From the Pastor's Desk . . . .
“Rejected Stone”
The first part of Psalm 118 is the song of a procession of Jewish worshipers as they wound their way up the hill to the Temple in Jerusalem. When the people arrived at the Temple gate, the leader would sing, “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD” (Psalm 118:19). And the people inside the gates would reply, “This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it” (Psalm 118:20). Then together they would sing songs of praise to the Lord. At the heart of this beautiful Hebrew processional song of worship are the words: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22).
The Jewish people applied this reference to Abraham and David, as well as to Israel herself. She was small and despised, hated and held in contempt by the Gentile nations. But what was relatively true of Israel the nation was completely true of Jesus. The Jewish “builders”—the teachers of the Law, the priests, and the Pharisees—rejected Christ with disdain. He did not fit their ideal of how God would build His Temple. He was a stone hewn from a quarry other than themselves, not according to their preferences or expectations.
In Matthew 21:33-46 Jesus told the parable of a landowner who planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenant farmers, and went on a journey. When harvest time came, the landowner sent his servants to collect his share of the crop, but the farmers beat one of the servants, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent his son, thinking, “They will respect my son.” However, the farmers took the heir and killed him. Jesus concluded His parable with the familiar words from Psalm 118:22: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
With this parable, Jesus exposed the guilt of the religious leaders. It was not immoral living or inhumanity toward other people that was their greatest sin. Their crime across the centuries was rejection and refusal to listen to the many prophets of God who came to them. Worst of all, they had rejected and were plotting to kill God’s own Son. Jesus gave them a warning that is still to be heeded today: “And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (Matthew 21:44). Jesus is either the cornerstone on which we build our lives, or He becomes the stone of judgment under which we are crushed.
By Pastor Edwards
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