"Noisy Stones!"
Text: Luke 19:28-40
4-10-2022
In the name of Him who calls us to confess our faith before all the world, dear friends in Christ. Do you think that stones can talk? No, I’m not referring to the iconic pop band called the Rolling Stones. I mean actual rocks and stones. I know, I know. If you say yes, then we probably need to find you a rubber room to call home for a while. Some of you may recall the fad from the mid-1970’s called “Pet Rocks.” For those of you who don’t, let me explain. These rocks came in their own carrier crate and were sold as the perfect pet. They didn’t need to be fed or watered, they didn’t make messes, you didn’t have to walk or groom them, and they wouldn’t get sick and die. And with absolutely no training at all they obeyed your commands to “sit” and “stay.” (Although getting them to come to you when you called or fetch a stick proved to be impossible. Then again, I dare you to try and get a cat to do that! You’ll run into the same problem.) This past week I set these rocks up front here for chapel with the school kids. I told them we were going to have a “rock concert.” However, they just sat there without making a sound. I mean the rocks, not the kids. You know, it turns out that Pet Rocks were just a slick marketing scheme. They were good listeners, but they couldn’t do much of anything else. And they especially couldn’t speak or make noises of any kind.
But there is a sense in which the rocks and stones do speak to us. Not with audible words and sounds. Rather, they can tell a story by their silent witness to the history they were a part of. Gayleen and I discovered the truth of that when we went to Israel. Some of those stones may have been used in a magnificent building thousands of years ago but were knocked down and buried by enemies. And yet, now that they’ve been uncovered, they tell a story of what life was like back then. Those stones also stand as a silent witness to what the Bible tells us. Yes, we believe the Scriptures are true even without archeological discoveries. But finding this ancient evidence enhances our understanding of God’s Word and verifies to a skeptical world the things we’ve believed all along.
Having seen those stones in Israel brought to mind the words of Jesus at the very end of our Gospel reading. The Pharisees demanded that He tell His disciples to quiet down and stop singing His praises. Jesus responded, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” And they do cry out! Seeing them, touching them, and walking on some of those very stones spoke volumes to me. I picked up a small stone from the south steps of the Jerusalem Temple and brought it home as a reminder of the truth of this Bible verse. So you see, those stones really do speak in their own way. But Jesus meant something far more important than just having these stones serve as evidence to prove the Bible is true. He was stating something vital about our faith and its function in our lives. And that’s a timely message for Christians of all ages to hear.
This incident in our text took place on the Sunday of Holy Week. That’s a key factor that we’ll come back to in just a bit. Over the previous 3 years of Jesus’ public ministry, He had preached powerful words and done some amazing miracles. In fact, He had been teaching things to the people that they hadn’t heard from their priests and religious leaders. Jesus told them of God’s love and forgiveness, which was a free gift and not something they could work to achieve. Not only that, He showed that God’s grace was not limited to only a certain group of people. It was meant to include the whole world. Jesus explained how He was the Son of God who had come down to save them. And He showed them that none of this was a secret. It had all been promised by God in the Old Testament of the Holy Scriptures.
Now, even though their knowledge of Jesus as the Savior was in the infant stages, many of these folks believed what He was telling them. He had given them hope of living in peace with God. He gave them hope of eternal life. They believed that Jesus would give them back the glory days of their nation under King David, but with a new twist. Unfortunately, they merged a spiritual kingdom with the concept of an earthly one. They believed there would be freedom and prosperity for them under the kingship of Jesus. So they were more than happy to sing His praises as He rode triumphantly, and yet humbly, into Jerusalem. They figured that God’s promises were finally being fulfilled and they couldn’t be silent about the extreme joy they felt.
On the other hand, we have the Pharisees mentioned who were part of the religious hierarchy. They were in total opposition to Jesus because He was a threat to their system (which made them a LOT of money.) That helps explain their demand for the crowd to be silenced. You see, if the Romans who ruled over them got nervous and thought a riot was erupting, they would shut it down with violent force. And they feared that they might get them lumped in with all these fanatics, causing the Romans to target them also and perhaps even closing down their Temple.
Oh, they wouldn’t have minded if Jesus was captured or killed for instigating a rebellion. They hated His guts because everything He preached divested them of their wealth and earthly power. For goodness sakes, Jesus was running around and forgiving sinners freely for no charge! In their system of theology God’s favor was merited by the proper performance of certain rituals and an external show of holiness. That has to cost you something, and of course, they were more than happy to make a buck off of your religious needs. These guys were self-righteous and looked down on others as “common sinners.” They enjoyed hearing people praise them. But Jesus was silencing all that and receiving the praise that they felt they deserved. Is it any wonder then that they wanted Jesus to stop the people from doing it?
So it was intended as a stinging rebuke when Christ said. “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Can I put that into modern terms for you? “You guys are as dumb as a box of rocks! If these cold, lifeless stones could talk they’d also be singing my praises as the Son of God. And yet you’re the teachers of Israel and you refuse to. You just don’t get it!”
That may sound offensive but far better that they felt insulted than to keep up their opposition towards Jesus. His purpose was to get them to repent and believe. Then they could join the crowds in confessing Him as the holy Savior sent from God. Sadly, that’s not what happened. Rather, just 5 days later they successfully convinced the people to change their tune. They went from singing the praises of Jesus to crying out, “Crucify Him!”
Equally as disturbing is what happened with the 12 disciples of Jesus, the men closest to Him. Earlier, Peter had spoken on behalf of the others and boldly confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. But when Jesus got arrested, all those men went silent, including Peter. Worse than that, he even denied knowing His Lord. How ironic is it that Peter’s name means, “rock?” Jesus called him that to describe his rock-solid confession. But the minute he felt threatened, he stopped confessing the Savior and became as silent as the inanimate rocks under his feet. The good news is that Peter eventually repented and was forgiven by Jesus. His faith was restored and strengthened. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he then boldly confessed Jesus as the Savior of the world throughout the rest of his life.
It’s good for us all to remember our own public confession as believers in Christ. It was almost too easy to do that back on our Confirmation Day. We spoke and sang it out boldly like those crowds on Palm Sunday, proclaiming that we believed in Jesus as our Savior. We boldly stated that we’d rather die than to stop confessing our faith in Christ. That’s good. But what about the rest of the year and the rest of our lives? Do we gather with God’s people regularly in worship to confess our faith and be fed by His Word and Sacrament? Or is there a stony silence due to our absence? And it isn’t just with our mouths that we confess our faith. Our actions in our day-to-day lives tell a story to the watching eyes of the world around us. Do we live in humble obedience to God’s will and commands? Or do we silently acquiesce and go along with the sinful ways of our culture?
To say the least, the Christian way of life is unpopular in our fallen world. When there’s pressure and threats it’s difficult to not be silent about the faith we confess. But as St. James points out in our Epistle lesson, our faith needs to not only be in our hearts but that public confession from your mouth is supposed to go hand-in-hand with your actions towards others. In fact, he says that an active, confessing faith cannot be separated from the good works that ought to flow naturally from it.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:32-33, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” In other words, your faith cannot be silent. Will you fail at that? Absolutely. We all do. But there is forgiveness and restoration in Jesus. Repenting of your sins to God is actually a confession of your faith; your faith in His forgiveness. So don’t let your faith go silent. Boldly confess it by coming here regularly to God’s House where your faith will be fed and restored. Sing His praises as your Lord and Savior, here and everywhere. Then go out and live your Christian life so that it speaks the truth of God’s saving love to everyone you meet. Be like those noisy stones that Jesus spoke of, and let your rock-solid faith be heard in both your words and your actions, singing His praises all throughout your life. Amen!
Soli Deo Gloria!