Cornerstone or stumbling block?

1 Peter 2:4-8

It's estimated that c.135000 stood in the mud & rain to hear U2 at Glastonbury this year. Meanwhile a crowd of 1200 went to Glyndebourn to hear Mozart's Don Giovani.

Music has the capacity to unite crowds of people. And yet, I know only one person who would happily listen to U2 and Don Giovani – music also has the capacity to divide us in a way that few other things do.

It is also true that Jesus both unites and divides people. And in 1 Peter 2, Jesus is pictured as two different kinds of stone:

• the cornerstone of a temple bringing honour to those who trust in him;
• a stone that trips up, those who reject him, making them stumble and fall.

Which he is to you depends on your attitude to him. But while our attitude to music is of no consequence at all, our attitude to Jesus determines our relationship with God and our eternal destiny.

We begin with Jesus the living cornerstone.

If you look at 1 Peter 2 in the church Bible, you'll see that Peter gets his illustration of Jesus as a stone from the OT – the three quotations are clearly set out – two from Isaiah & one from Psalm 118. So, to understand what Peter's saying, we need to be reminded of what was happening when people first spoke about this stone.

God's people, Israel, was in a terrible state. In a report reminiscent of a tabloid exposé, Isaiah reveals that the nation is full of binge drinkers – even the priests and prophets he writes, 'stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit, and there is not a spot without filth.' The nation is proud and arrogant. They ignore God's word, saying that it's just gobbledegook.

But God will not allow his people to completely abandon him and plunge into utter oblivion. Yes, Assyria will conquer Israel, & destroy her cities, but God will rebuild his people:

“So this is what the Sovereign LORD says, 'See I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.'”

So through Isaiah God promised to rebuild his people around a chosen and precious cornerstone – one that will be a secure foundation for a new people. And when Israel was taken into captivity and Jerusalem was destroyed, the few who remained faithful to God began to look for the coming of a great ruler who would be this tested & precious cornerstone around and upon which God would rebuild his people.

And in passing, notice who this stone will be: Isaiah 8:13-15 shows that the stone is the LORD himself. But Jesus says that he himself is that stone – that chosen & precious cornerstone - thereby implicitly declaring his own divinity:

  “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.  Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’  But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’  And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”  They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

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 marvelous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

So the fruitless people of God rejected God's messengers, the prophets, and even killed God's own Son. And even the people listening to Jesus could see that the response of God would be to 'bring those wretches to a wretched end' – to take the vineyard away from them – to take the kingdom of God away from them; and to give the vineyard to other tenants – to give the kingdom of God to a new people – a people who would produce good fruit for God.

So, whereas Jesus likened his new people to a vineyard, Peter speaks of a new temple - but the same principle underlies both:

Jesus says that his people will be a fruitful people for God's glory.

Peter says that they will be a new & living temple, offering their lives as spiritual sacrifices for God's glory.

And today, as we come to Jesus, the living stone, we also become like living stones, v2, Jesus shares his life with us. Without Christ we were hard, cold, dead stones, separated from God, unwilling and unable to please him. With Christ we become living stones – stones connected to God, filled with his Spirit, and shaped by God into stones that beautify his church and glorify him.

But perhaps you're wondering how you can gain this connection to the living stone? Perhaps you're somewhat envious of those whose Christian faith seems so powerful and precious.

Well, the answer could not be more straightforward, and yet at the same time it could hardly be more difficult or more important. The answer is there in v8 – 'the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame'. What God wants from us is that we trust Jesus Christ to be the foundation for life – it's as simple as that. As we entrust ourselves to Christ so he shares his life with us, and draws us into a living relationship with God.

But to make Jesus Christ our foundation means abandoning all other foundations for life and hope. And that's not so easy. All of our life we're told to trust ourselves – to make our own rules and follow our own moral code. Such a transfer of allegiance and trust isn't easy, but God doesn't ask us to make the move alone. God himself offers to help, 'whoever comes to me I will never drive away', said Jesus. And, 'knock and the door will be opened to you'. So if you're struggling to make the move from self to Christ, then ask – cry out to God to help you.

For those who do put their trust in Christ as the cornerstone of life, there's a promise that Peter echoes from Isaiah: that you will never be put to shame – that he will never humiliate or dishonour you. In fact, the reverse is true – God will honour you.

That's what v7 should say. Literally translated it means, 'Therefore the honour is to those who believe'. (ESV: "So the honor is for you who believe."). I can only imagine that the translators of the NIV couldn't bring themselves to say that believers will be honoured by God. But that's what Peter actually says – and he's echoing the words of Jesus, who said as he prayed, 'Father... the glory that you have given me I have given to those who believe in me'. Ponder that for a moment - the glory that God has given to his eternal Son, the Son gives to we who believe!!

So there is this astonishing mutuality in our relationship with God. Although he is God and we are merely his creatures, yet when we honour & glorify his Son, he honours & glorifies us. This means that although entrusting ourselves to him may seem a high risk strategy, in fact it's no risk at all. By aligning ourselves with God our future is assured because Jesus Christ will honour & glorify us as he has himself is honoured and glorified by his Father.

However, there's an ominous 'but' in the middle of v7; 

'But, to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone', and 'a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.'

They stumble because they disobey the message – which is also what they were destined for.'

Again, Peter echoes what Jesus said in his parable of the vineyard – those who reject Jesus end up being rejected. At the end of the parable, the Chief Priests and Pharisees knew that Jesus was talking about them. So they looked for a way to arrest him. And soon enough they did arrest him. And he was falsely accused and found guilty. When he was hung on the cross to die, they thought they'd got rid of him. But they only succeeded in sending him through death to resurrection and ascension to God's right hand where he will judge the living and the dead.

So in his book on 1 Peter, Leonhard Goppelt, says, Christ is laid across the path of humanity on its course into the future. In the encounter with him each person is changed: one for salvation, another for destruction... One cannot simply step over Jesus to go on about the daily routine and pass him by to build a future. Whoever encounters him is inescapably changed through the encounter.

Either you come to Jesus the living stone, and become a living stone yourself. Or you stumble over him and fall from him. In which case you are discarded and excluded from his life.

When it comes to music, it really doesn't matter whether you like opera or not. Whether you like U2 or not. It's just personal choice and there are no consequences. But when it comes to Jesus it is much more than just a matter of personal choice. Your choice matters.

This is more like a decision about whether or not to take life-saving medication. Only it's even more important than that. Your decision about Jesus Christ stays with you beyond the grave and into eternity.