Before he vanquished his people’s enemies, he would first teach his people to love their enemies (Luke 6:27-31), and then suffer under the hands of his enemies in order to atone for his people’s sins. He upended Israel’s present worship practices (John 2:13-22; Luke 19:45-46) and taught truth that penetrated through their external religious façade into the depths of their hearts (Matt. 5:21-48). Such a “stone” would not fit the Jewish leaders’ self-righteous, glory-seeking, money-loving, enemy-hating building plans, so they tossed it outside the city.

When Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the church (Acts 4:11; Eph 2:20), it means that his person and work (his sinless life, atoning death, and resurrection) is the only basis of our relationship with God and fellowship with one another. The “building” that God is constructing today is not an inanimate building (like the temple in the OT), but a spiritual building, consisting of individual people who compose the very structure of this building. Christians are little “stones” that rest upon the cornerstone, Jesus Christ (1 Pet 2:4-6).

The Rejected Cornerstone

In the Ancient Near East, larger buildings and homes would use ashlar stones which were bigger than the typical foundation stones used on smaller homes. These ashlar stones had finished faces and square corners so the walls would remain aligned during the subsequent building process. A stone would be rejected for the foundation if it wasn’t finished properly or if its corners weren’t perfectly squared. When Psalm 118:22 tells us of builders who rejected a particular stone that afterward became the cornerstone, it is referring to this process of selecting the right foundation stones for a large-scale building project.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time were looking for a particular kind of Messiah to provide the foundation for their kingdom building project: a powerful militant King who would deliver them from the hands of their oppressors and provide them with a glorious empire. They wanted immediate vindication over their enemies and a place of prominence within God’s reign. They were primarily interested in building a kingdom of glory but not equally interested in establishing righteousness, holiness, humility, and God-pleasing worship.

A “Failed” Inspection

When the religious leaders began to inspect Jesus to see if he could be the foundation stone for their kingdom, they quickly determined that he did not fit with their blueprints. Jesus called for repentance and humble faith in him for the forgiveness of sin (Matt 26:28; Luke 18:9-14). He rebuked the religious leaders for their hypocrisy and called them to pursue lives of God-centered authenticity and worship (Matt 23:1ff).

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