Getting to Know Jesus by Name #50: Living Stone

 I Peter 2:4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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. 6 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.”

Peter once again puts together here a picture of Jesus with multiple names and descriptions, one of which is Living Stone.  The combination of those two words itself strikes us as odd, as we think of a stone being an inanimate object. Living means "having life, active; functioning, full of life and vigor; not dead," while a stone is "a piece of rock for a specified function; a building block; a paving block; a precious stone."*  The emphasis is that Jesus is full of life - in fact, the author and giver of life, and at the same time He had a specific purpose when He came - to die. But now that He has risen from the dead, He is that living stone, the cornerstone around which all of God's people come together.  There is also this sense in which Christ is a priceless stone, valued by the Father and to be praised and served by His people through our lives. 

*(Diann Cotton: 100 Days with Jesus)