Screaming Stones

Luke 19:40 He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."


40 καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν οὗτοι σιωπήσουσιν, οἱ λίθοι κράξουσιν.

This is Jesus' response to the Pharisees' request to quiet His disciples. They didn't think much of all the shouting that was going on for the triumphal entry. They certainly didn't like shouting that smacked of blasphemy to their ears.

I tend to very quickly gloss over this verse, but reading it in Greek forced me to slow down a bit. What do you think of when you think of stones taking on life? I think of the "living stones" that Peter describes in 1 Peter 2. I also think of how in Matthew 3:9 John the Baptizer told the Pharisees that God would make sons of Abraham out of the stones found there. There seems to be this idea that if the folks who should recognize and worship Jesus refuse to then God will make disciples out of basically nothing.

I am one of these. I am one of οἱ λίθοι κράξουσιν.  This verb is in the future indicative, but you should take it the way the ESV translates it. The construct with ἐὰν indicates a third-class condition, which means not certain, but probable. This is why you get the translation of "the very stones would cry out." It shows that if the disciples were silent then something would have to praise Him.

I get to be one of these. The question then becomes what I do with this. Am I going to keep crying out praise to Him? Or am I going to become silent like one of the Pharisees that should have known better? It's an awesome privilege to be a dead stone made alive to worship the Lord. I hate to waste that privilege.