2nd Week in Lent, Friday – 5th March 2021 – Mt 21,33-43.45-46
Rejected Messianic Stone
The crowds listening to the parable were caught up in the drama and did not realize that they passed sentence on themselves. Jesus quoted Ps 118,22-23 to explain that He was that Son and the religious leaders were the husbandmen (Mt 21,45). In the OT, God is referred as a rock or a stone (Deut 32,4.18.30-31; Ps 18,2.31.46). The stone is also a messianic title. To Israel, Jesus was a stumbling stone (Isa 8,14-15; Rom 9,32-33; 1 Cor 1,23). When Jesus, the stone, presented Himself to the builders – the leaders of Israel, they had no place for Him in their building plans (Acts 4,11). They threw Him aside as useless. But following His death He was raised from the dead and given the place of preeminence by God. He has been made the topmost stone in God’s building: “God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name …” (Phil 2,9). And in His death and resurrection He created the church, to which Jesus is the foundation stone, the head of the corner (Eph 2,20-22; 1 Pet 2,4-5). At the end of the age, Jesus will come as the smiting stone (Dan 2,34), to destroy Gentile kingdoms, and establish His own glorious kingdom.
