The Cornerstone of Life

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus and the twelve disciples sat down for the Passover Seder.  They ate together and talked about what would happen soon.  Following tradition, at the end of the meal, they would end by singing songs. 

The songs they would sing were from the Psalms and the last of these which were sung was Psalm 118.  In the psalm is found these words, "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;" Psalm 118:22

Jesus was that cornerstone.  He was despised and rejected.  His own people abhorred him so much that they had him executed on the cross.  That one man was so hated that they ended his life in the most painful and humiliating way they knew.  He hung naked for hours nailed to a cross for every to see.  They spat on him, mocked him and laughed at his shame. 

Today people still reject him.  People make jokes about him and laugh at the thought of Jesus being God.  Images of him are spat upon, urinated on, destroyed and burned in effigy.  The hate for Jesus has not diminished but has spread.  We are no different today than the Jews of Jesus' time.

Yet he is the cornerstone of all the world.  A cornerstone is the foundational block around which a building is built. It is used as a guide to make a building square and true.  The cornerstone was essential to making a strong building that would last.

If we are to have a strong life full of what is true, we need to have Jesus as the cornerstone of our lives.  Kings and queens recognized him as the cornerstone and have bowed down to him as lord of their lives.  Men and women throughout history have recognized how essential Christ is and have followed him.  Those who rejected Jesus and ignored the love he holds out to everyone will spend eternity in the fires of Hell.

Jesus must become our cornerstone.  All we do, say and see today must be built upon the foundational cornerstone of Jesus Christ.

Photo Credit: Beth Israel Menorah Institute Euterpe Cornerstone by Infrogmation of New Orleans