Caryn Rivadeneira 0:07
Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose of the word of God. I'm Caryn Rivadeneria. I serve as Director of Care and Worship Planning. This week's question is: "Who is Jesus?" I'll be reading Psalm 118, 22 through 23.
Caryn Rivadeneira 0:21
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.
Caryn Rivadeneira 0:31
When it came to identifying who Jesus was to an accusatory crowd, the apostle Peter answered by paraphrasing this very passage (at least the first part). Because of this, throughout the life of the church, one of the many answers to the question, 'who is Jesus?', has been: Jesus is the cornerstone. The rejected Jesus is the cornerstone, the foundation of our faith. Of course, the writer of this psalm most certainly did not have a future Messiah in mind when they wrote this. Instead, the writer was likely observing what they had seen of the nature of God; that our God is one who can redeem and restore anything or anyone. Those who have been rejected elsewhere find usefulness in God. Those who are rejected by the world, or the teachers of the law (as Peter encountered, and as Jesus talked about when he quoted this passage), are accepted by God. As the psalmist says, "This is the Lord's doing" - it's marvelous indeed.
Caryn Rivadeneira 1:31
So while the psalmist wasn't writing about Jesus (per se) and noting/praising this amazing, restorative, redeeming aspect of the nature of God, the psalmist was writing about Jesus - Jesus is God! That's what I love about the Bible. Although the Old Testament isn't about Jesus like the New Testament, we have so much to learn about who Jesus is by studying the Hebrew Scriptures and discovering the nature of who God is. Because right in the beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures, way back in early chapters of Genesis, we find a story of a God who loved us so much that he set out to restore and redeem all we had gotten wrong - all that we had messed up. This God, (our God) went after his people, even as they wandered, even as they disobeyed, even as they betrayed him and rejected him outright. God's love and faithfulness were so big, so broad, so unwavering, that he never turned away. Ultimately, because of this love, God sent Jesus, and that love is the cornerstone. This amazing love of God, of Jesus, the one whom, in his own rejection showed us that God can take any mess, any pain, any suffering, any rejection, and redeem and restore them.
Caryn Rivadeneira 3:02
So who is Jesus? Well, lots of things. We all have so many good answers. Son of God, Savior of the world, the cornerstone (as this passage tells us). But I keep my eyes on this loving cornerstone, this rejected man who became rescuer, redeemer and restorer. These are things I've experienced again and again in my own life from Jesus, and I hope you have, and will too.