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17 Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” 19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people. ~ Luke 20:17-19
Having just told the most clear, powerful, and stunning story of the farm hands killing the son of the farm owner, the Lord Jesus in v.17 "looked directly at the Jewish religious leaders." Yet again, the Lord Jesus confronts the religious leaders. His look designed to jolt them into embracing brokenness which is the shattering of the human will before God. Brokenness is saying “Yes, Lord! Have your way and will in my life." But the leaders were unwilling.
In v.17, the Lord Jesus reached back to Psalm 118:22 to make His point. The cornerstone is the most important part of any building. Every other stone is laid on top of the cornerstone. It's the alignment stone. It's the mass of stone that has to be cut so precisely and laid so perfectly, because if not, every other stone that takes its cue and its lines off of that stone is going to make for a very, very unreliable and crooked building.
Peter quotes this message when he preaches in several more weeks after this event in this same place. Peter and John were in the temple, and they go up to the temple at the time of prayer. And they see a man who is paralyzed. He is broken and lame, and he's begging for money. And Peter says, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
The man was healed right there in the temple courts. And so the leaders, like here with the Lord Jesus, react to Peter. And they say, you know, "What authority do you have to do this? What name do you come to us with? What is the name you are using?"
Then, Peter says this: "If we are being judged this day for a good deed done to a helpless man, then be it known unto you, and to all of the house of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, does this man stand before you whole."
In the Old Testament, the “stone” was a familiar symbol of God and of the promised Messiah. Because the Jews did not believe, they stumbled over Him and were judged. Those who trust Jesus Christ find Him to be the foundation stone and the chief cornerstone of the our existence.
In v.18 we read, "Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed." The preposition translated "on" in this verse can also be translated "before." Either we believe in Him and worship Him, or we are crushed by Him. Rejecting the free gift of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most tragic thing anyone can ever do.
In v.19 we read, "The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people."
The religious leaders knew the Lord Jesus was talking about them. They knew that He was identifying them as those who had rejected the Chief Cornerstone. Instead of being convicted of their sin, they resisted the needed brokenness to bring them into a personal relationship with the God they supposedly served.
Brokenness makes room for a contrite heart. And, a broken and contrite heart is the seedbed for repentance which is that which brings us into a relationship with God. Brokenness usually is introduced into our souls on the heels of miserable failure. Brokenness is not beautiful in and of itself, but the beauty in spiritual brokenness is found in where it brings us.
Vance Havner once said, "God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns in greater power than ever."
