When the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem witnessed Jesus’ entry into the city, they immediately demanded that he stop what his disciples were doing (Luke 19:39). The Roman procurator, Pilate at that time, would have taken a dim view of self-appointed messiahs, announcing their readiness to lead the people. The Jewish authorities were suddenly in great fear. An uproar would have taken place, if they tried to arrest Jesus at that time, and one would surely develop, if the Roman military suddenly came down from the walls, upon Pilate’s orders to stop what was taking place within the Temple compound (cf. John 11:48).
A war between the Jews and Rome could immediately break out, if word of what was taking place reached the ears of Pilate. Suddenly the tide had turned. The Jewish authorities had thought to put Jesus in fear of them, but Jesus, riding lowly upon the colt of an ass (Zechariah 9:9), and entering the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem, and coming into the Temple placed the authorities in great fear of losing everything they had. If Pilate should become aware of what was taking place, war would immediately break out.
According to Matthew 21:10-16, the Pharisees objected to what Jesus’ disciples were saying once Jesus had entered Jerusalem. Some scholars think they voiced their objections, while Jesus was still descending the mount, but this is obviously wrong. The Pharisees, who objected to the proceedings in Luke 19:39, were the Jewish authorities inside the Temple compound. No one seems to have objected to what Jesus was doing, until he arrived in Jerusalem.
Jesus replied to the Pharisees (Luke 19:40) by saying, if his disciples were silenced, the very stones of the Temple would cry out. Some scholars believe Jesus phrase is a Jewish idiom meaning it would be impossible to make his disciples cease their praise. This may very well be true, but I believe there are at least two other meanings for the phrase.
First, stones are often used metaphorically for people in the Bible (Isaiah 51:1; cf. Genesis 17:15-17). Jesus used the term to describe Simon (Peter). Cephas (Aramaic) or Peter (Greek) means stone. Paul describes Jesus as a stone or rock (Romans 9:23), and the term is also used for God (cf. 1Samuel 2:2; Deuteronomy 32:4, 18, 31). In Luke 3:8 John the Baptist is probably using a play on words in the Aramaic that is lost in the Greek. The word for “stones” in Aramaic is abnayya, and the word for “children” is benayya. John seems to be pointing to observable stones at his location, which he implies are gentiles or folks who are not physically descended from Abraham. In Luke 19:40 Jesus seems to do the same thing, and the gentiles would be the Roman guards looking down upon what was happening. In other words, the very people the Jewish authorities thought would object to what the disciples claimed about Jesus, would hail him as their Savior and Lord, which they later did, and still do, through their response to the Gospel.
Secondly, later during that week Jesus journeyed to the Temple, but no one came out to greet him, and he wept over how that would eventually play out in history. The fact that no one came out of the Temple to welcome and praise their coming Messiah, shows that “they” were silenced (by the false doctrines of the Jewish authorities). When Jesus announced at his so-called Triumphant Entry, which actually occurred at his second entry into Jerusalem that week, that the Son of Man (i.e. the Messiah) had to be lifted up (i.e. he had to die – crucified), his supporters were shocked, wondering what sort of Messiah (Son of Man) this was (cf. John 12:31-34). However, Jesus responded that they should walk in the light they had (i.e. they already believed he was the Messiah, so don’t doubt), but they didn’t heed Jesus’ advice.
Therefore Jesus “hid himself from them” (John 12:35-36). When Jesus entered the city for the third time that week, the people in Jerusalem didn’t come out to welcome him. That is, their praise was silenced, because they believed the false doctrines of the Pharisees about a warlike messiah. Therefore, the “stones cried out” in fulfilled prophecy in that Jesus, as the Messiah, returned in judgment from the right hand of God and destroyed both Jerusalem and the Temple, cir. 70 AD (Matthew 26:63-64), and the rubble of those stones testify that Jesus is the Messiah, ruling from the heavens (cf. Matthew 24:29-30).
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