“The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone,” and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (1 Peter 2:7-8).

This is the One everyone else rejected, even when they saw Him in person and were sometimes two feet from His face. They looked the stone over and marked it unusable, not valuable, replaceable and inadequate.

How could they stumble over the magnificent stone that means everything to us? How could someone like Christ be dismissible? Peter says, “For they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed” (v8). In the immediate sense, they stumble over Christ because they choose to. In the wider sense, which takes in God’s position above the actions of men, they stumble because they are appointed to such a fate. We don’t have to understand that, but it is true.

Yet you, if you see the infinite value in Christ and have listened to the message or “word” about Him, are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

I must admit that I’m often amazed that Jesus can mean so little to most people, even when they hear about Him, and in many cases even if they hear about Him weekly. Even though Christ is beautiful and the joy of heaven, these people could not see it. The heaven they wish to go to is not improved one bit by Christ being there.

This is a good question, isn’t it? “What do you think of Jesus?”

Editor's note: this originally published at CCW.org