What does Luke 19:40 mean?
Riding a donkey, Jesus comes into Jerusalem, an image of the king prophesied in Zechariah 9:9. His disciples, including new followers who heard He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11), shout His praises and place their cloaks on the road like He's a king of old (2 Kings 9:13). The Pharisees are horrified and tell Jesus to quiet His followers, lest the Romans think it's a revolt and come for blood (Luke 19:28–39).Jesus' choice of illustration is interesting. Usually, when the Bible describes nature praising God, it is the heavens and earth (Psalm 96:11–12). Jesus claims the stones would cry out. We don't know exactly what He is referring to, but there are at least three possibilities.
In Joshua 3—4, Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. In memorial, God tells the people to gather twelve stones from the Jordan and make a monument where they lodged (Joshua 4:1–8). Joshua set up a similar monument where the feet of the priests had stood when God parted the waters (Joshua 4:9). God told them to tell their children the monument commemorates how God stopped the waters of the Jordan so they could safely pass into their new home. This was a sign of God's faithfulness: His promise to give Abraham's descendants the land came true (Genesis 15:13–21). Jesus may have meant that if the people hadn't celebrated the coming fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, when a descendent of David is recognized as Israel's eternal King, the stones around them would have cried out as an audible memorial.
Habakkuk 2:11 has a completely different context. It is part of a curse against people who harm others when attempting to build a safe house. "For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond." If Jesus is referring to this passage, He may be saying that the walls of the temple He is riding toward would testify to who He is with the same zeal.
The final possibility is just that Jesus is using simple hyperbole: exaggeration for effect. He's highlighting the importance of the moment, and suggesting that the most mindless, inanimate object of God's creation has more spiritual understanding than the Pharisees.
