Cry out

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

CRY OUT

Luke 19:37-40

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" 40 "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." 

NIV

It must have been one of the most joyous times in the life of the disciples to have Jesus riding into Jerusalem on this donkey. It was understood in those days that a conquering king rides in on a white horse, but a king coming in peace uses a donkey. Jesus was coming to rule Jerusalem but he was coming as a king of peace. How he was going to overthrow the Roman government was not really understood, but with all the miracles he had already done, the crowd must have thought more miracles were to come. What they did not understand was that the cross was the greatest miracle of all. Through the cross Jesus overthrow the rule of not only Rome, but the rule of Satan over minds and souls of all mankind. Yet there lies still another truth in regarding praising God. Some of the Pharisees wanted Jesus to silence his disciples. Perhaps they were just jealous the crowds never gave them that kind of welcome or they just wanted him not to have so much attention because he already threatened their control of the people. Either way, they wanted the crowd silenced and Jesus put them in their place. This surely is the fulfillment of what the prophet Zechariah wrote. This is our life lesson. The point is Jesus needs to be praised, not just in his triumphal entrance, but all throughout the ages. We should not allow others, even those who think themselves as being religious, to silence our voice in giving praise to our Lord. There are some who would not want us to raise our hands in church, saying that is disrespectful, there are others who would tell us only those who attend and are ordained by their church should preach the gospel. There are, of course, those who refuse to accept Jesus, or anything to do with God, in the public square, and would what to silence the whole idea of God because they desire to live in their own darkness. But we cannot allow anyone to silence our voice, we need to speak up, praise God in the highest, we are in fact those stones, we are the living stones being built into the temple of God. We do not have the option of silence, for God has already raised up us stones to cry out praise to the name of Jesus.