I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out

 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'"  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.  And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:

"'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  Bu He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." 

- Luke 19:28-40

Yesterday we read that Jesus taught another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.  Therefore He said:  "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.  So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'  But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'   And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.  Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'  And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'  And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'  Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'  Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.  For I feared you, because you are an austere man.  You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.  And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.  You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.  Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'  And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'  (But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')  For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"

 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'"  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.   The events of today's reading are called Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, and it is significant to us and to all who witness as the entrance of the Messiah into His city.  He enters from the East, as was prophesied of the Messiah.  My study bible emphasizes the nationalist expectations of the time.  Israel had suffered for centuries as a pawn between powerful kingdoms at this time, amid the constant battle for power and control between empires.  At this time, under the Roman Empire, nationalism had led to the expectation of a political Messiah, who would deliver them from outside domination and re-establish the kingdom of David.  But Jesus gives a strong, conscious signal that His kingdom is something different -- not an earthly kingdom.  He chooses to ride on a donkey -- and the colt of a donkey -- rather than horse or chariot as would a conquering king with his military.  This is a sign of humility and peace (Zechariah 9:9), just as He has taught His apostles to go out to the world on their earlier missions.   Jesus' Triumphal Entry is also a promise of Christ's final entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem, with all believers and of His accepting the New Jerusalem as His pure bride (Revelation 21:2), an image present to us spiritually and yet continually moving toward fulfillment among us.

 And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  The people who spread their clothes before Jesus were doing so as paying reverence before a King.  There is a corresponding spiritual interpretation, my study bible notes, which expresses our need to lay down our flesh and our lives for Christ -- indeed our entire worldly identity.

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:  "'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  The people shout from Psalm 118:25-26, Scripture associated with messianic expectation.  This was recited for six days during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), the feast of the Coming Kingdom, and seven times on the seventh day as branches were waved.

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  Bu He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."  The welcome of the Messiah into the heavenly city is irrepressible, a powerful reality that transcends time and all boundaries in its true effect, so that all of creation rejoices.  This event is commemorated in the Church as Palm Sunday, the day that begins Holy Week, in which Jesus' hour of "glory" comes on the Cross, and His suffering, death, and Resurrection defeats even death.

I am always intrigued by Jesus' reference to the crying out of the stones.  In Exodus, the garments of Aaron, the first in the lineage of priests before the altar, are fashioned with stones -- all of which represent all the sons of Israel before God (Exodus 28:12-21).  When Elijah contests with the prophets of Baal for the God of Israel, he lays the foundation of his altar with twelve stones representing the twelve tribes whose name is Israel (1 Kings 18:31).  John the Baptist tells the people who come for his baptism, "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,  and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'  For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones" (Matthew 3:9; Luke 3:8).  St. Peter writes of the faithful that each comes to Christ as a "living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious," and that as "living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:4-5).  In the Revelation, we read, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it" (Revelation 2:17).  In each of these cases, stones are associated with names, and a name represents all of a person, such as when we pray "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 5:17).  But I think that in addition to all of these images of stones representing human beings, Jesus' words in today's reading give us a sense of all of creation rejoicing in the Incarnation, and indeed, even in the Passion that is about to unfold at Jerusalem.  It is the Cross and its power that gives us the full meaning and impact of the Incarnation, and the defeat of the final enemy of all of creation, death itself.  Jesus' statement indicates to us that the Incarnation isn't only about the salvation of human beings, but for the whole of the world -- meaning the whole of the cosmos, all of creation.  John's Gospel tells us, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).   The word used for "world," in each case in the quotation, is not the Greek word for "earth," but the word cosmos/κοσμος, which does not merely mean "universe" in Greek but rather all that is created; that is, visible and invisible, as it says in the Creed.   What is to be achieved at Jerusalem in this week ahead of Jesus will transform the world and the cosmos -- and is for all of it, all of us, all of the created order.  In Christ's Ascension, we're told, the angels marvel at human nature transfigured and entering the heavenly realm, rejoicing at this extraordinary transformation of all that is and what it means for everything (see the commentary of St. Cyril of Alexandria on the Gospel of John 14:2-3 here).  From the stones of the world to the powers of heaven, all of reality is transformed in this week which Christ begins with His entrance into Jerusalem.  We understand it to be not only the worldly, earthly Jerusalem, but the Jerusalem in which the angels celebrate always, and we join them in our worship.  Let us consider the power of Christ to change everything and anything.  What we do in a gesture of worship honors all of this; He to whom we pray is all of this.  He reminds us of the nature of the entire created order when He teaches that even the very stones would cry out should His followers be silenced.