The Stone Rejected by the Builders
Acts 4:5-12
A Sermon by the Reverend Eun-Joo Myung

As we Easter people, we are in the middle, between Easter and the Pentecost.  Almost a month ago, it was Easter. I would like to start over again from that moment of the story.

Jesus died on the cross, but no sooner had he died than a rumor began to circulate, a rumor that he had risen from the dead!  Jerusalem is filled with that rumor.  Even the disciples were at first incredulous.  When the women told them that they did not find the body of Jesus in the tomb, they wouldn’t believe them.  There were also two disciples, whose names was not told us in Luke’s gospel, going to Emmaus from Jerusalem. They shared the rumor with “the stranger” who had joined them on the way after they had given him a full account of Jesus’ crucifixion and the empty tomb.  

Rumor or not, it changed everything.  It was a powerful rumor. It changed the cross to the empty tomb.  It changed death to life.  It changed Jesus of Nazareth to Christ the Messiah.  The rumor that Jesus was alive changed disciples from deserters to apostles.  That Easter Day changed everything.  It was a most powerful day. It changed every day, even the Day of Pentecost.  What people encountered on that Day of Pentecost and what we encounter in our world today is that Ernst Haenchen spoke that “the Spirit comes from God, is mediated to us through Jesus Christ, and transcends all boundaries of countries and peoples.”

After the Day of Pentecost, as Donna Hamilton nicely explained the background of our reading today and read, Peter and his fellow disciples presented in front of the chief priests, political leaders. Also present are “rulers, elders, and scribes”. The whole rank and file of the religious authorities are represented.  It was not long ago when Jesus stood before this same Sanhedrin for the final trial with those who had power over his life and death. From now on, I would like to invite you to be at the place of trial with Peter and his fellow disciples as witnesses.  So, please imagine we are at the court.

Those sitting in judgment of the apostles must have been agitated and furious.  “By what power,” they want to know, “have such people as you done this?” The high priest did not address the accused by name.  For him they are just “such people as you.”
 
“By what power?” they asked.  The question of power preoccupies them.  They have seen or heard how Peter and John healed a crippled man by the gate of the Temple called “Beautiful gate”.  The man restored to health does not concern them. They asked about the power to rule, the power to condemn or the power to forgive, the power to destroy or to save is theirs and theirs alone.  They have inherited that power from their tradition and feel secure in it.  That power of theirs has been seriously challenged to have him put to death and thus have eliminated for the time being the threat to their power.

The question is all about power.  If you have power, that power will legitimate your position and your role.  If you possess power, that power will make your assertion and claim orthodox.  “By what power have you done this?” ask the religious leaders.  This is a fateful question.  The question seals their fate as prisoners of their own power and makes them unfree for the genuine power that heals.

The religious leaders who confronted the apostles with the question cannot tolerate the power released by the risen Jesus for Peter and John to enable “a man crippled from birth” to stand on his feet and walk again.  

If healing is to take place, it has to be their power that does the healing, and not the power of Jesus, the man they condemned to death.  Is it God they are really concerned about?  I guess not.  For them what is really at stake is of course not God, but their own power. The direct public confrontation of Christian faith with cultural authority is often downplayed or dissuaded by cultural and Christian leadership alike.

However, the power of Jesus that heals discloses their power as ineptitude.  The power of Jesus proves to be the crisis of power of the religious authorities.  

Besides power, what concerns the religious authorities is name.  “By what name have such people as you done this?”  they asked.  The rulers must have suspected that in the men standing before them their worst fear was confirmed.  They just wanted to hear directly from these men’s mouths that name they at once feared and hated. The trial of these men is the trial of Jesus all over again.  In Peter speaking they must have heard Jesus speaking.  In the apostles healing the crippled man they must have seen Jesus going about healing the sick people.

Peter, seizing the opportunity, declared in Acts chapter 4, verses 8 through 11.

“Rulers of the people and elders, if it is about help given to a sick man that we are being questioned today, and the means by which he was cure, this is our answer to all of you and for all the people of Israel: it was by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, and whom God raised from the dead; through him this man stands here before you fit and well. This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.”

The Greek word “cornerstone” can be translated both “capstone” and “cornerstone.”  Thus, you might notice that the some versions of the Bible rendering of Acts 4:11 uses the word “capstone” but includes “cornerstone” as a possible rendering. Both are perfectly true when applied to Jesus. Just as the cornerstone was the first stone laid—and thus determined the placement of every other stone—the capstone came last and was placed at the top of the arch—thus holding every other stone in perfect alignment.  God has made Jesus the cornerstone and the capstone of salvation.

Do you believe it?  To believe is to believe in the love that can save others but that cannot save oneself. To believe is to be empowered by the love that envisions hope in the midst of despair and that keeps faith when confronted with death.

He dedicated his entire life to it and shared it with others.  He sought to reform his religion and to change his society with this kind of love.  As expected he had to die for it.  Jesus did more than believing in this kind of love.  He practiced, lived, and died for it.  He personified it.  In this love which is Jesus we Christians come to know that God is love.

Jesus is not God.   He is flesh and blood just as we are. But he reflects God as he reflects this kind of love.  He showed us what God is as he lives this love and seeks to fill others with it.  He is God in the world in that he is this love in the world.  

What binds Jesus to God and God to Jesus, in spite of the infinite and qualitative difference between Jesus as a human being and God as divine being, is not the nature of Jesus theologically defined as “human and divine,” or as “more divine than human.”
The bond between Jesus and God does not make Jesus more divine than human and God more human than divine.  It is through this bond that Jesus as a true human being and God as a true God become related in the saving work of love as being both the cornerstone and the capstone.
In this bond between Jesus and God we human beings are connected on the earth.

Amen.