Luke 19:28-40
Mandatory Worship
What do these sayings have in common?
He’s telling it like it is.
She’s speaking for America.
He’s calling for a political revolution.
She’s going to restore the American dream for hardworking families.
He’s going to make America great again.
Yes, these are all campaign slogans recently used. (Is anyone sick of the elections yet? God help us!) Candidates always promise higher employment, tax cuts, and stronger security. And the underlying message seems to be, “We need a president who will lead us in victory over all our enemies and take us into a glorious future!”
If you replace “president” with “Messiah,” you could be right there at the original Palm Sunday, in Jesus’ day. Israel had been under Roman captivity for some time. The people ached for a leader—the long-awaited Messiah—who would come and free them from oppression and put them as a nation back in world leadership.
Jesus came, but not on a battle-hardened steed; rather, on the back of a colt, a baby donkey. The message should have been clear: God’s reign would not come by force. The kingdom of God would come one heart at a time, until Jesus returns again. Jesus also fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, which says, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Jesus had given his disciples detailed instructions on how and where to find the colt, and it all unfolded just as he had said. Perhaps later, as events of that first Holy Week seemed to spiral out of control, the disciples might think back to these simple directions and contemplate how God really does have everything in control, even when it doesn’t seem like it.
As Jesus rode into the capital city, people began throwing their clothing on the dirt road ahead of him. They honored him as a king. When he got to the outskirts of Jerusalem, the fervor rose as the crowd praised God for all the miracles they had seen. I wonder about that verse: Do we take note of the miracles occurring daily around us, as God stirs in our heart to help someone near us, as God brings a healing, as God brings a salvation of someone’s soul? On that first Palm Sunday, the news of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead was creating quite a stir, along with all the other miracles Jesus had been doing. The people were overwhelmed with excitement as they finally had their Messiah at hand. They quoted from Psalm 118, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
What captivates me the most about today’s passage is the statement Jesus made when the Pharisees asked him to hush his fan club. In verse 40 he replied, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” In other words, there is something so exciting, so supernatural going on here, that all of creation must acknowledge it; thus today’s title, “Mandatory Worship.”
Mandatory worship seems like an oxymoron, because how can true worship be forced? In the year 1972 the Supreme Court directed the United States Military Academy to drop the requirement for compulsory worship. No longer would each cadet have to attend a Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish service every Sunday morning. The other service academies followed suit, as did later the state-funded military academies. Some people mourn such changes in our nation’s history, longing for the good old days of compulsory prayer in schools, for example. But in today’s pluralistic world, do you really want compulsory prayer? After all, it may not be the Christian prayer you imagined.
I showed up at West Point just six years after the compulsory chapel law was lifted, and I didn’t even appreciate the difference, because I was in chapel every Sunday anyway. Truth be told, I was desperate for all the help I could get! But my worship was freely exercised, as it should be in this nation that was founded on the very notion of freedom of worship.
Yet Jesus comes along and says, “If the people don’t cry out, the stones will have to proclaim my glory!” I get the idea that nothing could hold back praise for God that day, even if the people’s shouts of joy would in a few days turn to demands for crucifixion. Regardless of the people’s shallow hearts, God was on the move. Jesus said, “It’s compulsory worship. Somebody or something is going to worship God today, because great things are happening!”
Some scholars think Jesus was quoting scripture when he talked about the stones crying out. In Habakkuk 2:9-11, the prophet Habakkuk spoke for God in saying,
“Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin! You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.”
Certainly Jesus condemned much of the commercial activity going on in God’s house. Remember his cleansing of the Temple? He said crooked merchants had converted it from a house of prayer to a den of thieves. These currency converters and sacrifice sellers charged enormous sums for their monopolized services, gypping desperate pilgrims traveling from afar. Jesus’ arrival coincided with the largest gathering of the year, Passover, and the scalping would have been enormous.
Yes, Jesus may have been thinking of that Habakkuk passage. But I’m wondering if he was also thinking of a simpler and more universal theme: that all of creation is designed to worship God. Several verses in the Bible poetically speak of the creation in anthropomorphic language (attributing human characteristics) such as:
Psalm 96:11 - “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it.”
Psalm 98:7-9 - “Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord.”
Psalm 114:7 - “Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.”
Isaiah 55:12 - “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Or consider John the Baptist’s harsh words for the Pharisees, found in Matthew 3:9 - “And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”
Well, if the creation can sing and praise its Creator, and if God can turn stones into followers, why does God need us? The fact is, he doesn’t need us. That was John’s message to the arrogant religious elite in the last verse. God doesn’t need people who think that God needs them. Before he created humans, God was in perfect fellowship with himself in the Trinity. And as John said, God can just come up with other worshipers. If he can’t find them among people, he will look to the stones to cry out.
God doesn’t need us, but he does want us. God chooses to love us and wants us to worship him. Scripture says “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8). God put a plan in place from the beginning of creation to send a Messiah to save us from our sins, even though that Messiah would be rejected and die a painful death on a cross. That one pure sacrifice would cover God’s righteous wrath for the sins of all who put their trust in him. That’s the gospel, the good news.
So wouldn’t it be best if we realized our need for worship? Wouldn’t it be best if we went to chapel on our own, as I did as a desperate cadet? Wouldn’t it be best if we were desperate for God, if our worship was natural—not contrived or forced? Wouldn’t it be best if we recognized the miracles that happen all around us, every day? Wouldn’t it be best if we called out to God with all our heart, recognizing that in him alone our deepest needs will be met?
The church father, Augustine, wrote that each of us has a “God-shaped vacuum” that can only be filled by God. Sure, we try to fill it with all kinds of cheap imitations, what the Bible calls “idols”—our work, beauty, fame, accomplishments, 401Ks, new cars, new houses, new loves, food, leisure. (Did I get to your idol yet?) But a God-shaped vacuum can only be filled by the God who gives us all these other things.
The truth is, we are designed to worship God and God alone. That’s why the Ten Commandment start off with, “You shall have no other gods before me.” God is jealous for our attention to him alone. God wants us to be worshipers, not just in chapel on Sunday but on every day and at every moment, aware of his presence, his love, his guiding, his provision, with our hearts shouting praise to him. Because if we don’t … the stones will have to do it for us! Let us pray.
God, please turn us into 24/7 worshipers. Help us this week to be very aware of your presence in and around us. Help us to notice you at work in big and small ways, to see miracles in our midst. Help us to long for you as nothing else, because you are our God and we are your people. We want to praise you with all of our being. Help us when we fall short. In Jesus’ name, amen.
