Talking Rocks

By

Reverend Litton Logan

April 1, 2007

Scriptures:

²⁸After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” ³²So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴They said, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸saying,

    “Blessed is the king

      who comes in the name of the Lord!

    Peace in heaven,

      and glory in the highest heaven!”

³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” ⁴⁰He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” Luke 19:28--40 (NRSVA)

Sermon:

          These passages of scripture in Luke concerning Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem do not contain an account of crowds shouting hosannas or cutting and waving palm branches.  Such things in Luke’s mind carried nationalistic overtones of kings or great military heroes entering a city welcomed by parades and festivals.  Luke does not want such things associated with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is among other titles the son of God-prophet who comes in peace to bring peace, universal salvation, and a reversal in this world’s sense of power.  Luke will recall the words of the prophet Zechariah to drive home the point that Jesus enters Jerusalem, the only place where it seems God’s prophets are killed, as one who brings peace.  However, the peace Jesus will bring will lay low the malevolent forces of this world.

Only his disciples and a few Pharisees mark Jesus’ entry into the holy city in Luke.  These disciples of Jesus began to rejoice and praise God referring to passages from Zechariah 9, “blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”  These Old Testament passages speak of a king that would come from God not in haughty arrogance or regal displays, but in humble, subservience to God, riding on a donkey. The disciples welcome Jesus by spreading their home spun, coarse cloaks on the ground reminiscent of the officers of Jehu in 2 Kings as Jehu ascends the steps to the throne.  Luke has further Old Testament references that point to the event and the nature of the coming of God’s messiah, one of which is the story of the donkey.

          There has been a lot made of this donkey thing.  Let me point out that the four gospels don’t agree on whether it was a donkey, a donkey colt, or a donkey mare and her colt.  However, in Mark and Luke the questioning of the disciples, whether by the owner or owners, the disciples respond “the Lord” or “Master” has need of it.  In the Greek, the grammar indicates a degree of familiarity that may tell us that the owner or owners knew who the “Lord” was and thus had no problem with the disciples taking the animal.  Therefore, Jesus and his disciples are not guilty of ripping off someone’s donkey.  In addition, I wished to point out that it appears that no one in the Gospel of Mark and Luke know much about donkeys.  Friends, you don’t just go grab a donkey colt and jump on its back and stay there.  The donkey maybe small but anyone who has ever worked with donkeys will tell you that a donkey initially resists heavy burdens being suddenly placed on their backs just as their larger cousin the horse.  A donkey will buck, kick, and try to rid themselves of the burden on their backs. (Can you see Jesus or his disciples having to break a donkey to ride before entering into Jerusalem?)

          I believer a summary insight to the donkey story might go something like this: Rather than walk the short distance from the villages of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, Jesus enters the city on a lowly draft animal, a beast of burden, in fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures.  Jesus does not enter Jerusalem on a regal steed or warhorse; rather he comes into Jerusalem as one humble and subservient to God.  Furthermore, just as Jesus defies his human nature and doesn’t try to buck off the will of God for his life the unbroken donkey is portrayed as going against its nature and not bucking off its unwanted burden—Jesus. I believe it is this point of going against one’s nature to comply with God’s will as well as nature itself complying with God’s eternal plan that is the point of the story of Jesus and the donkey.  I think we will see this notion of creation and creature acknowledging the sovereignty of God in a later remark Jesus makes about the stones.

          As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the disciples are praising God for what God has and is doing in the life and ministry of His anointed one--Jesus.  These disciples are not so much proclaiming Jesus a king as they are proclaiming him the Messiah, which has different implications than just the triumphant entry of an earthly ruler into the holy city of Jerusalem.  A close reading of the book of Luke and one would learn that Luke was not at all comfortable with this earthly king idea.

          Several Pharisees, possibly those who were friendly toward Jesus and had warned him of Herod’s plan to kill him, come now and tell Jesus to stop his disciples from shouting such proclamations.  The disciples’ words of praise of God and proclamation of Jesus as the messiah-king were seditious and could get everyone in earshot rounded up by the Romans and severely punished or even killed.  The Pharisees may have also been concerned that Jesus and his disciples would get into trouble with the Jewish leadership.  Still, yet, the Pharisees could have found the disciples words offensive to their religious sensibilities.  Jesus says that even if he commanded his followers to be silent the very stones on the ground would take up their praise and proclamation.

          In Luke’s Gospel, stones or rocks are filled with divine potential.  In Luke chapter 3, John the Baptist confronts a sinful and unrepentant generation that thinks it is safe from God’s coming judgment because they are Jews--descendents of Abraham.  John says that God could raise up descendents of Abraham from stones, so being a descendent of Abraham is not a guarantee of immunity from divine judgment.

          Now we hear Jesus say that if the crowd of disciples were silent that God would make the rocks praise and proclaim God’s saving work in Jesus.  Wow! Rocks in Luke are potentially children of God and the voice of God.

As an amateur geologist, I know that rocks can talk. No, I am not talking about the pet rock fad of the 70s.  I am talking about rocks in the ground, mountains, and hills.   Furthermore, New Mexico is one of the most interesting geological locales in the world.  Albuquerque is built on a major geological fault area called the Rio Grande Rift, which runs from Leadville, Colorado to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Because of the rifting effect—the pulling apart—of the land mass in our area, about seven to ten million years ago, the fault along the western edge of the Sandias began to move, and the Sandias slowly rose to their present height.  The total vertical movement of this fault probably exceeds five miles. The same rocks that we see on the Sandia Crest lie buried beneath Albuquerque about 15, 000 feet below sea level in what is known as the Pennsylvanian formation. [1] Thus, Sombra Del Monte lies in the shadow of a mountain whose base was once 15,000 feet below sea level. How do we know this—rocks can talk.

Rocks are all around us. They make up the backbones of hills and mountains and the foundations of plains and valleys. Beneath the soil you walk on and the deep layers of soft mud that cover the ocean basins is a basement of hard rock.  Rocks are made up mostly of crystals of different kinds of minerals, or broken pieces of crystals, or broken pieces of rocks. Some rocks are made of the shells of once-living animals, or of compressed pieces of plants. We can learn something about the way a rock formed by looking carefully at the evidence preserved inside rocks and rock formations. What a rock is made of, the shapes of the grains or crystals within the rock, and how the grains or crystals fit together all provide valuable clues to help us unlock the rock’s history hidden within. [2]

If a person knows how to listen to the geologic evidence contained in various rocks and rock formations the rocks will speak to them of past eons, various geological events, and the formation of this great planet.  So, it is that we must study Scriptures as we have heard read today and learn to listen to Scripture in their context and truth as we seek to discern God’s will and ways in Jesus Christ.

Continuing on, we generally think of rocks as inert and inanimate matter.  However, Jesus says if his disciples don’t proclaim to the world God’s love and salvation then nature itself, even the rocks will break forth with the Good News.

          As much as we know that Luke and Jesus are speaking in hyperbole to their respective audiences, I think there are great insights in this “stones speaking” hyperbole.  One of the things we tend to over look is that creation itself is involved in events that we generally think of affecting humans alone.  In Genesis, we see the bible writers’ understandings of humans effecting the environment—the earth produces thorns and thistles because of Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience.  Isaiah sings of a reign of peace on earth when cows and bears will graze together and the lion and the lamb will lie down side by side.  Matthew tells us of a special star that appeared to announce Jesus’ birth.  The earth shuddered, cracking rocks, when Jesus dies.  All the synoptic Gospels agree that when Jesus was put on the cross for three hours there was an eclipse of the sun.  Such dramatic language indicates that all life is from God.  The bible writers understood that the underlying fabric of the entire universe is God’s creative and sustaining presence.  Furthermore, in the end as the Apostle Paul tells us “…the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21).[3]

          As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must shout to the world that the Messiah, the Messiah of fishermen, tax collectors, Samaritans, harlots, blind men, demoniacs, the religiously disenfranchised, and the physically and spiritually crippled has come.  He has not come as one in regal majesty to impose the burden of one more government, religion, or military might.  He came into his glory on a cross as the king of sinners and outcasts, the poor and the oppressed. His message of love and peace gives you, me, and the world a hope beyond earthly means.  His peace “has brought down the powerful from their thrones,/ and lifted up the lowly . . . filled the hungry with good things,/ and sent the rich away empty" (1:52-53), the God who "has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them" (1:68), the God who gives "light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death," the God who will "guide our feet into the way of peace" (1:79).

          Will you, will we, praise and proclaim the Good News of God’s coming in Jesus Christ or will the rocks have to do it for us?