The stone the builders rejected
Reflection for Friday in the Second Week of Lent
Matthew 21:33–43
Jesus said, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 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 get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when 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 lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
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 amazing in our eyes’?“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”
A short reflection for a Friday when inspiration is struggling to be found.
I think the words of Psalm 118 that Jesus invokes here at the end of the Parable of the Tenants are words that could be understood as a central animating force behind his entire ministry and teachings. The idea of God choosing that which others have rejected is at the heart of the vision in Matthew 25, for instance, not to mention Jesus’ repeated decision to spend time and energy on the outcast and forgotten people of Roman Palestine. Never once does Jesus choose the rich, the powerful, or the influential over the poor, the weak and the ignored.
This should be a reminder to those of us who want to call ourselves Christians today. In every instance, those who our instinct is to reject or distance ourselves from would be the one Jesus would implore us to choose to be in loving relationship with. It is a practice in humility to neve imagine ourselves as the stone being rejected, but instead to see each person we come into contact with as such, especially those who have been rejected or oppressed by those with power. In fact, as the church, it is our duty to seek these people out, to serve and welcome them, to do what we can to ensure they know they are beloved of God and have a home in the church, even if every where else they go tells them they have no home or welcome.