Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.
Psalm 118:22 says “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (ESV). As we reflect on the Christian faith in recent history, at least in the Western world, we see a broad rejection of Jesus. He is the stone that the builders rejected. Again and again we hear that Christianity is either useless or that it is just like any other “helping profession.” Our culture will tell us that the purpose of Christianity is to teach people to be good, to be kind, to help one another, to nurture the family, or to bring food and water to hungry and thirsty people in the developing world.
This view of Christianity misses the point. It discards Jesus, throwing him into the pile of building rubble, treating him like a misshapen stone or brick that will be buldozed into the ground and left behind.
What’s the point of Jesus, after all? How is he “the chief cornerstone”? The Scripture presents Jesus as God the Son, the Messiah, the one who is perfectly human and perfectly divine. He is the one who can live the perfect life for us and die in our place. He is the one who has shown God to the world. He is the revelation of God’s grace and truth. All the Law and Prophets look to him. And he is the one who passed on the knowledge of his life, death, and resurrection to the disciples, who have passed it on to us. In him is life and salvation. He is the one in whom we must believe.
As we remember the day of resurrection, let us then remember that Jesus is the giver of life, eternal life, the real message of Christianity.
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