The Bible is so important to us because it is God’s guidebook to life. In it, we find answers to the questions which trouble us and find also the revelation of who God is, who we are and how to live well, not only for our years on earth but for eternity. In Matt 21:33-46, Jesus tells a parable about a master sending servants to collect fruit and how they beat these servants up, killing some of them; the master went on to send his son, but he too was rejected. Therefore, there will be a day of reckoning for these servants. Jesus went on to ask if the leaders had ever read Ps 118:22-23, referring to the stone the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone. Once again, Jesus looks back to the Old Testament to describe what is currently happening. The chief priests and Pharisees and other religious leaders were rejecting what God was doing and revealing in Jesus. They were not willing to accept that this carpenter from Nazareth could be the Messiah, the One God has promised for so many centuries. And so, Jesus says, ‘the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit’ (Matt 21:43), pointing to how the down-and-outs and Gentiles, the ‘outsiders’ to God’s promises, will actually find their place in God’s family after all, just as God had always intended. Jesus Himself will be cornerstone of this new spiritual building, and He will be ‘a stone that makes them stumble and a rock that makes them fall’ (‘Scandalon’, Michael Card).
This incident (which outraged the religious leaders yet again!) shows us that the Bible is crucial for understanding present times and reminds us that we need to do more than simply read it. We need ears that hear (see Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; Rev 3:6, 13, 22) and we must also put into practice what Jesus says (see Matt 7:24-27, James 1:22-25). God’s word is a double-edged sword (Heb 4:12), with the power to transform individuals and society as a whole. But it can only do this as we submit to its authority and do what it says.
