Matthew 21:42-46; Mark 12:10-12; Luke 20:17-18
Jesus Christ Is the Truth
I didn’t quite finish our passage yesterday and wanted to take up the very last part. We learned yesterday that the Father’s plan ever was to redeem a people through His Son who would crush the serpent’s head, as foretold in the first prophecy in Scripture (Genesis 3:15). That plan included the creation of His very own people through the loins of Abraham, a people who centuries later were called “the Jews.” To them, God made a covenant and gave His law. As their history bears out in the Scriptures (written by those same people), they failed to keep it. (How many ancient nations do we know that were as honest about themselves as were the Jews? Zero. For that alone, they should be commended.) But all of this was God’s plan, for the law was our guardian until Christ came, showing us that we can only be saved by grace, and not by works. The history of the Jews in the Bible proves nothing peculiar about themselves that could not be said about all of us; indeed, when we consider how wicked our pagan ancestors were during those same centuries, ugh! (See Romans 1:18-32, and the Histories of the ancient Greek historian, Herodotus).
But to focus on the last part of the passage, Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22-23: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” And then he adds, “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” Jesus is, of course, speaking of himself: the Cornerstone of the new temple that God builds, His Church. Jesus Christ is that foundation upon which we must build our lives, our marriages, our careers, our everything (1 Corinthians 3:11). And why is this? Because Jesus Christ is the truth in his very being, and in his every word (John 14:6). And his truth is recorded in the sacred Scriptures, for they witness to him (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Truth is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately for many, truth is a terrible thing, because they prefer to live a lie. They prefer falsehood over truth, the counterfeit over the real, sin over repentance. But truth stands there like a mountain. You can take a pickax to it, if you like, but you won’t get very far. The mountain just stubbornly sits there; it won’t move for you. That’s the way truth is. You can try to hide it, cover it up, pretend it isn’t there. But the wages of sin is still death (Romans 6:23), and the truth of Christ still discloses the thoughts of all (Luke 2:34-35), as will Judgment on the last day when the books are opened and all is revealed (Revelation 20:12). And so the message remains as it ever was: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at stake.” And that’s the truth.
