Amongst the images Peter offers to us in our passage of scripture is the image of God as the Rock. It’s an image
that is used throughout scripture and carries with it a sense of strength that God is solid in commitment towards us, and
that God is somebody we can rely upon. As the words of the Psalmist declares, “Lord, You are my Rock and my Fortress.”
We were singing
earlier the words of the hymn “Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee.” Those words carry with them the idea of God being the one who shelters us from the storm. Having lived a lot of my life by the sea, and knowing the strength of the wind that could turn the waves
into something fearful, that image of ‘the Rock who shelters us’ works for me!
When I was in seminary
in Aberystwyth, Wales, Yvonne took some photographs
one time of the sea crashing into the promenade. She took her life in her hands
to do so, because those waves were hitting the wall with such force that they were sending up huge torrents of water. Some
of them went as high as the four-storey building we were sheltering by. The whole experience was awesome. The crash of the
waves… the force of the water… and then as it came down, the hail of stones that the waves had carried. When it
starts raining rocks, it’s time to head indoors!
Surely you’ve
been driving places and you’ve seen a road sign in mountainous areas that warns, “Beware of Falling Rocks.”
I must confess to being slightly intrigued as to what you are supposed to do if rocks start falling on your car, but at least
you can’t complain, “Well nobody warned me.”
There’s a
wrestler, turned movie star, who calls himself “The Rock.” Big guy! If I get to be Pope and need a bodyguard,
then maybe I’ll give him a call. Nobody’s going to mess with you
if you got a guy like “The Rock” for a bodyguard. But… you know... it would be one thing having “The
Rock” as a bodyguard... but a different story if you were up against him in the wrestling ring. If ‘The Rock’
did one of those fancy moves off the corner ropes and landed on you… well… for me it would be lights out... thank
you and good-night.
In 1 Peter 2 verses
6 and 8 there is a comparison made between Jesus as “a precious cornerstone” in whom “the one who believes
will not be disappointed” and Jesus as being “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” In verse 9 those who disbelieve in the Word and reject Jesus are described as “having an appointment
with doom.” The implication is that either you stand on the Rock of Jesus’
love… or watch out, because the Rock will fall on you.
As with much else
in scripture, there’s a wider picture into which these images fit. Part of this picture goes back to the time after
Jesus was born and was presented to the priest Simeon for His dedication. In Luke 2:34 Simeon makes an intriguing comment. "Behold”
he says, “This Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel." In other words, Jesus was destined to
have different effects on different people. To some, He would be the cause of
their being lifted into the presence of God, for others, He would be their down fall.
Peter takes this
thought and throws in some other ‘rock’ images with it. Let’s look at those contrasting images.
TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE, JESUS IS A "CORNERSTONE"
In verse 4 Peter
describes Jesus as “a living stone, rejected by men and precious in the eyes of God.” There is an echo there of a verse from Psalm 118:22 “The Stone which the builders rejected has become
the chief cornerstone” and Peter quotes from that text in verse 7.
As the weather gets
warmer ‘Yard Sale' is approaching. What do we do at a Yard Sale? Well, basically we take the junk we don't want, and
someone else pays us money for it. But we have to be careful. One man's junk is another man's treasure.
Not too many years
ago, an 85 year old widow in Wisconsin died, and her only living relative, a niece had the responsibility of going through the lady’s
possessions and taking what she wanted and selling the rest. Among the lady’s possessions was a box that had been in
the attic for probably 50 years untouched. The niece believed it to be just a bunch of worthless old bubble gum cards.
However, one visitor
to the garage sale she arranged became the beneficiary of this ignorance. He purchased the box for $1. Within the box were
hundreds of mint condition baseball cards from the 20's, 30's and 40's - Rookie cards of baseball legend Babe Ruth, and many
others. The total collection, which was purchased for $1, was later estimated to have a value of over $475,000!
“The Stone
the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Jesus died upon the cross because of the rejection of the people.
Though His only crime was love, it was a love that turned the world upside down, revealed peoples true lives and motives,
and challenged the structures of worldly and religious power.
The foolishness
of such rejection was revealed when three days after His murder that love blazed out of the empty tomb, and the life of Christ
was seen to be greater even than mortal death. God calls us to put our faith and life in the hands of that same Jesus. As
we do so, precious promises become ours to claim and we become inheritors of the Kingdom in Jesus’ name.
The cornerstone
is that stone somewhere in the building that states when the building was founded and for what purpose it was built. Jesus
is the cornerstone of those who believe. Their foundation is the living love that comes through God’s Holy Spirit. Their
purpose is the building of God’s kingdom.
As individuals we
are called to make Jesus the rock upon which we build our lives. By following His teachings, we are able to establish our
lives on solid ground. By trusting in God’s Word we are enabled to withstand the "storms" of life. Yet Christian life
is not simply a matter of individual commitment to God. We are also to commit to each other, to love God, and to love our
neighbor.
Peter gives us a
whole series of images of how together we serve God. We are a spiritual house
built upon Christ, called to fulfill certain responsibilities. We are described
as being a chosen race, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God.
We are called God's
special people (9-10) who serve God with the particular task of proclaiming the praises of God. We are people who by God’s
grace have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light. We, who were not a people, are now called ‘the people
of God’; we who have obtained God’s mercy are called to share that experience with the world. And all of this
because Jesus is our foundation, our cornerstone, the One upon whose life and teachings we build and by whose help we construct
new lives in Christ. We build on the Rock.
In more ways than one, Jesus is truly a "cornerstone" to those who believe in Him and follow Him. But what
about those who do not believe in Jesus, who do not make Him the "cornerstone" of their lives?
TO THOSE WHO DISBELIEVE, JESUS IS A "STUMBLING STONE"
Peter quotes a passage
from Isaiah 8:13-15 that suggests that for those who paid scant regard to the holiness of God, then their lack of appreciation
of the awesome claim God had upon them would be their downfall. God’s revelation would become for them, not a Rock upon
which they built their lives, but a stumbling stone.
In a passage we
often overlook things. Jesus talks in a similar way. In Matthew 21:42 and 44 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures:
the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone? This was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.
The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
Remember we were
thinking earlier about the wrestler, ‘The Rock’? I was wondering which we would prefer to have fall on us - a
tough-man as a bodyguard and protector, or ‘The Rock’. In these verses Jesus tells us that either He can be to
us the Rock upon which we build or lives, or the Rock that falls on us.
We shrink back from
considering such judgmental pictures of God. We like to think that belief is simply an option we can either reject or accept
without consequence. Such passages as this bring us up sharp and inform us that not only does it matter what we believe, but
that the consequences of believing in things that are wrong is that they become our downfall.
In our more enlightened
moments, I think we know that. We know that all actions have consequences, but sadly we have become masters of ignoring or
evading the consequences of our actions. At the same time, we recognize we are fooling nobody but ourselves. If God is indeed
a God of truth and a God of justice, then wrong belief like wrong action will ultimately receive its due penalty.
CONCLUSION
"Jesus is the Rock.”
But what kind of rock is He to us - the Rock that lifts us up or the rock which brings us down?
If we are willing
to believe and obey Jesus, He can be the CORNERSTONE upon which we can build our lives. He can be the cornerstone upon which
we build the Church and from which we share the message of His love with others.
But if we disbelieve,
then by necessity Jesus will be a STUMBLINGSTONE…a stumbling stone over which we will fall and whose way, if we reject
it, will become evidenced in broken and shattered lives, both our own and those whom we influence.
There is no middle
ground. It matters what we believe. Let us then hear with fresh insight Peter’s call to faith:
“Come to Him (Jesus), a living stone…
Chosen and precious in God's sight.”
(1 Peter 2:4)
