“‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’ Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” (Luke 20:17b-18)
In their zeal to eliminate Jesus as a threat, the Pharisees sent several groups of their followers to try and trap Him into saying something to incriminate Himself. None of their efforts succeeded. Jesus had real wisdom and always spoke the truth. His authority was above reproach. In His wisdom he turned the tables on the Pharisees with the parable about the tenants and the vineyard. This parable indicated that Lord had sent many prophets to Israel over the centuries who attempted to lead the people to repentance and faith in Him. Each in turn had been rejected. The same was going to happen to Jesus, the Son of God. The very people the Lord was trying to redeem would kill Him.
Consequently those who thought themselves to be the Chosen people would find them opposed to God. They would lose their eternal inheritance all because they were proud of their heritage and works but unwillingly to admit their sinfulness and lack of love or God and man. The Lord was going to cut them out of His Kingdom. He was going to bring in others to build His Kingdom. These newcomers were the very people the Pharisees and their followers despised: Gentiles, the immoral, idolatrous sinners, the dregs of society, the rejected and downtrodden. They would make up God’s Kingdom with Jesus as the cornerstone, the stone which was rejected. As such Jesus did not fit in with the Pharisees’ way of thinking of what the Kingdom of God was or what a Messiah should be.
Jesus is still that stone which does not fit in with what the world thinks today of who God is or should be. God in Christ Jesus extends love, mercy and forgiveness to all. He grants faith to those who do not boast in their riches and famous, beauty or power and humble themselves and repent of their sin. He grants faith to people who deserve nothing, people who realize they are helpless and hopeless sinners, people the world calls “losers”. As Jesus’ followers we share or ought to share the same rejection as He did. We should feel out of place in this world for it is not our home. We are first and foremost citizens of His Kingdom.