Wednesday in Holy Week

Mark 12:1-11

  “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;  this was the Lord's doing,
  and it is marvelous in our eyes’”

Rejection.  It was the sin that started it all.  Adam and Eve rejected God.  It is the sin the permeates the whole story.  Israel rejected God.  It is likewise the punishment.  God rejected Adam and Eve, cast them out of the garden.   God rejected Israel, just read Lamentations.

It is what is going on this week in the life of Jesus.  He is rejected at every turn.  Betrayed.  Denied.  Lied about.  Mocked.  Abused.  Misjudged.  Unjustly Condemned. Tortured. Shamed. Crucified.  Rejected by Israel, by the Gentiles, by his own disciples, even in the end by the Father.

He is indeed the stone that was rejected.

All of this however, is to achieve the great unrejection, the wonderful reconciliation, the magnificent reunification.  The rejected stone, you see, will become the chief cornerstone upon which is built the great community of those who although the world may reject them, are accepted by God. 

This final rejection undoes all the others.  It undoes God's rejection of us, and if we are willing, our rejection of God.

This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.