Rejection, Shame and the Honour of Christ

1 Peter 2:4-10

We’re looking at Peter’s first letter, a letter he wrote to help Christians live in a pagan culture that’s  becoming increasingly hostile to them. And today’s passage, while it’s from the New Testament, is packed with quotations from the Old Testament.

But Peter’s not doing that to be like that irritating guy in the pub quiz who just wants to show off his knowledge. The people he’s writing to are facing growing rejection for their faith. And he wants to help them handle that.

You see, having become Christians they’ve stopped going to the pagan temples and worshipping the pagan gods. And we might think, ‘Fine, freedom of religion and all that’. That’s not how their neighbours would have seen it. Because to them, these new Christians were risking the displeasure of the gods - and not just on them but on a society that tolerated them. So their beliefs weren’t just different, they were harmful, shameful, to others, to society. It’s why Tacitus, the Roman politician, called Christians ‘haters of humanity.’ 

And that’s a charge against Christians that’s come back into vogue in our own day. But, if you’re a Christian, how are you supposed to deal with that rejection - that your views aren’t just old fashioned but hateful or harmful? And if you’re not yet a Christian, what are you supposed to make of it? Should it turn you against the Christian faith?

Well, to help these guys make sense of it, Peter talks about buildings.

Everyone’s Building

Look at v7, where Peter’s quoting Psalm 118, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’ And in its original context, when the psalm talks of ‘builders’ it’s referring to foreign rulers opposing God’s anointed king. But hundreds of years later, Jesus took those words and applied them to the Jewish religious leaders opposing him. Then, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, when Peter was put on trial for preaching about Jesus, he quoted those same words to again refer to those same Jewish leaders. But now, in today's passage, he uses them again, except this time, the builders are v7, ‘those who do not believe’ - the people opposing Peter’s friends.

So who are the builders? Are they the foreign leaders of Psalm 118, or the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day, or those turning on these Christians? And the answer is, they’re all builders.

The foreigner leaders were trying to build a geopolitical order in which they came out on top. The Jewish leaders were trying to build a power structure that preserved their position. And the neighbours and authorities rejecting Peter’s friends were trying to build a culture where the gods were honoured and they were safe. 

They were all building, or trying to build something. 

And our politicians are still at it, aren’t they? President Biden said his government would be about, “Building a better future for all Americans.” Theresa May, previous prime minister of the UK, claimed her government was "Building a stronger, more prosperous Britain.” Cyril Ramaphosa said his goal was "Building a brighter future for all South Africans.” While Narenda Modi in India is, very modestly, "Building a new India.” 

Now those are just slogans. But of whatever colour, politicians and pressure groups are seeking to build and shape society the way they want it.

But it’s not just that kind of large scale building that’s going on. All of us, whether we’re aware of it or not, are trying to build a life, or a career, or a reputation, or an identity. In fact, in one of his parables, Jesus used the illustration of two builders - a wise one and a foolish one - to describe how we go about living life.

Now, in the old days, architects and builders used stones and you ended up not just with buildings but with beauty, like Kings’ College Chapel. Today, they use concrete and you end up with the Rolex Learning Centre.

But in Peter’s day, if you wanted a building to last, the first stone you laid was, v6-7: a ‘cornerstone.’ And every other stone took its line and height from that stone. Whether the next stone was in line or out of line, whether it was the right height or the wrong height, was measured against the cornerstone.

And every building project, whether of politicians or pressure groups, or of your own life, looks to one cornerstone or another; something that tells you that’s in-line, that’s out of line. That behaviour’s acceptable, that isn’t. That ambition’s good, that isn’t. For attempts at building societies that could be the market, or Marxism. It could be personal liberty or traditional values. It could be expressive individualism or gender neutrality.

And for your own life there’s going to be a cornerstone. It could be the morals that come from traditional religion, or the opinions of those around you. It could be something as vague as, ‘it’s ok if it’s not hurting anyone’, or the ideas and concepts of Buddhism or the Stoics, or Jordan Peterson. Now, you might think, ‘hey, I’m my own cornerstone.’ Maybe, but something’s still chiseled you, influences and ideas have worked on you to make you think ‘this is in line and this isn’t.’

Now, if you step back from the building - like the building of society - and take an honest look at it, what do you see? Things aren’t quite straight, are they? In a society built on the cornerstone of Marxism, the oppressed become oppressors. But look to the market as your cornerstone and there seems no answer to greed. Try and build on the cornerstone of an inclusive society and it rapidly excludes those who disagree with you. Make tolerance your thing and it becomes intolerant. Build on Critical Race Theory and racial divisions grow.

But take a step back from your own life. Build it on career, or the pursuit of wealth, or romantic relationships, or how others see you, and things get out of whack.

And Peter’s saying to these early Christians, to understand why you’re being rejected, why society or someone’s life, may be out of whack, you need to understand that they’re building on the wrong cornerstone.

The True Cornerstone

Now there’s nothing more dead than a rock is there? I mean, have you ever tried talking to a rock? Or hugging one? You get more emotion from an Englishman.

But look how Peter describes Jesus. He is, v4, ‘A living stone.’ Now when Jesus was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb cut from rock, he was stone cold dead. But God raised him from the dead. And as the living stone, Peter says, he’s the cornerstone of everything God’s building. Whether something’s in line or not is measured against him.

But not everyone wants it that way. Verse 4 again, Jesus is ‘a living stone, rejected by men.’ And Peter had witnessed that rejection of Jesus first hand, but now his friends are experiencing it for themselves. Not everyone thinks Jesus is worth building a life, or a society on.

Now, when a political party realises their leader has become unpopular, they dump them. That’s not what God does with Christ, Peter says. And in v6, he quotes from Isaiah 28, where God says, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious.” 

In other words, you can be rejected by everyone else, they can tell you you are so wrong, and you’re on the wrong side of history, and you’re a hater, and still be the apple of God’s eye. Just look at Jesus.

You see, Peter knew that it was precisely through Jesus being rejected that God was saving his enemies. Look what Peter said at his own trial, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12).

No other building project will do it, Peter’s saying. You want to build a society that preserves your position, or a life that gives you what you want. And you think this or that cornerstone will do it: ‘Obey all the rules’. ‘No, throw off all the rules’. ‘There’s too much government’, ‘no there’s too little’. ‘The problem’s this group of people’, ‘no it’s that group’. ‘I need to earn as much as I can’, ‘No I need to embrace minimalism.’

And Peter’s saying, ‘No, the ultimate solution to humanity’s problems, to oppression or greed, to racism or intolerance, and the source of true happiness and peace - with yourself and God, is Christ. He’s the way of salvation. He’s the cornerstone.’

But that’s deeply polarising - then and now. Because as Peter makes clear, Jesus is either the cornerstone, or v8, “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”

Have you ever tripped over something and gone flying? Or has someone ever said something to you that was so objectionable, you got up and walked out or left you wanting to punch them in the face? That’s not how we tend to think of Jesus, is it? Whatever you think of Christ, I doubt what you know of his character or teaching sends you sprawling or leaves you wanting to send him sprawling.

But think about his exclusivity and his demand on your ultimate loyalty? You see, in Peter’s day, the Roman empire worked by adding the gods of the people it conquered to its pantheon of gods: ‘You worship our gods and we’ll worship yours’ and everyone wins. But Christians refused, because there is only one God, there is only one way of salvation, there is only one Cornerstone. And it’s not the gods of the age, of the progressives or the traditionalists, the right or the left. It’s Christ.

And that was as offensive then as it is now.

But Peter goes even further, v8, ‘They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.’

What does he mean by that? Does he mean that the inevitable outcome of refusing to believe is that you stumble? Or that God has destined people not to believe and so stumble? Well, maybe, to both. But that’s probably not what Peter’s getting at. You see, the verb he uses in v8 for being ‘destined’ is the same verb he uses in v6 for God ‘laying' the cornerstone. In other words, by God appointing Christ as the cornerstone, he’s appointed two possible responses to him: you either trust him or you don’t. You either make him your cornerstone, or you reject him. There’s no middle ground. In the words of v7, it’s either ‘you who believe’ or ‘those who do not believe.’ There’s no no-man’s-land.

But why point that out? Because he wants us to see that even the hostility you experience for your Christian faith is under God’s control. He’s sovereign even over that.

But does that make the pain of rejection any less? I mean, if you’re at work or on campus and you’re debating whether to speak out for Christ, or for truth, or you’re facing hostility because you have, the sense of shame that comes with rejection can still be very real, can’t it?

So why hold on to faith in Christ, and be open about it, or why become a Christian, when the costs begin to climb?

Well, Peter says that if those who don’t believe stumble, things look very different for those who do believe. And the two things so much of our political or personal building are trying, but failing, to achieve God gives us in Christ.

A New Identity and a New Purpose

Verses 8-9, ‘They stumble… But you…’ 

Imagine you’re visiting an old cathedral and looking around inside, what do you see? There are stone plaques on the walls commemorating the great and the good; there are the tombs of the saints with their stone statues lying at rest. Walk outside and you see more stones, marking the people buried there. 

They’re all dead stones remembering dead people.

Now look at v5: ‘you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house.’ So it’s not just Christ, when you put your trust in him, his life-from-the-stone-cold-dead life becomes your life.

But not so you can live life in glorious isolation. You see, our current culture tells you you’re an individual and you need to create your own identity, unconstrained by anyone else. But that’s a heavy burden to bear and as a result loneliness and anxiety are rising. And while Christianity has plenty to say about us as individuals, here Peter’s talking about community, the kind of society God’s building.

Because when you come into relationship with Christ, God places you in relationship with all the other stones he’s placing around Christ. Because God’s building a house Peter says, not a sculpture park. A temple, where he dwells among his people, where the stones, as Augustine says, are ‘cemented together by love’. 

So, they might be experiencing an animosity that puts neighbour against neighbour. And we might be living in a culture that emphases the individual and so undermines community, but God’s building project, Peter says, is about bringing people together, stone upon stone, as each one finds its line from Christ.

But then Peter takes that idea of identity together and explodes it. Because if you’re to handle rejection and shame, you need to know that what they’re saying about you is not the last word. That someone whose opinion matters more has better things to say.

So, v9, ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.’ And those were all used in the Old Testament to describe Israel. In Deuteronomy 7:6 Moses said, “The Lord your God has chosen you [ethnic Israel] to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” But now, Peter says, you’re racial, ethnic background doesn’t matter. Jew and Gentile, black and white, Dutch giants and English pigmies, in Christ we’re one chosen race.

Try and build a society on racial theories, critical or otherwise, and you’ll drive people apart. Make Christ the cornerstone and it’ll kill the pride of racism, and as it does it’ll bring people together.

But then Peter says we’re ‘a royal priesthood, a holy nation.’ And he’s got that from Exodus 19:6, where God says of Israel, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” And Peter’s saying, what was true of them is now true of all of you, Jew and Gentile. Together you’re a royal priesthood, because you serve a king. Which is great, because it means every Christian is now a royalist and monarchist. Even the Americans! And it’s a priesthood, because what Israel failed to do, the church is called to do: to mirror the glory and the goodness of God to the world.

But we’re also a holy nation. We may come from multiple different nations, or be scattered through the nations, but God’s chosen us and set us apart, Peter says, to be ‘a people for his own possession.’

That’s who you are. That’s what God thinks of you, Peter’s saying. Everyone else may be telling you your beliefs are an embarrassment or worse, shameful. But God’s telling you, I’ve chosen you, I’ve set you apart, I’ve bought you at infinite cost, and I’m building you into a new, alternative society joined together by love. Every other cornerstone will leave you or society wonky, but Christ gives you a rock solid identity.

But, not just an identity, a purpose.

Because imagine you’re at a training event, and the facilitator asks you to write down what your purpose is. What’s your purpose in your studies, or at work? What’s your purpose as a friend or a parent? What’s your purpose in life? 

What would you write? And what would you write for the purpose of the church?

Well, Peter says the purpose of the royal priesthood God’s building is, v5, ‘to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’ And v9, we’ve been set apart to, ‘proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.’

So if Peter was sat next to you at that training event he’d lean across and say, ‘write down proclamation. That’s your purpose. You are loved to proclaim his love.’

Now, in Peter’s day, the wealthy would fund civic works or give large charitable donations, as a way of gaining honour, in an honour/shame culture. And plaques and public announcements would make clear where the funding had come from. What they proclaimed was themselves. Today, social media might have taken the place of stone inscriptions but the need to promote yourself to feel good about yourself has not gone away. 

But self, and self-promotion is an unstable stone to build on, isn’t it? Because what happens when someone better than you comes along? 

You need a more secure identity and a better purpose than that, and only Christ can give it, Peter says. And when he’s your cornerstone, it’s his excellencies you proclaim, not you own. But that doesn’t wipe out your individuality, because while he is the hero of the story, it’s still your story The story of how he rescued you, though you had rejected him.

So, facing hostility is not a reason to hide, Peter says. Instead, when you understand the grace of God you’ve experienced, the grace of God towards his enemies, it opens your mouth. But not to burn those who stand against you, but in praise of the one who stood by you.

Which is another reason to embrace the rejection.

The Answer to Shame

Look at v10, ‘Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’ And Peter’s got the story of the prophet Hosea and his wife, Gomer in mind. And God told Hosea to marry Gomer, even though he knew she would be unfaithful to him. But it was through Hosea’s faithfulness and love for Gomer, that God was painting a picture of his own love for those who reject him. 

You see, when Gomer gave birth to their first daughter, God told Hosea to call her, ’No Mercy’ and their second son ‘Not My People’, because through Hosea he was saying to Israel, “I will no more have mercy… [and] you are not my people” (Hos 1:6-9). But, of course, that wasn't the end of the story. And Hosea didn’t cast Gomer off, even though she was unfaithful, because God doesn’t cast his people off. Instead, through Hosea, God promised a time would come when, “I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’” (Hos 2:23). And Peter's saying, ‘that promise has been fulfilled in you. There was a day when you didn’t know God’s mercy, and when you didn’t belong in his people, but now, in Christ, you do.’

But what did it require for Gomer to be redeemed from her unfaithfulness, for her to experience mercy, and have a future? It required Hosea to be willing to bear the rejection and carry the shame.

And Peter's saying, at the cross Christ did that for you. At the cross, v7, he was ‘the stone that the builders rejected.’ And he was stripped naked and mocked and shamed. And he experienced the rejection from men, but ultimately from God, that we deserve. And he did it for you, v6, so that ‘whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ And at the cross, God the Father turned his face away from Jesus that he might turn it towards us. He got no mercy so we might receive mercy. He was cast off that we might be brought in.

And that Christ would do that for you, Peter says, is honour: v7, ‘The honour is for you who believe.’ Others may reject you, Christ doesn’t. Others may shame you, but Christ honours you. And he’s building you into something that’s stable and lasting. That gives you an identity and a purpose. A new society within society, a city within a city, a kingdom among all kingdoms, that loves its enemies, and does good to those who reject it. Because that’s how God has treated us. No other cornerstone can do that. But Christ can.