Is That Rock Talking?

I live in the Bible belt, where there are churches on every corner and five in between them.  Recently, I took a trip outside of the Bible belt and was really bothered.  There were only two differences I noticed between the two.  The first was fairly obvious; the number of churches was drastically different.  The second difference was much more subtle.  I didn’t notice it at first, no reason to notice it.  The people were very nice and courteous.  And then it happened.  I asked a man where he went to church.  His response didn’t shock me, but made me start thinking.  He said, “I don’t go to church, I don’t believe any of that stuff.”  I asked another lady when the chance came up.  Same response, she said, “I’m not going to that sort of stuff.”  Again and again the responses were the same.  Not only were they not in church, but they never have been to church and are not even thinking about it.  I am use to everyone going to church, not that they are believers, but to at least go to church.

Though we need missionaries in North America that is not what I want to talk about.  I started thinking of a very specific verse.  Let’s set the scene here.  Jesus is riding on the back of a colt making His entrance into Jerusalem.  The crowds are going crazy.  The people are laying their cloaks on the ground in front of Jesus so the colt isn’t touching the ground.  Jesus is being treated as royalty.  Jesus’ followers even start shouting, “Blessed is the King!”  And then some of the people in the crowd get upset about what is being said.  These are the teachers of the law, the know-it-alls of scripture; those that got upset were Pharisees.  They were upset and wanted the people to stop making such a big deal out of Jesus.  The Pharisees were so upset they wanted Jesus to make the disciples stop saying these things.

Luke 40:35-40

They brought it (a colt) to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

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: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

The last verse, verse 40, is the verse that I started to dwell on.  My friends we are not being loud enough about Jesus.  We are not shouting about our Savior, our King, Our God!  If we don’t start to shout louder I am afraid of what might happen.  Jesus says, “if we keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”  If Jesus’ followers are remaining quiet, then creation will have to do the job, the message of Christ cannot be kept quiet.

Creation can only cry out in two ways. Creation is very beautiful and sings the glory of the Lord, that’s the first way.  The second is what scares me.  For creation to make us take notice, some sort of catastrophe has occurred.  Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods, fires, blizzards, avalanches, droughts all scream the power and authority of Jesus.  If we do not start speaking out about Jesus, creation is going to be forced to speak louder.

One last thought about this verse.  It is the job of the disciple to spread the name and truth of Jesus.  To be a disciple, you cannot be quiet about Jesus.

Haley Uhrig