Rejecting the Cornerstone

Last month we heard Pastor Heath preach on Peter’s use of a stone, quoting Isaiah and Psalm 118, to convey the various images of Jesus being chief cornerstone, the stone that the builders rejected, and the stone that is a stumbling block, a rock of offense.

In the Gospel of Mark, John Mark (the rich kid who was close to Peter) writes of the circumstance under which Jesus himself quotes Psalm 118. It is the Tuesday of the last week of his life. In about two and half days he will be handed over to be tried, tortured, and crucified. This day is significant to Mark, who spends even more time on Tuesday than on the Passover supper, and we can see why. Jesus tangles sharply with the Pharisees and Sadducees as they approach him trying to catch him in his words (11: 27-33). Good luck with that.

After Jesus returns their question of his authority with a question of his own (“Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?”), pitting them between the crowds who love John and their own logic, Jesus tells them what we have come to call the Parable of the Tenants (12:1-12). That he refuses to answer their question and gives them a parable instead is telling. Anytime Jesus tells a parable, it’s a call back to Isaiah: “Keep on hearing but do not understand; keep on seeing but do not perceive” (6:9). Jesus himself quotes this scripture when the disciples ask him why he teaches in parables (see Mt 13:10-11).

For Jesus, parables are like a border crossing. Some people come up to the frontier of their understanding and are allowed to cross. Others see the obstacle and can’t comprehend it, so they call it stupid or simply lose interest in it and leave. But on this occasion, Jesus leaves very little for the Pharisees to speculate about. Very much in the style of Nathan the prophet who confronts Jesus’ earthly father, David, Jesus tells the simple story of tenants who take control of a vineyard and beat or kill servants of the vineyard’s owner when they come to collect the fruit. They even kill the owner’s son. Then Jesus asks the question, “What will the owner of the vineyard do?” Everyone knows the answer to the question. The owner will send armed men and wipe out the tenants and give the vineyard to people who will give the owner what is his due.

Then without segue, Jesus says, “Have you not read this Scripture: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” As with so many of his interactions with the Pharisees, Jesus is rebuking them while extending the opportunity for them to understand the folly of their ways. Jesus does not explicitly say, “I am the chief cornerstone” He lays down the pieces for them to put it together. But they refuse. Their hearts are hardened. They are not trying to understand Jesus, they are trying to accuse him, as they have done since the third chapter of Mark’s Gospel. The fact that they are trying to rob God of his goodness to hoard it for their own glory and use it for their own ends doesn’t even enter their minds.

Just like it never entered ours.

I am particularly burdened by the actions of the Pharisees because I identify with them. Growing up in the church, I understood what I had to look like in order to be accepted. While I accepted Christ at a young age, it took me a while to see that my ability to appear as a Christian was destroying my ability to actually be one. It would never have entered my mind that I was trying to rob God of his goodness for my own purposes if Christ had not been breaking my heart down from the inside out.

The question you need to ask yourself is this: have you learned how to look like a Christian while deep down you are trying to steal God’s goodness for your own ends like the rebels in the parable? If you are, it’s time to stop looking like a Christian and meet Christ.