan who had title of accusation against them. Peace was in heaven, for the King could appear. It was not a temporary peace of patience on repentance, but all was at peace above, for the King, the full testimony of favour and divine complacence, the accusation of evil removed, all peace in the divine thoughts towards them was actually here. It was not peace produced by grace acting towards us here, peace on earth, but a Jewish thought that God was at peace with them fully. A rest of peace above, and therefore they had the Messiah, for God was at peace with them. Heaven, no longer tormented with the witness of evil, Satan cast down and incapable, no cloud there, the odour of rest before Jehovah, before God. The odour of (hannikhoakh, rest) had been presented, met the thought of their minds as to its effect; "And I will no more curse" the consequence. Therefore I say 'the enthusiasm of divine influence,' for it was not the new man taught by the Holy Spirit in full holy, calm knowledge. How many sighs, and how much sorrow of heart over Jerusalem had been the effect of that! But the conclusions of joy and delight, which flowed from the impression of the fact of Messiah being there by divine influence, conclusions true abstractedly, but which showed no divinely taught knowledge of the real state of things. Yet the praise most right, for it was not the moment for that knowledge in them. And in the divine counsel and will it was so, for the just glorifying of the Son of God, and the judgment on the blind and wilful of His rebellious and obstinate people follow. Christ represented this full and perfect love, and the calm perfection of a knowledge full of sorrow. Was their joy then wrong? No! It would not be realised. It was ignorant, for they knew not what the rebellion of the heart of man was, but righteous, in this sense God owned it. The stones would have cried out to honour Jesus, if these had not. Yes, the stones, for honoured He must be even then, the Son of God in the midst of despite could not pass without receiving honour, seeing what He had suffered, done, was. It could not be otherwise. There would have been a claim of righteous honour crying out, which must be answered. It was not to be accomplished, it is true, but owned, and in this righteous dignity the Lord proceeds now. He does not lose His lowliness personally the least, but He was not hiding to be able to serve, and as a Servant that God only might be honoured, and His full moral character produced, but Himself presenting Himself in the dignity of His Person, Jehovah, King, acting on the hearts of His disciples and the people, the sign of divine presence, however blind the rest, and in this relation presenting Himself to Jerusalem and the governors among the people, to the nation. It was a marvellous scene, remembering who and where it was.

Verse 28. Jesus enters Jerusalem as Messiah. His rights as Lord of all were to be asserted and acted on, verses 29-36. He presents Himself for the last time to Israel, in the lowliness of grace, which was of far greater importance than the kingdom. This gives rise to the most marked contrast between the disciples and the Pharisees. The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with loud voice, saying "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven and glory in the highest." Some of the Pharisees appeal to Him to rebuke the disciples, but learn from His lips that if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. There must be a testimony to His glory; verses 37-40.

The Pharisees dare to appeal to the Lord Himself to deny Himself, and rebuke the disciples. He tells them that, if they held their peace, the very stones would cry out. As a result of His rejection this has indeed taken place, and the stones of the plowed up city bear witness for Him today.

The enthusiasm was immense. Those from Jerusalem met Him with branches of palm trees. Those accompanying Him from Bethany cut branches out of the fields, as Mark states, and strewed them in the way. And now as they began the descent of Olivet towards Jerusalem, there arose from the whole multitude of the disciples spontaneous praises to God, lifting up their voices for all the wonderful things which they had seen, saying, as Luke gives it, "Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." They thus hailed the Lord as King, a rehearsal, we may say, of that which will be heard when Psalm 118:25-26 is fulfilled; the "Save now" of the Psalm being the same as the "Hosanna" of the multitude. Onward swept the stream of men, and along that track over the mountain most suited for such a company, and down the slope towards the city and the temple. The multitude seemed of one mind that day. The King was in their midst. The rightful occupant of David's throne was entering the capital of the kingdom, and in the manner foretold centuries before. He was entering, too, the city from the east, from the very quarter from which some day He will return to it, to leave it no more. For His feet shall stand upon the mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4), and from the way of the east the glory of the Lord will return to the house of God (Ezek. 43:2). But these prophetic announcements await their accomplishment. In harmony, however, with them, the Lord visited the temple that day, approaching it by the way of the east, and the multitude spoke not of "peace on earth," as the angelic choir had done (Luke 2:14), but of "peace in heaven." Peace on earth will follow the second advent; peace in heaven flows from His atoning death. Were the people aware of the importance and suitability of their words? Probably not. We, however, living after the cross, can interpret them in a manner then not understood.

A joyous scene it must have been, and one fitted to awaken enthusiasm in the most phlegmatic of men. All know how taking is a popular movement of that kind, yet some there were in the very middle of the rejoicing crowd who remained uninfluenced, yet not unconcerned. These were Pharisees, who, turning to the Lord, asked Him to rebuke His disciples. His reply silenced them: "I tell you, that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would cry out" (Luke 19:40). Only a claimant to David's throne the Pharisees might regard Him. By-and-bye all inanimate nature will make itself understood when it welcomes Him back as Jehovah and as Israel's King (Psalms 96; 98).

If Pharisees, insensible to His glory, complained of the praises of the disciples, the Lord could not but tell them that they were more obdurate than the stones beneath and around them.

But alas! the city of peace "knew not the things which belong to her peace." She knew not "the time of her visitation." That happy moment, when all Israel will burst into the glorious song of praise, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord," had not yet come. Only the baby and the multitude of His disciples sung this song in happy anticipation of that moment: even "the stones would have cried out," if they had been silent.

But the hearts of the builders at Jerusalem were harder than the stones of their streets. They rejected the Stone which God had laid in Zion, for He was to them a Stone of stumbling. Their hard unfeeling voices interrupted the sweet harmony of the song of praise from Christ's disciples with the shrill sound, "Master, rebuke thy disciples." What blindness! What insolence against the "King of Zion," Who by the few words, "I am He," laid prostrate Judas and the whole band. But the perfect harmony of the meek and lowly heart of the King with the daughter of Zion could not be disturbed even by such a rude interruption. His only reply to the blind leaders of the people was, "I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."

And when Jesus then beheld the city, whose leaders had given Him such a reception, had their treatment chilled His affections for the "beloved city?" He wept over Jerusalem. He knew, that the same multitude now thronging around Him and chiming in with the "Hosanna" of His disciples, would, after a few days, clamour for His death, shouting, "Crucify Him! crucify Him!" Did this restrain His tears? No, it only called them forth, on account of the terrible judgment, which was impending over Jerusalem, after the last testimony of the wondrous grace and the longsuffering of God should have been rejected by their stoning His martyr Stephen. That judgment He was about to pronounce over the unhappy blinded city. It was a judgment still more terrible than that pronounced upon Nineveh by the prophet Jonah, just as Jerusalem's crowning sill was incomparably greater than all the sins of Nineveh had been. "And when He was come near, He beheld the city and wept over it."

After this we hear the murmuring Pharisees rebuked, who would have had the disciples rebuked for their song: if they had not sung it, the stones must have cried out; and the Lord vindicates the blameless (Ver. 39, 40.)

Zacchaeus in Luke 19, chief tax-gatherer and rich, is the witness of yet more — the saving grace of God. But the Lord is not going to restore the Kingdom immediately, as they thought; He is going to a far country to receive it and to return; and when He does, He will examine the ways of His servants meanwhile entrusted with His goods, and He will execute judgment on His guilty citizens who would not that He should reign over them. Next He rides to the city from the Mount of Olivet on a colt, given up at once by the owners; and the whole multitude of the disciples praise God aloud for all the powers they have seen, saying, "Blessed be the coming King in Jehovah's name: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." It is strikingly different from the angels' praise at His birth; but both in season. Pharisees in vain object, and hear that the stones would cry out if the disciples did not. Yet did He weep over the city that know not even then the things that made for its peace, doomed to destruction because it knew not the time of its visitation. The purging of the temple follows, and there He was teaching daily; yet could not the chief priests and the chiefs of the people destroy Him, though seeking it earnestly.

Here we get the Lord in royal glory, seated on the ass, descending the Mount of Olives, and about to enter the city. The multitudes follow, with palm branches and exultation, and the King is seen in full beauty. God is taking the thing into His own hands. "The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof." Jesus took the place of Jehovah-Creator in Psalm 24. He had a richer title to the ass than the owner of it had. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. The owner bows to His claim, and in He goes, in the midst of the acclamations of His people. But now the Pharisees say, "Master, rebuke Thy disciples." That was the heart of the nation exposing itself in the representatives of the people. The mind of the nation stood out in that saying, "Master, rebuke Thy disciples." That was rejection. "We will not have this man to reign over us."

The Lord then laments over the city. Instead of being the "city of peace," Jerusalem would have to go through another history altogether. Jerusalem is but a sample of the world in general, and because of the rejection of Christ, the world will have to go through a very different history than if it had been prepared for Him. The world has forced the blessed Lord up to heaven through His cross, and now it must go to the kingdom through its judgment. He went to display His beauty to the daughter of Zion, but the daughter of Zion was not prepared for Him, so He weeps over her, and announces the judgment she brought upon herself. The world is not prepared for Him, and the earth must pass to its rest through the judgments that will purge it of its defilements. (Luke 20)