Jesus Christ, the cornerstone rejected by the builder

Psalm 118:1-2 and 4, 22-27a. April 14, 2023 - Friday in the Octave of Easter

Psalm 118 belongs to the collection of the psalms of praise used during the feast of Passover. There are six of them (Ps 113-118) known as the “Hallel” which means “praise God”. The last psalm of this short collection begins with a reference to God’s steadfast love. Its main focus is thanksgiving for God’s deliverance from the threat of death. Jesus sang those psalms with his disciples during the Last Supper just before his passion. No wonder that through this psalm the Church proclaims Christ’s resurrection and final victory over death. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55).

But, the key verse that I want to reflect upon is the one about “the stone which the builders rejected” that

“has become the cornerstone” (Ps 118:22). This verse played an important role in the Christian proclamation of faith. Jesus used it as a punch line in his parable of the wicked tenants (see Mark 12:1-12) and applied it to the religious leaders of his time that rejected him and his message. Saint Peter did the same in his sermon preached before Annas, the high priest and other Jewish religious leaders. By rejecting Jesus they rejected the gift of salvation that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob provided for them in Jesus Christ, His Son (see Acts 4:1-12).

The cornerstone is also known as the foundation stone. It is the first stone set in an ancient construction of buildings. The builders took time to choose the right stone because the entire construction depended on it. Thus, in the process of searching for that stone, many stones were rejected. The psalmist uses this image and turns it into a surprising message: what the builders rejected God has accepted. The early Jewish Christians immediately saw in it the prophecy about Jesus who was rejected by “the religious builders” of Judaism but accepted by God as the cornerstone of a “new building”, the Church. Apostle Peter in his first letter refers to Jesus Christ as “a cornerstone chosen and precious” seeing in Him the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah: “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion,

a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation” (Is 28:16). On this cornerstone, the Church is being constructed by God. Saint Peter writes: “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:4-5).

The story of Jesus and the growth of the Church is indeed God’s miracle “wonderful in our eyes” (Ps 118:23). When Jesus died on the cross nobody could imagine that on Easter Sunday the tomb of Jesus would empty and Christ’s resurrection declared to the whole world. When a group of few Jewish disciples of Christ began to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ nobody could foresee its impact on the history of the world. Persecuted by the Jewish religious establishment and the Roman authorities, the early Church should die at its inception. And yet, it did not only die but has grown into the largest religion in the world. How could this happen? As the psalmist says: “By the LORD has this been done” (Ps 118:23).

Today, we also see Jesus being rejected by many politicians, contemporary philosophers and thinkers, mass media, and educational policymakers. But by rejecting Jesus Christ, the world rejects the gift of salvation provided for us by God the Father. “There is no other name” in which we can be saved (see Acts 4:12). Jesus is the cornerstone and the firm foundation on whom God the Father builds a spiritual building, a new temple composed of those who worship God in spirit and truth (see John 4:24).