Matthew 21.23...and when He was come into the temple, the CHIEF PRIESTS AND ELDERS OF THE PEOPLE (note- religious, self-righteous, critical of others, heads of the religious system in Israel
(local synagogues throughout Israel and the Temple they stole from God in Jerusalem
...who hated Jesus,
the Truth He spoke,
the Miraculous Powers He displayed,
His love for sinners and mostly,
the overwhelming evidence that He was God come in the flesh
...they ended up maneuvering Him onto a cross and mocked Him when He wouldn't obey their command to come down
knowing (?) in their hearts that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords...God come in the flesh)
(v12f - and Jesus Went into the temple of God and
Cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple
(note - they ripped off all the people coming to fulfill the Old testament command to offer offerings to God in the Temple by cornering the Market on the lambs etc. offered in the Temple etc.) and Overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of them that sold doves. and said unto them, 'it is written,
MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED THE HOUSE OF PRAYER; but
YOU HAVE MADE IT A DEN OF THIEVES
and the blind and deaf came to Him in the temple and He healed them.
and when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did
and the children crying in the temple and saying,
Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased. )
v.23 the chief priests said, BY WHAT AUTHORITY DOEST THOU THESE THINGS? and
WHO GAVE THEE THIS AUTHORITY?...
v.42 Jesus saith unto them, did ye never read in the Scriptures,
THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THE SAME IS BECOME THE HEAD OF THE CORNER: (Jesus is speaking of Himself.) the same is become the head of the corner. this is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes?
the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
growing up on a dairy farm, I learned early how tto mow. and that doesn't refer to what happens to a lawn. this word rhymes with plow and refers to the huge stockpile of dried hay and straw stored in the upstairs of barns, one of the keys to a good hay mow is a solid foundational layer. I knew that I had to pick only the most firm and well-formed bales and lay them straight and true. all the other layers would be based on that first row. any defects would show up later as weaknesses that would collapse in a tumbled mess that would take weeks of back-braking work to clean up. badly stacked mows had been known to collapse on top of people and cause injury. so those first bales were crucial.
in the same way, when building a stone wall, the cornerstone has to bee straight and true. a bad cornerstone means a bad wall. today's passage talks about a stone that was rejected. was it because it wasn't straight and true enough? was there something wrong with this stone? no. the wrong, here, was in the sight of the builders. the Jewish church leaders of Jesus' time were looking for the wrong kind of foundation. they couldn't recognize the straight and true truth that Jesus presented to them. that rejected stone is the true foundation of the christian church. and because of Jesus, we have a foundation that cannot crumble in this world or the next.
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