Contemplative Bible Reading

Matthew 21:42-44 (New Living Translation)

⁴² Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is wonderful to see.’

⁴³ I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. ⁴⁴ Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”

These words of Jesus come after He tells the Parable of the Evil Farmers (NLT title). We all know what Jesus means: you religious leaders have missed the boat by not realizing who I am.

There is, however, much more to this. The words of Jesus in verse 42 come from Psalms 118. The Psalm was chastising the Babylonians for rejecting Israel as the cornerstone of God’s relationship with mankind. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were as bad as the Babylonians.

A few verses earlier, Jesus called these religious leaders like sinners and tax collectors. That was bad, but nothing like telling them they were like the Babylonians. Those Babylonians completely rejected Jehovah the Creator God. They destroyed the Temple—the place where God visited the Israelites. Those Babylonians committed the greatest sin of all time.

And Jesus tells them they are just like the Babylonians in rejecting Him—the Son of God.

As we Americans read these verses from Matthew’s Gospel, it is easy for us to miss the lesson. We don’t know the Psalms in the same way that the Jews of Jesus’ day knew the Psalms. Much is lost in translation.

It is small wonder that these religious leaders decided to kill Jesus, but kill Him quietly.