I will never really understand what holds rocks together. I understand the science of it, but why does it work? I can very easily scratch a stone and have dust fall in my hands. Yet, stones are immensely strong. They are literally the mountains.
If you have ever been in a cave, you get a scale of the both the strength and fragility of stones. A cave exists both because the strength of the stone holds up a mountain and because water has washed it away. My father used to joke that NASA’s entire budget was ultimately to take pictures of rocks.
As Jesus rode the colt towards Jerusalem, the followers of Jesus cried out praises after witnessing the signs and wonders Jesus had performed. The religious leaders of the time asked Jesus to correct His disciples and tell them to stop. Jesus’s response was simply, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:40)
Later that same week, Jesus hung on the cross. His followers were scattered. One had betrayed Him and, out of guilt, committed suicide. Another had on three occasions publicly denied knowing Him. The rest were spread out. Only John was written to be at the cross with Jesus’s mother.
Jesus was alone. Stripped of His humanity and beaten nearly to death before the cross, the creator of the universe found Himself dying. Hanging from a tree His own voice created.
As Jesus breathed his last, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” (Matthew 27:51-53)
Just as Jesus promised the religious leaders, as His followers became silent, the stones cried out in praise as only the stones knew the magnitude of what had just occurred.
God chose execution on a cross in order to close the gulf we could not cross. Nails did not keep him on the cross. As Jesus was arrested, He asked His followers, “… do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?” (Matthew 26:53-54)
The cross was the plan. Jesus had to die. The eleven remaining disciples didn’t understand in that moment that victory had been achieved. No one was crying out in praise over what had just happened.
Except the stones.
