Have you ever thrown something away, only to want it back again?
I used to own a BMW e46 coupe a number of years ago, I really liked this car, but it was not practical or affordable or sustainable (among other things), so I don’t have it any more – even though I would love to have it sitting in the garage!
So when you throw something away, you can’t get it back again, various reasons may apply.
Can’t be done, it’s gone…
But with God, it’s different.
As we’re about to hear at Easter, something that we thought was gone, done and dusted was actually not gone or done and dusted, it actually makes a triumphant return – that theme of triumph we see in Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem today.
God can bring back what was gone > not thinking in terms of material things like stuff we used to own but don’t anymore, God goes deeper than that.
God can bring things back, he can bring life out of death, he can take a stone from ‘rejected stone’ to being the ‘cornerstone’ of a whole new project!
Speaking about stones and new projects > I’m not a builder so I don’t know much about this but I believe there may be a builder or two in the house today, people who have built things, made things, put things together > are you familiar with what we hear in Psalm 118 today, about ‘the stone the builders rejected?’
So the image is you’re building something, and you come across a stone that isn’t going to do the job. It isn’t the right shape, it doesn’t have the right qualities, and so you throw it away, you REJECT it because you don’t need it.
Makes sense > if something’s not going to do the job you thought it was going to do, why would you need it any more?!
But then we hear in the rest of our theme verse today, that very same stone that had been rejected has now become the CORNERSTONE of the whole project… How on earth does that happen??
We threw that stone away, we didn’t need it any more, it was of no use to us by our own thinking and our own judgment. But now it’s the foundation that the whole project is built on, the most important stone of the lot! That doesn’t make sense to us, what on earth is going on here…
This is where we can bring in the scene of Jesus entering into Jerusalem today, on PsALM SUNDAY as we’re calling it today, where the words of Psalm 118 – written many years before these events come to pass – line up with exactly what takes place through Holy Week and into Easter.
What did the people think of Jesus as he was riding in on that donkey?
They laid down their cloaks for him, palm branches too, they sang and shouted ‘Hosanna to the king!’ They’re welcoming in their king, who has finally come to restore to kingdom > but the kingdom they had in mind was not the kingdom Jesus was there to bring…
Jesus did not come to restore the kingdom of Israel, as it was in David or Solomon’s day. He did not come to overthrow the Romans, to take on the authorities with a great army > we get a hint that the kingdom Jesus is on about is very different to what the people would’ve expected by his choice to ride in a donkey of all things – definitely not cruising through in his BMW e46! Jesus comes in HUMILITY, not in power, at least not earthly power as we might expect.
So this is where the people start to second guess the situation, where the doubt creeps in > questions start to come up like ‘why have you come then Jesus, why have you come if not to overthrow the Romans and restore the ancient kingdom, to take us back to the good old days??!! That’s what we want, what are you doing here if not that??’
Very tempting for us to crave the ‘good old days,’ the times we hold as the best times, the times we look back on fondly but seem to not be happening any more…
And this line of questioning and doubt leads to what?
The VERY SAME people who welcomed Jesus in, shouting Hosanna and praise to the king, in the space of a very short time end up doing what? Calling for this VERY SAME Jesus to be put to death, to be handed over to the Roman authorities to die on a cross. Sobering thought there, it goes from ‘praise to the king’ to ‘crucify him.’ Serious turn of events.
And the even more sobering truth is that we’re in exactly the same boat here.
We are like the builders who reject the stone, because it’s not what we want. It’s not what’s going to work based on our assessment. This stone isn’t the right shape, it doesn’t have the right qualities in our opinion, so we throw it away.
We are people who reject Jesus.
We decide that what Jesus is on about is not what we want. We would rather have our own kingdom than HIS kingdom. This is human nature, our sinful nature that says I don’t need Jesus, I can do it myself! We all do this in many different ways, none of us are immune to what our sinful nature says or desires.
But here’s the REAL HOPE of EASTER that’s about to come in > the stone the builders rejected has become the CORNERSTONE.
We threw Jesus away, we forgot how good our God is, we thought we were on par with God, or even better than God. We thought we knew best, we knew what was good for us!
All of us are in that boat, we’ve all done that > and this is bad. This is a serious problem, because it means we are separated from God. Cut off from our own creator, our own heavenly father who dearly loves his children. God knows how bad this is, but as we know he goes to the furthest possible lengths to change it all.
He forgives us.
He forgives us for our selfishness, our ego, our self-importance, our lack of action, our lack of faith. All of these things, and more!
Jesus faces all the rejection that could possibly be thrown at him, even from us, people who call ourselves Christians, who call ourselves his followers.
He took all that on himself, in the process becoming the CORNERSTONE of a whole new project > what’s this new project? It’s NEW LIFE for you and me.
Ultimate humility and ultimate generosity, ultimate grace there as Jesus dies for people who would not even claim to follow him in the heat of the moment – like Peter when he denies ever knowing Jesus three separate times – let alone die for him, as he does for us.
When our faith is tested – like the faith of those around Jesus at this time – it’s easy to fall away, to tap out, to shift the blame. Very easy to do, and we’ve actually become very good at doing that as the human race over the years!
But when Jesus’ faith is tested, he doesn’t bat an eye. Incredible.
And because of his faithfulness, the goodness of the Lord that endures forever, even in our faith-LESS-ness our God is faith-FUL to us.
Even though we’ve made the fatal mistake of rejecting Jesus, he remains as the CORNERSTONE of this new project, project NEW LIFE for all God’s people.
So as we head into Holy Week and Easter, starting on Thursday night, we can lean on this CORNERSTONE.
Not worried about the ways we’ve rejected Jesus, not consumed by our own failings, not stuck in the same patterns of hearing about Jesus on the outside but not letting him into our hearts, where it really matters.
We can be open-hearted to the incredible faith-FUL-ness our God has shown us, and still has to give us day by day as his own dearly loved children > this ‘love that endures forever.’
Let’s pray, some words out of Psalm 118:
Lord we give thanks to you, for you are good. Your love endures forever.
You are with us, we don’t need to be afraid.
We take refuge in you Lord, you are our strength and our defence.
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, you have done this Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes!
You are our God and we will praise you.
We give thanks to you for you are good, your love endures forever. Amen.
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Tom Kitson 