The Cornerstone

Monday, June 1st, 2026

4:43 am

Good morning! Today I am in Matthew 21:33-46, Mark 12:1-12, and Luke 20:9-19. Jesus tells the religious leaders another story. He tells them about a man that bought some land. He planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing grapes, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased it to some tenant farmers, and moved to another country. When the time for harvest came, the owner sent some servants to collect his share of the harvest. But the farmers beat the servants, sending them back empty handed. The landowner sent a larger group, and the same thing happened, they even killed some of the servants. The landowner decided to send his son, whom he loved dearly, thinking that they would respect his son, and not hurt him. But when the farmers seen his son coming, they knew it was the heir to the land, and they decided to kill him so they would get the land for themselves. So they killed him, and dragged his body out of the vineyard. Jesus asked the religious leaders what they thought the landowner was going to do when he arrived? Jesus told them that the landowner would put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others. Then He 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.'" Immediately the religious leaders wanted to arrest Jesus because they knew He was calling them the evil farmers. But they were afraid of the crowd because they thought He was a prophet.

In this story, the landowner that planted the vineyard and built everything there up, was God. The vineyard is the nation of Israel. The tenant farmers are Israel's religious leaders. The servants were the prophets and priests who remained faithful to God. The Son is Jesus. And the others are the Gentiles. God is the one who brought His people into the promised land. He brought them out of slavery in Egypt, and brought them into a land that was already built up by previous people, into a land that was abundant in everything they needed. All the Lord asked of them, was for them to remain faithful to Him, following Him and Him alone. But His people kept falling away from Him, rejecting Him, and turning to pagan traditions. But He didn't give up on them. He kept sending prophets and other servants to warn them to repent of their sins and turn back to Him. But they kept refusing, and not just refusing, they even beat and killed them. Finally, God sent His Son. He sent Jesus, but the religious leaders still refused. The story called those religious leaders out. Not only calling them out but giving them a Scripture, that they would have known, to show them that their rejection of Him was predicted many years before. That Scripture is Psalm 118:22-23. He tells them right there, that because they refused to believe Him, their nation would be taken away from them, and given over to the Gentiles. He tells them that anyone who stumbles over that cornerstone would be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.

Jesus is that cornerstone. When we reject Him, He warns us right here that we will be broken to pieces, crushed. Jesus is the only way. He is the sure foundation. Everything else in this world will fall away, but Jesus will always remain. To remain stable, we must put Jesus at the center of our lives. Building our lives around Him. A cornerstone was used as a base to make sure the other stones of the building were straight and level. Jesus does that for us. His life and teachings are a base to help keep us straight and level. Building our lives on a solid, level, and straight foundation. The more we walk with Jesus, the stronger our foundation is. And the consequences of rejecting Him, are scary to think about. Worse than we could ever imagine. But He is still giving everyone of us a chance. Everyday that we are alive, we have another chance. But one day, there will be no more chances. We must choose Him while there is still time.