Scripture Daily

Context No. 501 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 21:41-46: in context

41They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.” 42Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’? 43“Therefore I tell you, God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit. 44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.” 45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them. 46When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to be a prophet.

Jesus has just told the parable of the wicked tenants, who beat and killed the owner's servants and finally his son, and he has trapped his listeners into pronouncing their own sentence: the owner will destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Then Jesus quotes a line from the Psalms that reframes everything: the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. He is talking about himself. The builders, the religious experts whose job was to build God's house, have examined this stone, him, and thrown it away as useless. And God has taken the very stone they discarded and made it the cornerstone, the single most important stone in the whole structure.

That is a pattern worth holding onto. The people whose entire expertise was in recognizing what belonged in God's building looked at the most important stone of all and rejected it as worthless. And God did not scrap his plan; he built everything on the stone they threw away. What the qualified and confident dismiss, God can make the foundation. But then Jesus adds a warning that removes any option of staying neutral toward this stone. Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and on whomever it falls, it will crush him. You will meet this stone one way or the other. You can fall on it and be broken, humbled, brought low in surrender, or you can resist until it falls on you. What you cannot do is remain untouched by it.

Both halves search me. First, have I, with all my confidence about what matters, dismissed as worthless something, or someone, that God has made central? And second, the stone will not let me stand at a safe distance. I am either being broken open on it, letting it humble and reshape me, or I am setting myself against it and waiting, whether I know it or not, for it to fall. Which is it: am I falling on this stone in surrender, or holding out against it?

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