The Great Master Mason

Jeff Peper
Written By Jeff Rybacki
 

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling,and a rock of offense.”They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

1 Peter 2:1-8

Earlier in the year, back when we could all travel freely, our family went to Ireland for a vacation. Like many of you know it is rainy and not terribly warm there, but it is also beautiful. I’ve never seen so many variations of the color green which were on display in the fields we continued to pass. Ireland also has what I would call “Lord of the Ring-esque” trees growing everywhere. They’re tall and thick and sometimes posess a mishape which makes them easily distinguishable. As we were taking pictures I found myself routinely focusing on them. And the more mishapen, the more unique the longer my eyes would linger on them. It was not the trees uniformity that stood out to me but rather their lack of conformity. What was appealing about the trees was that they were different, they stood their unabashed amongst more normal looking trees and in the end it was the trees that were different that made the difference. 

Another thing we noticed were all the stones that had been used for different purposes. These stones were often on used either in castles or in the construction of walls on property lines. While modern construction rarely uses stones any longer in the construction of load bearing walls, there was a time that they were the primary source of such construction. Stones were dug from the ground and transported to their final destination to be used in either a dry-fit construction which could be modified over and over again, or it would be used with a mortar to create permanent walls that would last for centuries. Similar to trees all stones are not uniform and in fact stones present even less uniformity than trees. So here we see the abilities of a master stone mason on display, he takes a pile of rocks and based on their unique attributes places them in a location that is best suited to not only their own characteristics but also to the needs of the wall itself. Should all stones be of a round uniform character it would be more difficult to construct the wall and it would not be as strong but using the non-conformities, bumps, grooves and sometimes even chipping off portions, the wall is made strong by differences. 

This word picture of stones being rejected by builders is repeated throughout scripture and should require our attention. Replace yourself with the stones and replace the walls with the Church. Christ is the cornerstone, the first stone set and the stone which marks where all other stones should lay. God, being the great master mason, is building his church and has chosen to use all believers. And like the walls in Ireland he is masterful at using our characteristics to bolster his church in a way that is just as unseeable to us as a stone’s ability to see the wall they are made apart of. That stone’s purpose is to be a part of the glory of the castle wall, in the same way we are to be a part of the glory due to God through his church. 

So when Peter asks us earlier in this passage to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander and to crave pure spiritual milk. He’s telling us an infant does not posess any of those negative thoughts, so as part of becoming a new creation in Christ put off those old things and pursue spiritual milk, pursue things that will build you up as a new creation. Interestingly, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander all originate from our differences, the very differences that God is utilizing to grow his church. God is not interested in us all being round stones that look and act the same way. Remember that we have been created with a purpose in mind, make sure you’re allowing yourselves to be used accordingly.

Jeff Rybacki
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