Ever called anybody, “dumb as a rock”? It’s not a compliment to be sure! We usually use the word “dumb” to refer to a lack of intelligence. (Rocks certainly lack intelligence!) But of course the word dumb really means the inability to speak. Perhaps a person is unable to speak because they lack the intellectual ability to do so. It should be noted that it does actually take quite a bit of mental power to be able to: form thoughts, translate them into language, and then have the muscle coordination to be able to create recognizable sound patterns called words. (Although given how much many unintelligent people have to say, one could wonder how much brain power speech actually does need!)
We should note that highly
intelligent people may be technically dumb.
The late Stephen Hawking was brilliant scientist, but disease rendered
him wheel chair bound and unable to speak for much of his life. I had a neighbor growing up who was probably
a genius, but he frequently spoke with a stutter.
Whatever link there may or may not
be between intelligence and speech, we can all agree that rocks don’t
talk. They are truly dumb in every sense
of the word. Or are they?
When Jesus comes in to the
city of Jerusalem on that Sunday centuries ago a crowd of disciples welcomed
him in by spreading their cloaks on the road and spreading palm branches. They cried out, “Blessed is the king who
comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in
heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
Some Pharisees took issue with this.
They told Jesus to tell his followers to stop. But Jesus responds, “I tell you, if these
were silent, the stones would shout out.”
But of course stones don’t shout
out! Yet let’s note that stones play a
role quite often in Luke’s gospel. Jesus
mentions stones crying out right here.
Later in today’s gospel reading Jesus will be lamenting the future of
Jerusalem and say, “…they will not leave one stone upon another.” Indeed, almost 40 years later the Romans did
completely level the entire city. In
Luke 20:17 Jesus says, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone.” And there also, “Everyone
who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush everyone on
whom it falls.”
In the gospel reading for next
Sunday we’ll encounter the stone that seals Jesus’ tomb. We’ll discover that that stone acts in a very
un-stone-like way.
Near the beginning of Luke’s gospel
we read about the ministry of John the Baptist.
John said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Do not
begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you,
God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”
We know full well that stones can’t
talk, as Jesus said they could. And we
certainly know that stones can’t become children to Abraham, as John the
Baptist said they could. Yet Luke is
making a point about God’s power here.
Let’s also note that stones show up
twice in testing of Jesus by the devil in the wilderness. There the devil tempts Jesus to do a major
spectacle by throwing himself off the temple with the quote, “On their hands
they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”
And finally, the devil says to
Jesus, who is famished after not eating for 40 days, “If you are the Son of
God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” After all, the wilderness is full of stones. What’s one more or less? Who will know? Well, if we consider the perspective of
Luke’s gospel, the stone will know!
As we consider all these stones that
have the power to: talk, become children, crush things, or become a loaf of
bread let’s remember the story from Exodus 19 where God meets the people of
Israel in the wilderness after they’ve left slavery in Egypt. Moses is commanded by God to go up Mount
Siani. Limits are set all around the mountain
so that no person or animal approaches it lest they die. On the day Moses is to go up there is thunder
and lightning as well as thick clouds.
The mountain trembles and quakes with the presence of God upon it. It is as if the very molecules the mountain
was made of were trembling with their proximity to God.
Reformation theologian Martin Luther
was not a pantheist. Pantheists believe
that everything is God; or that God is everything. He was, however, what we’d call a
panentheist. That is, that God is
present in all things; or all things bear God’s presence. This is certainly true as we remember that to
exist is to be in God’s presence, for apart from God existence is not
possible. Stones are the presence of
God.
Certainly stones cannot speak. That’s a scientific reality. They also cannot think. They do not have brains. And yet, as Luke suggests to his readers,
stones do bear God’s presence …with a certain sensibility. The stones along the road the day Jesus
entered Jerusalem recognized the presence of the Savior of the universe
entering the city. The stones that the
city was built with, all of which would be thrown down into rubble forty years
later, recognized that God incarnate was there.
How about the Pharisees who
witnessed the praises of the crowds of disciples Jesus as he entered the city
and told them to be quiet? How about the
chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people as they look for a
way to kill Jesus? How come these
intelligent, highly educated, well-spoken experts in theology didn’t get
it? Were they dumber than rocks? Apparently so.
Perhaps the better question to ask
is, are we?
The religious leaders who opposed
Jesus had a lot on their minds that week.
Jerusalem was jam packed with people for the Passover holiday. The place was bursting at the seams. Pontius Pilate, who preferred to be at his
sea-side home on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, had probably come into
Jerusalem some days before with perhaps a legion of troops as a show of force,
and to keep the peace should the Jewish crowds become unruly. If you were a Jewish religious leader you
feared a riot.
You also feared unorthodox
teachings. You feared that the strong
and strict teachings that preserved Jewish faith and identity would be
forgotten or watered down. Keeping faith
strong was an ongoing battle.
And then you have Jesus of Nazareth,
an uneducated itinerant preacher from up north somewhere unimportant, who comes
riding into down with disciples proclaiming him Lord and king. He’s known to have teachings that are
questionable. Then, as Luke tells it, as
soon as Jesus gets into Jerusalem, he heads into the temple and starts driving
the merchants and money changers out calling it a den of robbers. From that perspective, what would you do?
When you hear of tariffs and stock
market tumbles, what occupies your mind?
When you think of inflation and interest rates, what world view
dominates your thoughts? Federal
workforce restricting, tax rates, immigration, wildfires, climate change, mass
extinctions, floods, earthquakes, wars in: Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, and many other
places, instability in Haiti; not to mention your own personal overstressed:
finances, schedule, medical needs, and who knows what all else…
I think we could rightly claim that
all of that is important. None of it
should be shrugged off or ignored. And
yet, in the midst of all of that; and in the midst of all of our education and
talents and abilities and intelligence, could we recognize the presence of
Jesus entering? Or are we also dumb as
rocks?
I suspect we very well might be.
There is good news for us. All four of the gospels record the
crucifixion of Jesus. Of the four only
Luke’s gospel records Jesus saying from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do.” He doesn’t
say it to anyone in particular. I think
he meant it for everyone – even people who are as dumb as rocks.
Quite likely the stones that pave
the church parking lot, and the concrete under the carpet that is under our
feet, or the foundation of the home you are in for those of you who are
watching online, would do a better job of recognizing Jesus than we can. But our God loves us. Jesus didn’t die to save the stones. They’re smart enough not to sin. Jesus died to save us.
We can live and move and be with a
sense of joy and delight, despite our failings.
We should live with the perspective that all things that fill our minds
are relatively unimportant clutter that keeps us from recognizing Jesus. We are stronger, and we are more loving, when
we keep God truly at the center of our lives, and we can build from there. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll even be smart
enough to be like the stones who can recognize the presence of God and respond.
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