There are three different times in the Bible where it says, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” The crucifixion of Christ took place where a stone had been rejected by builders in the Jerusalem area. When looking for stones to harvest, if the builder found boulders that had large crevices in them, then those particular areas would not qualify to be used for building material. It is that kind of place that describes Calvary. The Romans would wedge the bottom of a cross into the crevice and secure it. That is why the Scripture say that the stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone. The Cross that Jesus was crucified on (which totally changed human history) was wedged into a stone that was rejected. On this Wednesday of holy week, as we continue to follow Jesus to Calvary, it is imperative to remember that we aren’t just following Jesus nostalgically as He approaches the Cross; we are actually re-entering into our own history because we went to the Cross with Him and were crucified in Christ. Good Friday and Easter morning is not just His story; it is your story. At the Cross, your journey into becoming a whole new creature began.
I love the way Psalm 118:22 – 23 puts it; “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”
Why was the whole redemptive event built on a rejected stone? I believe at least in part because God wants us to know that the new self, created in Christ to experience abundant life of Christ, was built on the foundation of broken human beings who have lived with rejection and self-rejection. The enemy loves to lie to us and tell us that the abundant life is beyond our reach because we are like stones that the builders have rejected. The enemy wants us to think that we are such a mess that even though we can be forgiven and guaranteed a place in heaven, triumphant living is not for us. When I first surrendered my life to Christ 46 years ago, that is what I believed. I was suffering from clinical mental illness; clinical anxiety, and clinical depression. I was grateful to belong to Jesus, and I experienced His presence, but I was in such bad shape those convinced that I could no true freedom and that God couldn’t really use me in any relevant way. I knew I was broken, and I knew I was broken because of choices I had made in life, or others had made, and so I was just grateful to know God’s love and did not feel alone anymore, but I was convinced that the “reigning in life” that 2 Corinthians 5:17 promises wasn’t for me. But after two years of believing those lies, I discovered that what God accomplished in the finished work of Christ was a marvelous thing indeed. I was just the kind of broken mess He was looking for.
Fallen humanity was so helpless and so hopeless that there was nothing we could have done to change our situation and condition. It had to all be God’s doing, and it was. The only answer for fallen and broken humanity was death and resurrection, and it all happened in Christ at the Cross and Resurrection. He did not just die for us; He died as us, and our old man was buried with him to be left behind forever, and on Easter morning, we rose in union with His resurrection life so that the new self would be more marvelous than anything we could’ve ever imagined. The Lord is not threatened by the crevices and broken places in our lives. He specializes in using weaknesses as platforms to demonstrate His strength.
“For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God’s chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God’s chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, he might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God, but by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, LET Him WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”1 Corinthians 1:26 – 31