God had done something profoundly unexpected in Jesus – like placing a building upon a stone rejected by the builders.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the fourth chapter of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 4:5-12). A couple of very important things took place in chapter three.
One was the first healing that was performed by one of Jesus’ apostles since his resurrection and since the day of Pentecost. Simon Peter and John had healed a man who could not walk at the entrance to the Temple.
The second was the first arrest of one of Jesus’ apostles since his resurrection and of the day of Pentecost. Because after speaking of the power of Jesus of Nazareth to heal, and also of his resurrection, and also of his power to save, Peter and John had been arrested by the Temple authorities. And here in chapter four Luke told us of their defense when they stood before the Council.
It’s not much of a defense.
Essentially, Simon Peter said this man is healed because of the power of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was crucified, Jesus was resurrected, and now Jesus offers salvation in his name.
As I say, it’s not much of a defense; in fact, it is the offense repeated.
But one of the things that Simon Peter said was he quoted Psalm 118 (Jesus had done it himself; it’s found in the gospels): “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Ordinarily, you’d want to let a builder decide whether a stone has the necessary strength and integrity to serve as a cornerstone. If a cornerstone breaks in a stone building, well, the structure will come down. But the ancient Psalmist had said that God had the power to choose things and to strengthen things that human builders could not.
And in Jesus of Nazareth, his followers found that God had done precisely that with this human being Jesus, had made what seemed weak and vulnerable to the world into a source of strength, of healing, of salvation.
It is, I think, one of the more instructive things for us to keep in mind, because we human beings have a habit of favoring what’s strong and powerful and apparently mighty in the world. We tend to ignore or discount the worth, the value, and the impact of those that seem weak. But it is in weakness that God’s grace was manifest in Jesus. It was in rejection that God expressed power. It was in death that God chose life.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.
