What does Luke 19:39 mean?
Jesus is riding on a donkey to Jerusalem. The crowd around Him is shouting, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Luke 19:38). They are laying palm fronds and their cloaks on the ground so even the donkey Jesus rides won't set foot on the dirt (John 12:13; Luke 19:36).In this instance, what the Pharisees say makes a lot of sense. Pharisees are often portrayed in a shallow, cartoon-like way: as deeply wicked, stupid, or ignorant men. While most rejected Jesus out of pride and arrogance, their sect was respected for a reason. The Pharisees had enough sense to know how this scene would look to the Roman occupiers. Among their great fears is that men like Jesus will inspire the Romans to react with violence.
Above them, on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount, is the Antonia Fortress where a Roman tribune commands hundreds of soldiers and horsemen. On the other side of the mount is Pilate's residence. Pilate is a brutal governor who will do anything necessary to keep the peace and prevent a revolt. The Pharisees don't like the Romans, but they don't believe Jesus can expel them. He's an itinerant teacher swarmed by a few hundred farmers, servants, and townsfolks. Plus, they don't like Jesus. They don't want Him to be king because they can't control Him.
From the Pharisees' point of view, to continue this noisy proclamation of Jesus as "king" is to tempt fate. If Pilate comes to believe that the people are joining a Jesus-led revolt against the Roman Empire, the results will be horrific. Hundreds of thousands of Jews from all over the empire flood into Jerusalem on the Passover. Pilate—infamous for his cruelty and excessively violent responses—might destroy them all.
But both Jesus and Pilate see things differently. Pilate sees Jesus as a curiosity, not a threat (John 18:33–40). Jesus knows He is the King of the Jews, but He's not going to overthrow the Romans any time soon. He accepts the accolades of the crowd as His due, but He knows another crowd—probably including some of these same people—will soon call for His death (Luke 23:18–25).
