sharply, then shiver despite the warm sunshine of the morning.
“What is it?” I demanded.
He tried to wave away my inquiry, but I would not be dissuaded. “What?” I said again.
“Don’t you know the rest of this psalm? It’s the one recited when the ram or bull is being prepared for slaughter. The next verse says, “With boughs in hand, bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar.”8
Then I also shuddered as I watched the thousands of people waving their boughs. Jesus, sitting on the donkey named Joyful, was led along the path leading toward Mount Moriah and the place of sacrifice. We were heading toward the spot where Abraham had prepared to offer up Isaac. Where David had brought the ark of the covenant to stop a plague that was decimating Israel. Where untold thousands of sacrificial animals had spilled their blood over the last thousand years. Where almighty God had said that he would provide himself, the sacrifice.
But where would it all end?
It was a place steeped in blood yet still was not quenched. Would there ever be enough sacrifices … or one sacrifice great enough … to cause the need for sacrifice to cease?
Some of Nicodemus’s brother Pharisees arrived then, bustling with self-importance. Thrusting themselves through the assembly, they stood in front of Joyful and demanded, “Rabbi! Make them stop!”
“Rebuke your followers! Don’t let them cry, ‘Hosanna!’ to you!”
Jesus looked at them and then at me before pointing at the stones of the roadbed. “Even if they stopped,” he said, “then the very stones themselves would cry out. The rocks would prophesy.”9
The stones of Jerusalem had witnessed kings and prophets, celebration and tragedy, David and Solomon and Isaiah and Abraham and now Jesus of Nazareth. Was that a buzzing, a low humming underfoot? Were these stones of witness also crying out, “Hosanna”?
The Pharisees were shocked and their expressions showed it. In our language stone spelled backward is prophesy. Inside out, upside down, backward, or forward, there was no preventing what was happening. Jesus was proclaimed the King of the Jews that day.
He would sweep all before him! After that day even the religious leaders would see the validity of his claim. Caiaphas and the rest would have to move aside for him. Rome would bargain with him. Perhaps they would replace the foul wretch Antipas with Jesus.
“Hosanna!” I shouted. “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna to the Son of David!”
The cavalcade paused at the crest of the hill, with all Jerusalem sprawled out before it. Leaving Jesus surrounded by his closest followers, the rest of the multitude spilled over the slope. Waving their cloaks and brandishing branches, they gushed like a flood toward the city gates. Soon there would be no one in the Holy City who had not heard that Jesus had arrived! The new king had been proclaimed!
But I stood nearby, my gaze fixed on Jesus’ face. As I watched, despite being surrounded by ten thousand admirers, sadness plucked at his eyes and mouth. Quietly … so quietly that only a handful of us nearest to him could catch it, we heard him say, “If you, Jerusalem, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come when your enemies will not leave one stone on another … because you did not recognize the day of God’s coming to you.”10
If only they knew, I thought. If only they believed! All the suffering of all the ages could have ended on that very day … And Jesus wept.
Notes
Chapter 3
1. Luke 3:7–8
2. Luke 3:8
3. John 1:19–22
4. John 1:23–26
5. Psalm 2:1–2, adapted from NKJV
6. Psalm 2:3–9, adapted from KJV
7. Psalm 2:10–12, adapted from KJV
Chapter 4
1. John 1:29 ESV
2. John 1:30
3. Mark 1:11 ESV
4. John 1:32–34
Chapter 5
1. Psalm 132:10–12, adapted from KJV
2. Psalm 132:13–16, adapted from KJV
3. Psalm 133:1–2, adapted from KJV
Chapter 9
1. Song of Songs 2:14–15
2. Song of Songs 4:9–10, adapted.
3. Read the story in John 2:1–10. Quote from verse 10.
4. Psalm 104:14–15, with first phrase added by authors
5. Psalm 80:14–15
Chapter 10
1. Psalm 136:1, adapted; Hebrew and last line are from the actual Hebrew translation
2. Psalm 105:1–2
3. 1 Chronicles 16:35
Chapter 11
1. John 8:1–11, adapted
Chapter 13
1. Matthew 21:28–31, adapted
2. Matthew 21:32, adapted
3. John 15:1–8, adapted
4. Luke 14:16–24, adapted
Chapter 14
1. John 6:25–70, adapted
Chapter 15
1. John 8:31–59, adapted
Chapter 16
1. John 9:1–7, adapted
2. John 9:13–34, adapted
Chapter 18
1. Psalm 80:3, 8–9 NKJV adapted
2. Psalm 80:10–12, 14 NKJV adapted
3. Psalm 80:14–15, 17–19 NKJV
4. Joel 2:25 ESV, adapted
Chapter 22
1.