Jerusalem was commonly understood to be the “city of the great King” (Mt 5:35, cf. Ps 48:2). Hence believing Jews welcomed Jesus by faith into the city with palm branches (a sign of victory and nationalism), by saying “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord –the King of Israel” (John 12:13). And when the Pharisees demanded that Jesus rebuke his adulating followers, he declared, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). If Jesus was secretly trying to spiritualize or reinterpret the prophetic significance of Jerusalem, his response would be appallingly duplicitous.

-John P. Harrigan "The Gospel of Christ Crucified" p.167