26 Mar Marvelous in Our Eyes
Read: Mark 11:27-12:12
Last Sunday Pastor Ken preached from Mark 11:1-25 on Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem and his cursing of the fig tree and temple. This Sunday we will celebrate Easter, as we behold Jesus the Cornerstone in Mark 11:27-12:12. As you prepare your heart for our corporate gathering, let these words from Dr. Akin encourage you and move you to further consider the state of your heart before God.
Heart Preparation
Jesus quotes from Psalm 118: 22-23, changing the metaphor to a building. It is the same psalm shouted by the people at His triumphal entry. It is clearly messianic. He knows who He is and why He has come!
The stone rejected would become a symbol for the Messiah and an explanation for how the Jewish people rejected Jesus (Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; Rom 9:33; 1 Pet 2:6-8). They cast the stone aside as worthless. God, however, in a marvelous reversal, takes what man rejects and makes it the cornerstone (lit. “the head of the corner”), the stone most important to the whole structure, ensuring its stability and symmetry. It refers to the capstone atop a column, keystone in an arch, or cornerstone of a foundation. The rejection, humiliation, and crucifixion of Jesus is an apparent tragedy, but God will use it all for a greater purpose that can only be described as, “This came from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes.”
Sadly, the religious leaders are blind to all of this. Knowing He told the parable against them, they were conniving to seize Him. They move ahead with their plan to murder the Son sent by God. Like the demons who recognize Jesus as a threat to their very existence (Mark 1: 24), they refuse to submit to His lordship and plot how they might destroy Him. Mark 12:12 is a disappointing summation of their response: “Because they knew He had said this parable against them, they were looking for a way to arrest Him, but they were afraid of the crowd. So they left Him and went away.” As Paul would later explain, all of this is foolishness and a stumbling block to them; for us, however, it is the power of God unto salvation (1 Cor 1:18-25).
Calvin was right: “Whatever may be the contrivances of men, God has at the same time declared, that in setting up the kingdom of Christ, His power will be victorious” (Calvin’s Commentaries, 17:34). God will win even when, for a fleeting moment, it seems He has lost. An empty tomb proves it is so. Redemptive history reaches a glorious climactic victory in this beloved Son, this rejected stone.
In The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, Queen Lucy says to Lord Digory, “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world” (Lewis, The Last Battle, 161). To this we might add, “In our world there was also a cross, and hanging on it was someone greater and more wonderful than our whole world.” It was the Lord’s doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes!
Excerpt from Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Mark, by Daniel L. Akin, pp. 271-272.
Song List for Sunday
- Christ Is Risen, He Is Risen Indeed, by The Gettys
- Shout Hosanna, by Kristian Stanfill
- Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, by J. C. Spearman
- Jesus Paid It All, by Kristian Stanfill
- Man of Sorrows, by Hillsong Live