Why did the builders throw the chief cornerstone into a vacant lot?
According to a legend, not Scripture, the chief cornerstone arrived far ahead of the building schedule. The engineers and architects did not recognize it or know what to do with it, so they dumped it in a vacant lot, where weeds grew around it. It was the very stone meant to hold the architecture together.
Les explains that Peter is using an Old Testament analogy: Christ was to be the chief cornerstone, the head of the corner. Associated with that, Les repeats a legend, not Scripture, about Solomon's temple. Everything was pre-cut out at the quarry, so there was never the sound of a hammer or chisel at the temple site. When the chief cornerstone was brought in way ahead of time, the engineers and architects couldn't recognize it and didn't know what to do with it, so they dumped it off in a vacant lot, and weeds grew up around it. Les notes that in arch architecture, the very top stone holds everything together in a V and supports everything. That stone, which should have been the chief cornerstone holding all the architecture together, was the very stone the builders dumped out. As people walked through that vacant lot, they would bump into the stone that had been dumped there in ignorance.