You Can’t Ignore the Cornerstone
In ancient construction, the cornerstone determined everything—the alignment, stability, and direction of the entire structure. Reject a solid cornerstone, and the building fails. Jesus used this powerful imagery to make an unavoidable point: no one gets to ignore Him.
The Unavoidable Decision
When Jesus declared that “everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces,” He wasn’t being harsh—He was being honest. The religious leaders of His day tried to ignore God’s Kingdom and dismiss Jesus as irrelevant. But neutrality simply isn’t available when it comes to Christ.
We face the same choice today. We’re either broken by Him in judgment or broken before Him in repentance. There’s no middle ground, no “wait and see” option that lets us postpone the decision indefinitely.
CS Lewis and the Trilemma
CS Lewis famously articulated what many try to avoid: Jesus doesn’t leave room for casual admiration. As Lewis put it, you can dismiss Him as a fool, reject Him as demonic, or fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. What you cannot do is treat Him as merely a good moral teacher while ignoring His claims about Himself.
This isn’t about being closed-minded. It’s about taking Jesus seriously on His own terms. He claimed divine authority, forgave sins, and accepted worship—things that would be blasphemous if He weren’t who He said He was.
Why This Matters Today
In our culture, we’re comfortable with spiritual ambiguity. We like keeping our options open, maintaining flexibility in our beliefs. But Jesus, as the cornerstone, demands we build our entire lives on Him or acknowledge we’re building on something else.
Ignoring Jesus is itself a decision—just not the neutral one we pretend it is. When we say “I’m still figuring it out” indefinitely, we’re actually choosing to live as though He isn’t Lord. We’re attempting the very neutrality He says is impossible.
The Foundation Question
Every life is built on something. The question isn’t whether you’ll have a cornerstone, but which one you’ll choose. Career success? Family? Personal autonomy? These may be good things, but they make terrible foundations.
Jesus as cornerstone means He determines the alignment of everything else—your relationships, your ambitions, your daily choices, your eternal destiny. It’s comprehensive, which is exactly why people avoid the decision.
Making Your Choice
If you’ve been trying to stay neutral about Jesus, consider that your indecision is actually a decision. The cornerstone is either accepted or rejected—there’s no third category called “under consideration.”
The good news? Choosing to be broken before Him in repentance rather than broken by Him in judgment is still available. The cornerstone that could crush can instead become the foundation of a life built to last—not just for today, but for eternity.
Where does Jesus fit in the structure of your life? Is He the cornerstone everything else aligns with, or just another brick you’re trying to fit in somewhere? The building of your life depends on how you answer.
