Repetition is the teacher's most powerful tool, so evidently these Christian writers and the Spirit who inspired them are trying to get us to listen up.
How does the rejected stone become the capstone?
How does the presence of the outsider improve life for us all?
The context of this statement, was in a speech made by Peter, who was defending himself in an interrogation by the local authorities, who were asking him how it was that he and his buddy John had apparently healed a man who had been previously unable to walk all his life.
As had been the case in so many of Jesus’ healing, the miracle that had taken place did not result in people celebrating and giving thanks, but rather in people feeling threatened and wanting reassurance that nothing in their little world was going to change. Rather than placate his questioners though, Peter goes on the attack, and says to the whole assembled group of ecclesiastical thought police: in ACTS 4:8-11
"if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead - by him this man is standing before you well!”
“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.”
The statement appear in many other places .
Matthew 21:42
Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?
Mark 12:10-11
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'?"
Luke 20:17
Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written: "'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'?
Ephesians 2:20
Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
1 Peter 2:7
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,"
Psalm 118:22-23
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone...the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Isaiah 28:16
So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.
The whole picture in Psalm 118 and Matthew 21 is very interesting. The Stone was meant for the foundation, but the builders did not place it there and afterwards could find no place to fit it. So they “rejected” it and cast it aside. Then as they moved about at their work, it lay in their way, and they stumbled over it and fell. Lastly, God Himself takes up the Stone and places it in the most conspicuous place of all, as “Headstone of the corner,” and the rejected One becomes the Judge and Punisher of those who rejected Him.
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