“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
It is our experiences of exclusion, rejection, pain, loneliness, and suffering which later form the bedrock of our character and being. This was true for Joseph, for the woman at the well, for Paul and the other Apostles, and of course for Jesus himself. Wisdom has sought to teach this to us in every generation. It shows up again and again in the Bible and in our fairy tales. The Cinderella story would not be true without the scorn and rejection Cinderella suffered from her step-mother and step-sisters. As St. Paul says in reflecting on his own rejection, "Suffering produces character," (Romans 5:3). Diamonds are formed under heat and pressure.
This week we remember Jesus' rejection. Though at the first of the week crowds waved their palm branches in exaltation, by the end Jesus will be left all alone. He will not do or be what the people want and expect him to do and be. By the end of the week the whole city of Jerusalem will think him a lost cause at best, a traitor at worst, and a fool for sure.
The old spiritual says:
I’ve been ‘buked an’ I’ve been scorned
I’ve been talked about, sho’s you’re born
Jesus was rebuked and scorned and beaten and crucified and left for dead.
And without all that he wouldn't be Lord.
Ryon Price, 2nd Thoughts
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