Christology Through Imagery
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
As we have discussed in recent weeks, Jesus used many common images by which to communicate truths about Himself — images such as bread, light, shepherd, door and vine.
Christ’s early followers experienced such spiritual transformation as a result of trusting and following Him that they plumbed the range of their life and times for titles and images that helped them express their inexpressible new life in Christ.
One such image was that of a stone.
Then, as now, stones were a common sight, from small stones in the fields and roadways to massive stones in city walls and especially in the temple in Jerusalem. Stones were prominent in Old Testament times to mark a special site or stand as a memorial to a special event lest these fade from the memory of future generations. Underlying the stone image were passages from their Scripture, the Old Testament. Their frequent use of the Psalms embedded in their memory the prophetic word of Psalm 118:22, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”
Along with this when the Prophets were read, they heard the word from Isaiah 28:16, “Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.” The imagery expressed in the Psalms and the Prophets furnished both Christ and His followers a way of communicating divine truth. For example, Jesus one day ended a parable with the probing words, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’?” (Luke 20:17)
Some years later Peter would write with the reminder, “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,” to which he appended scriptural warrant for this imagery with the assertion, “Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame” (1 Pet. 2:4–6).
A foundation stone
As we read the Bible we come upon the multiplicity of adjectives used to describe Christ as a stone: chief cornerstone, a rejected stone, a living stone, a chosen stone, a precious stone, a tried stone, a sure foundation stone. Thus Christ’s followers strained their vocabularies for ways to express Christ’s significance in God’s redemptive plan and in their spiritual experience.
Among these descriptors of Christ as a stone, none is more meaningful than that of Him as chief cornerstone. While in modern architecture a cornerstone is usually symbolic and placed at the time a finished building is opened or dedicated, in biblical times a cornerstone was the first stone placed. It served to set the angle for all other foundation stones that would follow. As such, it was expected to be the most perfect stone with precise angles to which the subsequent stones would be aligned. Hence, we may think of “chief” as “occupying first place.”
With the imagery of the Church as a spiritual building, we understand concerning Christ as the chief cornerstone that He is the perfect stone upon whom all the others rest. His perfection sets the standard for all the living stones that are added to God’s building. In fact, 1 Corinthians 3:11 declares, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
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