God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper

There were three kinds of people present when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Two were real, and one was only in Jesus' imagination.

The two real groups:

1. “The whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen” (Luke 19:37).
2. “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples’” (Luke 19:39).

Disciples and Pharisees—all part of Jesus’ welcome party, but with very different goals. The disciples could not help but rejoice (some of them ignorantly) at Israel’s imminent salvation. The Pharisees were there to shut these happy people up. And, failing at that, to at least add to their list of grievances against Christ. (When you are motivated by anger, isn’t it fulfilling to find one more thing to be self-righteously indignant about?)

Then there was a third group of people—not actually present, but entirely possible.

When the Pharisees, trying to stifle the jubilation they were jealous of, tell Jesus to quiet his fans, he says that even if he did, the joy would still resound from the gravel they’re standing on.

This third group of people is in Jesus’ imagination—they are only hypothetical. They’re stones, after all—hard, dead, useless except to walk on, and ignored by all but Jesus.

But there’s something unique about Jesus’ imagination, isn’t there? Unlike you or me, he can speak and make his ideas real. He can hypothesize singing stones (a rock band, perhaps?) and then make them come to be with just a word.

The joy that reverberated through Jerusalem with each Hosanna that morning was enough, apparently, to keep Jesus from raising the stones to praise him. But soon many of those voices turned from commending to condemning and began to call out “Crucify him!”

And as Jesus promised, when those voices of praise were silenced, people like you and me began to be raised from our stony stiffness and death. We were enlivened to join in the joy that must be expressed, the joy that is spreading from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and continues to turn hard hearts into a cobbled choir of praise and life.