Friday, June 3, 2005
Psalm 118:22 The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
BUILT ON THE ROCK
We know from Scripture that the stones for Solomon's temple were excavated from a quarry some distance from the Jerusalem building site. They were cut and shaped at the quarry and then hauled to the place where they were needed. A popular Jewish legend says that one day a stone was sent that was different from all the rest. The builders examined it and said, "There is no place for this stone. There must be some mistake." So they rolled it to the edge of the cliff and pushed it down the steep slope into the Kidron valley.
Months later the builders found the first layer of stones didn't fit! Then they reviewed the construction plans and discovered the problem. They had used the wrong stone for the cornerstone. That's right, the true cornerstone was down in the Kidron valley covered with lichens and debris. When they had hoisted it to the top of the cliff, hauled it back to the right location and put it in place, then all fit perfectly. The stone the builders rejected had become the head of the corner, the chief cornerstone. Every Jew of Jesus' day knew this story.
Furthermore, each year when they went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, they sang Psalm 118 together as they traveled. "The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone."
When Jesus applied this Psalm to himself while teaching in the temple the week of Palm Sunday, the Jewish leadership was enraged that he would claim that, by their rejection of him as their Messiah, they would bring about the fulfillment of Psalm 118 -- and "looked for a way to arrest Him immediately" (Luke 20:19)!
And so it was that just a few weeks later Peter stood in the same temple where his Lord had taught and told those same leaders that "Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead
He is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
