Cornerstone

In ancient construction the cornerstone (or chief corner stone) was the carefully chosen, precisely cut block at the foundation’s angle that set the lines for the entire building. Every other stone was aligned to it; a flawed cornerstone meant a crooked house.

The psalmist sang of a stunning reversal: “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.” Isaiah foretold that God would lay in Zion “a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation,” and “he that believeth shall not make haste.”

The New Testament applies all of this directly to Jesus: rejected by the builders — the leaders of his own people — he has become the cornerstone on whom the whole household of God is built and fitted together. To build on him is to be aligned and secure; to reject him is to stumble over the very stone meant to be the foundation.