1 Peter 2: 4-5
4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals
yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5like living stones, let yourselves be built
into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Now we draw upon a metaphor
expressed in the gospels. Jesus is the
cornerstone, rejected by the builders, but accepted by God. Jesus is the temple to be destroyed yet repaired
again in three days-the spiritual house of God, not the pile of stone that took
70 years to build in Jerusalem.
If there is one thing that is very
familiar to anyone who has traveled in Israel from the times before Jesus to
the present day, it is that there are rocks everywhere. They build with them, they seek vainly to
empty their fields of them, they have served as pillows (Jacob), and are the
building blocks of altars to God (uncut stones-look up Elijah versus the
Priests of Baal).
Come
to him,--One will not get a better offer than that.
a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet
chosen and precious in God’s sight,--this is the recap of the quotes from the
gospels.
and like living stones, let yourselves be
built into a spiritual house,--so we stretch the metaphor to
include we who believe.
to
be a holy priesthood,--mixing of the metaphors, the building blocks of the
spiritual house and the priests serving within it, but since God is the creator
of metaphor…
to
offer spiritual sacrifices—this is the duty of the priesthood
acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ.—but now these sacrifices have a new means of being
okay with our God.
Peter means ‘rock’ and Jesus said “Upon
this rock-Peter-I will build my church.”
I know his spirit was sincere as he wrote these words, but I wonder if
Peter’s tongue was in his cheek, just a little bit, as he shared these with his
readers.
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