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These words are taken out of Psa_118:22, which the Jews understood to be a prophecy of the Messiah, and accordingly Christ appliest them to himself. The church is the building intended, Christ himself the stone rejected; the rejecters, or the builders rejecting, were the heads of the Jewish church; that is, the chief priests and Pharisees.
God, the great master-builder of his church, takes this precious foundation-stone out of the rubbish, and sets it in the head of the corner. Nevertheless there are those who stumble at this stone. Some through ignorance, others through malice, stumble at his person, at his doctrine, at his institutions: these shall be broken in pieces: but on whomsoever this stone shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
That is, Christ himself will fall as a burdensome stone upon all those that knowingly and maliciously oppose him; and particularly upon the Jews, who not only rejected him, but persecuted and destroyed him. Thus Christ tells the chief priests and Pharisees their own particular doom, and also declares what will be the fatal issue of all that opposition which is made against himself and his church. It will terminate in their inevitable and irreparable destruction.
Whosever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken; and on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
That is, "He that stumbles on this stone, while Christ is here on earth, being offended at his doctrine, life, and miracles, shall be broken by his fall upon it; as the person stoned is by the sharp stone which he falls upon. But he on whom this stone shall fall, when Christ is elevated to his throne of glory, shall be more violently shattered by it, as is the person stoned, by the great stone as big as two men can lift, thrown down violently upon his breast."