Jesus the Living Stone (1Peter 2:1-10)

Jesus the Living Stone

 

1Peter 2:1-10

 

The theme of today’s word is “Jesus the Living Stone.” Stone is one of the important motifs used in many stories in the Bible. Jacob cheated his father Isaac and snatched away the father’s blessing. Then, he ran away from the father’s house and became a homeless. On his way to Haran where his uncle lived, Jacob stopped at a certain place for the night, and taking a stone there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. In a dream, the Lord God appeared to him and said, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you!” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he was amazed and afraid, saying, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Then, Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar, and named the place “Bethel,” which means “the House of God” (Genesis 28:15-19). In another story, when the people of Israel had left Egypt and were traveling from place to place in the wilderness, they camped at a place but there was no water to drink. They complained to Moses, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then, God said to Moses, “Strike the rock at Horeb, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” As Moses did as God told him to do, water gushed out of the rock and all the people and livestock drank it. Moses named the place “Massah,” which means “testing,” because the Israelites tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exodus 17:1-7). Interestingly, both of the two stories using stones as their motifs are talking about “God’s being here with me (or us).” In today’s text as well, Peter said that “the living stone” is built into a spiritual house where God and us live together. In this sense, “stone” symbolizes God’s faithfulness in being with us. Like a stone, this faithfulness never changes, and endures forever. Therefore, for us who are like homeless traveling from place to place in the world, God’s faithfulness becomes our dwelling place where we reside and rest in peace.

 

In verse 4 of today’s text, Peter introduces Jesus, “the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him.” In verse 7 as well, he describes Jesus by quoting Psalm 118:22, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Why was Jesus rejected by men, and chosen by God? Why was the same Jesus hated so much by men until being crucified and buried, and loved by God so much until being raised up to heaven and seated at the right hand of God? There can be various explanations for this, but if we find the answer within today’s text, it is surely because of Jesus’ “being spiritual.” We can find three “spiritual” things mentioned in today’s text. They are “spiritual milk” (v. 2), “spiritual house” (5), and “spiritual sacrifice” (5). I believe these spiritual things show how a believer grows spiritually in Christ. That is, he is fed with spiritual milk, and as he grows, he becomes a reinforcing member in building God’s house, and going further, he becomes a servant serving the family of God in the house according to God’s will. Through this growth, he is gradually separated from the world, and becomes God’s elect (1Peter 1:1-2). Peter became Jesus’ disciple because he followed Jesus’ spiritual guidance. People sought “food that spoils” instead of “spiritual milk” that Jesus gave to them, which is food from heaven (John 6:27). Seeing that Jesus insisted on giving only spiritual food, they were disappointed with Jesus and left him. Turning to the disciples, Jesus asked, “Will you also go away?” Then, Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68), and saying so, he remained in Jesus. He chose “spiritual milk” instead of “food that spoils.” Peter also believed and confessed that Jesus is “the Christ and the Son of the living God.” This means that he settled in Jesus. He gave up the kingdom of the world, and received Jesus as the kingdom of God and the house of God in which he would live forever. To Peter as such, Jesus said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:15-18). As Peter settled in Jesus, he was built into “a spiritual house.” Risen Jesus asked Peter, “Do you truly love me?” and then told him, “Feed my lamb.” Jesus repeated this three times. For young Peter, there were tons of things that he wanted to do. But Jesus told him just one thing to do, and Jesus wanted Peter to pour out all his life into this job. It was feeding Jesus’ lamb. This was the “spiritual sacrifice” that Peter should offer.

 

Let me read verse 2:1-3. “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” Peter says, “crave pure spiritual milk.” What is “pure spiritual milk”? Basically, it is “God’s goodness” as mentioned in verse 3. The pure spiritual milk that makes us grow up to salvation and eternal life is God’s love toward us. Especially, all the words from God’s mouth reveal God’s goodness and his mercy toward us. Like a newborn baby grows with the mother’s breast milk, we are fed with God’s goodness through His words. Compared to “pure spiritual milk,” what we see, hear and taste in the world are “malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” They are not pure or spiritual at all. They infect and destroy our souls to death. For a newborn baby, there is not any better substitute for the mother’s breast milk. The breast milk provides the baby with the best nutrients, and it also forms a very strong immune system protecting the baby from various diseases. Like the breast milk, God’s word nourishes and strengthens our souls. Furthermore, it is said that mother’s breast milk changes its constituents according to the baby’s needs that change along with its growth. This is also the case for “spiritual milk.” Hebrews 5:13-14 says, “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” In this word, the author distinguishes between milk and solid food. In a large category, however, solid food is also included in the “pure spiritual milk” that merciful God is giving to us. What is important is the fact that “God’s goodness” is the food of life that we should keep eating throughout our entire lifetime. And when we stop eating this food, our souls immediately become hungry and thirsty, and are overwhelmed by the evil spirits of the world.

 

Let me read verse 4-5a. “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” Jesus is the living Stone, and is also a precious stone to God. It is because Jesus lived, relying only to God’s mercy, and he pleased God by obeying him in serving the sinners with God’s mercy until he died on the cross. In this term, Jesus was like a perfectly clean and durable stone, spotless and blameless. One of the precious stones is diamond. Do you know that diamond grows? These days, diamond is synthesized in the lab artificially, and the synthetic process is exactly the same as that of how natural diamond is made. Therefore, even the experts hardly can tell between natural and artificial diamond. The basic materials for making artificial diamond are a diamond seed and graphite. Diamond and graphite look totally different from each other. While one is hard, clean, beautiful, and valuable stone, the other is just “a stuff” that is not beautiful or valuable at all. But the two share the commonness that their basic element is carbon. The only difference is that how the carbon atoms are interconnected. When extremely high temperature and pressure are applied to graphite, the carbon atoms are dissolved and reconstructed into diamond crystals (crystalized), and the crystals are settled onto the diamond seed. In this way, the diamond seed grows into a precious gem. I think that this diamond synthetic process is quite similar to how we believers become a living stone resembling Jesus, the living Stone, and are built into a spiritual house together with the Lord. As natural men and women, we are not so attractive, looking like graphite. But when we are fed with spiritual milk in Jesus and go through extremely intensive refining process, the image of Jesus is crystalized in us little by little (Galatians 4:19). Then, we, as crystalized into the image of Jesus, are settled onto the Lord, the precious living Stone, and built into the spiritual house of God.

 

Peter also encourages that, as we come to Jesus and are built into a spiritual house, we also “be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (4b). What are “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God”? In Romans 12:1 as well, St. Paul says, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” And throughout the whole chapter of 12 and in many ways, Paul explains specifically how we can offer our bodies as “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.” It is carrying out functions given to us with sincerity, generosity, and humility. It is loving and honoring one another. It is being joyful in hope, being patient in affliction, and being faithful in prayer. It is not repaying anyone evil for evil, but being careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. In the last verse of chapter 12, Paul concludes “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” The most fundamental job of a priest is preaching and practicing “God’s goodness and mercy” to the world. It is pouring out “God’s goodness” into the world despite the evilness of the world and the sinfulness of people. Facing his last day, Paul summarized his life, “I am already being poured out like a drink offering” (2Timonthy 4:6). Jesus also “was poured out like water” (Psalm 22:14). Like water was gushing out of the rock, Jesus served all the souls with “God’s goodness and mercy,” and for this ministry, he offered his whole body. There was no “I” in Jesus. There was only God’s faithfulness and goodness in him. So that God’s goodness may flow into the world without stopping, Jesus poured out himself like water. Therefore, Jesus becomes “the house of God” in which God is always with us, and Jesus becomes “the holy priest” from which God’s goodness is always gushing out like clean water. And, following this Jesus, we also live the same way. Being a reinforcing member of God’s house and offering the body like poured water, we are serving the priestly ministry that God’s goodness flows freely into the world. For the souls in the world, what is needed so much is “God’s goodness.” And it is “a holy priest” who would ration this spiritual milk freely.

 

Jesus is the precious living Stone. God laid the stone in Zion, and used him as the cornerstone of God’s house. And he promised, “The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” On the other hand, God said that, to those who do not believer, the stone causes them to stumble and makes them fall. Peter also added, “They stumble because they disobey the message” (8). In Romans 9:30-32 as well, Paul says, “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.” In this word, Paul says that the people of Israel stumbled over the stumbling stone because they pursued righteousness not by faith but by works. The Jews rejected “spiritual milk” God was giving them through Jesus. That is, they refused God’s goodness and mercy, and instead, they boasted of their own goodness. They did many “good works,” praying three times a day, fasting once a week, washing the hands before eating, and so on. Blinded with their own self-righteousness, they could not see God’s mercy. They also turned the temple where God dwells into “a den of robbers” where they satisfied their greedy desires (Matthew 21:13). Furthermore, as God’s anointed priests, they did not offer “spiritual sacrifices” and serve sinners humbly by pouring themselves. Instead, they sat on a high place of honor, condemned sinners, and prohibited them from coming to God. All these happened because they boasted of their goodness and relied on their own righteousness instead of seeking God’s goodness and mercy. When we hide pride in me, saying “I am good” and “I am right,” we immediately come to hate God who shows mercy to sinners, and because of this, Jesus becomes a stumbling block to me.

 

Peter encourages us, “Taste God’s goodness and crave pure spiritual milk!” “Come to Jesus, the living Stone, and be built into a spiritual house like living stones.” “Be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” These are truly precious words. Our everyday life is enjoying God’s goodness in His house, growing into the image of Jesus by imitating and practicing God’s goodness, and preaching God’s goodness to the world and serving the souls with God’s goodness. For this great work of God upon us through Jesus, we praise and thank God!!!