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Jesus,_the_cornerstone.hwp
모퉁이의 머릿돌 예수님(영어)
2015 Anam Special Lecture (Pastor Ron Ward) JESUS, THE CORNERSTONE Mark 12:1-12 Key Verse 12:10 “Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…’?” In today’s parable, Jesus tells us who God is, who Jesus is, and who we are, as well as what God has done for us, and what attitude we should have toward God. Especially, God’s great patient love is revealed in sending his servants and his son. After telling the parable, Jesus concluded by quoting Psalm 118 to explain that he is the cornerstone. The cornerstone is the sure foundation of the entire building which all other stones rely on. We all need a strong foundation upon which to build our lives and community, so that we are not shaken regardless of the situation. Let’s learn how Jesus became the cornerstone and why he can be our sure foundation. First, God sent his servants (1-5). 11:27-33 tells us Jesus’ motive in telling this parable. When the religious leaders questioned Jesus’ authority to cleanse the temple, Jesus countered with a question of his own: “John’s baptism—was it from heaven or of human origin? Tell me!” They calculated about the outcome and replied, “We don’t know.”Jesus also did not answer. Nevertheless, he told them a parable in the hope that they might repent. Jesus began his parable by saying, “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place” (1). Vineyards may not be so familiar to us, but they were to the people of Israel. People could understand the vineyard metaphor which explained God’s relationship with Israel. Isaiah 5:1-7 tells how God planted a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up, cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He put a wall around it in order to protect it from wild animals and robbers. He dug a pit for the winepress. He built a watchtower to be on guard against enemies. God did his best to make an environment for a fruitful harvest. Isaiah 5:4a says, “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?” Historically, God led the Israelites from bondage in Egypt into the Promised Land. Though they had been miserable slaves, God set them free by his mighty power. God gave them vision and hope to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. God provided every spiritual blessing. God adopted them as his own children, lived among them—revealing his glory, made covenants with them, gave them the law to discipline them in holiness, granted them regular fellowship with him through temple worship, made promises they could hold on to, raised spiritual leaders to guide them, and even sent the Messiah through them (Ro 9:4-5). He also entrusted them with a land flowing with milk and honey (Jos24:13).The blessing of renting the vineyard was God’s amazing grace to the Israelites. They were like vagrants who suddenly became wealthy businessmen. The owner did not micromanage them. They were free to run the vineyard according to their own initiative, ingenuity, and creativity. All they needed to do was to work hard to care for the vineyard and produce its fruit. Though Jesus’ immediate focus was on the people of Israel, and in particular the religious leaders, in a broader sense, this parable applies to all mankind. God is the Creator and human beings are tenants in his world (Gen 2:8; Ac 17:24-26).God gave us life and breath and everything else. We should acknowledge that living in South Korea is God’s grace. Having the freedom to worship and serve God is God’s grace. The privilege of studying in a university is God’s grace. Our families are God’s grace. Our careers are God’s grace. What does the owner require of his tenants? Verse 2 says, “At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.” God requires fruit. Each person’s life is meant to bear fruit for God (Gen 1:28). Then what kind of fruit does God want. In ancient times, usually the owner demanded 50 percent of the crops at harvest time. A generous owner might demand only 30 percent. What did God demand? Ten percent! Just a tithe! When God demands a tithe from people, it is his right as the Creator God. Offering a tithe is the expression of honoring God as God (Mal 3:8-10). God wants not only a material tithe, but he also wants us to grow in inner character and bear the fruits of justice, righteousness, mercy and faithfulness (Isa 5:7; Mt 23:23). Love and respect should fill our homes (Eph 5:33). Children should grow in godly character and deep humanity. Furthermore, God wants us to have a sense of mission as stewards of his world and to be a blessing. Students should master their field of study in order to reveal God’s glory. Professionals should attain excellence in their fields to glorify God. We should all grow in love for God and others and be effective witnesses of Christ. If the tenants had welcomed God’s servants and offered some of the fruit of the vineyard, they could have kept a good relationship with the owner and continued to enjoy his blessings. But what did they do? Verse 3 says, “…they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.” This is an unreasonable response. The owner could have sent soldiers right away to punish them. But he did not. He might have considered that his servant was so loyal to him that he became overbearing and irritated the tenants. So he sent another servant, who had received humbleness training. To his dismay, they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully (4). His servant returned with bandages around his head, limping, using a walker. Again, the owner exercised patience. He sent still another servant, perhaps a stronger man who could bear beatings. This time, they killed the servant (5a). Even this did not arouse the owner’s fury. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed (5b). Historically speaking, God’s chosen people had behaved like the tenants in the parable. Why? They had the disease of sin in their hearts. Romans 1:21 says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” They became proud. They did not honor God as God. They forgot who they were, and how they had been miserable, and how God had mercy on them and blessed them. If we do not remember who we were and how God has had mercy on us, we become just like them. They were also unthankful. God’s will for us is to give thanks in all circumstances (1Th 5:17). We always have many reasons to be thankful to God. So we need to find them and positively thank God. Otherwise, we naturally become unthankful and complain. When we are unthankful, it is easy to become the prey of Satan, who devours us for lunch. They also became greedy. After taking care of the vineyard for a while, they forgot they were just stewards and assumed the vineyard belonged to them. When they saw the fruit of the vineyard, they became crazy and wanted to keep it all for themselves forever. James 1:15 says, “After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.” When they did not repent, sin grew in their hearts until they could not control themselves. This parable teaches God’s great love for his people. God does not easily give up on his chosen people. Though they had demonstrated murderous rebellion intentionally, God didn’t immediately cut them off. He tried again and again, sending many servants (2Ch 36:15-16). God loves his servants; the sacrifice of each one evokes his heart response (Ps116:15; Rev 6:10).Why did God sacrifice his servants? Love compelled him. Out of his great love, he wanted to restore his relationship with the tenants for their sake. This love is characterized by long-suffering patience. This love seems crazy, irrational, stubborn and unrealistic. This love is beyond our understanding. Yet we should never take it for granted, for God’s love has a redemptive purpose. Apostle Paul said, “Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (Ro 2:4). Whenever we realize God’s great love for us, it should lead us to repent and bear fruit to God. Second, God sent his Son (12:6-9,12). God did not stop with the sending of many servants to his chosen people, bearing all their wicked behavior. Finally he sent his son. Verse 6 says, “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’” This son was his one and only son, and the heir of the vineyard. The owner knew from experience that it was dangerous to send his son to them. Nevertheless, he sent his son, hoping that the tenants would respect him. Here Jesus revealed God’s love for people. God has a never-giving up, undying, unconditional love. His love is so wide and long, and deep and high that no one knows the full measure of it. Out of his great love, God took the initiative to send his Son to sinners who had rebelled against him. When God sent his Son, he hoped we would be moved by his great love and return to him. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” In this way God demonstrated his love for us. Though mankind has sinned so much, God is willing to forgive all of our sins if we just accept his Son. This is the zenith of God’s love. Sending his Son was his final act of love. This implies that those who accept the Son have all their sins forgiven, but for those who do not accept the Son, judgment is inevitable. How did the tenants respond? “They said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard” (7-8). They were under the great delusion that if they killed the son, the vineyard would be theirs. They misunderstood God’s patient love as weakness. It was a great mistake. Jesus said, “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others” (9). When Israel rejected the Messiah, all their blessings and privileges were taken from them and given to those who accepted the Son regardless of nationality. In A.D. 70 Jerusalem was totally destroyed, including the temple. More than one million people were killed and the surviving Israelites were scattered among the nations. God is the God of love. At the same time, God is the God of judgment. Third, God made the rejected stone the cornerstone (12:10-11). Jesus concluded his parable by quoting Psalm 118:22-23: “Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture? ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes’” (10-11). God’s plan for his chosen people seems to have failed due to their rejection of the Son. But God never fails. In his quotation, “the builders” refers to the religious leaders and “the stone” refers to Jesus. When Jesus came into the world, they thought he did not fit into their plans. They wanted a glorious Messiah, powerful in battle, routing foreign armies. But Jesus was humble, gentle and poor. He lived as a servant of all kinds of people and became the friend of sinners. He was a man of sorrows and sufferings and not attractive in people’s eyes. So they despised and rejected him; finally they crucified him on the cross and threw him outside the city. They thought that was the end of him. But to God it was not the end. God raised him from the dead and made him the cornerstone. In terms of a building, the cornerstone is most important. It is the foundation and the standard for the entire building. All other stones rely on the cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone of God’s salvation history. Peter understood this. After Jesus’ resurrection, he said to the Sanhedrin members, “Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Ac 4:11-12). Peter also proclaimed that those who trust in Jesus will never be put to shame, while those who reject Jesus will stumble and fall (1 Pe 2:6-8). This great salvation comes from God. Despite man’s wickedness, God has done great things in his wisdom. When we trust in Jesus, he becomes the cornerstone of our personal lives and our community. He is our sure foundation upon which to build our lives. We all need a strong foundation. We need something solid and unchanging to support us in the midst of trials and challenges. When I entered college, I thought my self-righteousness and money could be my foundation. I was pursuing a career as a CEO, thinking that it could be my foundation. But through a painful failed relationship, I realized that my foundation was not solid. At that time, I began to seek God and was led to Bible study with P. Abraham Kim, while he was studying for his Ph.D. at Oregon State University. The word of Mark’s gospel spoke to my heart and led me to know Jesus as my personal Savior. Through Jesus’ grace, I received forgiveness of sins and calling to live as a shepherd for college students. When P. Abraham had to return to Korea, Dr. Samuel Lee invited me to Chicago for intern shepherd training. Our plan was for me to stay three months, marry a godly woman, and return to OSU as a chapter director. But God had a different plan. Three months became more than 30 years. I never intended to be a pastor of Chicago UBF. Under Dr. Lee, I received a lot of love and a lot of training, especially faith training, in facing the cold reality of the world. In the early days of Chicago UBF, when many young men and women were coming to Bible study, Satan attacked the ministry. It was mainly because American parents’ pride was hurt and some greedy people took advantage of this. They kidnapped growing Bible students and took them away. It was very painful and frightening. It seemed that our gospel ministry could not survive in America. In this critical moment, Dr. Lee did not shrink back. Rather, full of the Holy Spirit, he planted faith in the hearts of a few remaining people by preaching the gospel. I am one of them. In retrospect, this was the time when the gospel took deeper root and Jesus became my sure foundation. For 18 years I had the privilege of working beside Dr. Lee and learned many things, especially his love for God’s word and his shepherd’s heart. After he passed away in 2002, God gave me the privilege of succeeding his ministry as pastor. I thought I was prepared for this on the basis of all training I had received. But I soon found that this was a delusion. I confess that without Mother Barry’s unconditional love and prayer I could not survive. As a pastor, especially, delivering the Sunday message every week was a bone-crushing struggle. At that time, God sent Dr. Mark Yang to Chicago. He seemed to be the only person who really understood my agony. Moreover, he was willing to make it a priority to work together with me to prepare Sunday messages and to make Bible study materials. Through this we became friends and partners in the gospel work. As we studied the word of God together we could understand one another deeply and cross the cultural barriers that have been such a challenge in our international ministry. We have found that deep Bible study is the way to lay a firm foundation for life and ministry in Jesus, the cornerstone. God has blessed Chicago ministry in many ways. Jesus is the cornerstone, not only in life and ministry, but also in the time of serious illness and death. Mother Barry’s brother Tom, after retiring as a Navy Captain, has dedicated the last 20 years to raising his four children and 28 grandchildren. Due to his great influence, they are all growing up to be godly, mission-minded people. Among them, Emily has gone to Afghanistan as a missionary. Recently, Tom has been battling skin cancer. He had to have one eye removed. In the course of surgery, he contracted meningitis which was life-threatening. He was on the verge of death. At that time, Mother Barry visited him. His first prayer request was for his church pastor. He has a shepherd’s heart and resurrection faith. He was full of thanksgiving and praise to God. He likes to sing three hymns. One of them is: “This is my Father’s world; the battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and Heav’n be one.” Another favorite hymn is: “How Can I Stop from Singing Praises of God.” He did not lose his sense of humor. His spirit became more and more triumphal. His heart was very joyful and he encouraged others. Instead of worrying about himself, he asked prayer for his wife. When Mother Barry was leaving, he said “See you in the resurrection.” He could do that because he trusted in Jesus as his cornerstone. When we trust in self-righteousness, money, fame, power, education or people we will be put to shame in the end. But when we trust in Jesus the cornerstone we will never be put to shame. Let’s trust in Jesus the cornerstone, who is our sure foundation. |
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