peace be with you friend the church
proposes to us
for this week a reading from the ninth
chapter of the book
of the prophet zechariah now zechariah
maybe not a household name he's one of
the so-called
minor prophets doesn't mean he's a minor
figure or less than important it just
means
he wrote a text shorter than those of
isaiah jeremiah daniel and ezekiel who
were the
major prophets so zechariah has a
shorter book but boy was he an important
figure
in the great tradition and especially i
must say for jesus himself
when you look at the teaching of jesus
and more to it the actions of jesus
you see that in many ways he was deeply
aware
of the prophecies of zechariah well
zechariah lived and wrote around the
turn of the sixth
into the fifth century bc which is to
say the period
after the return of israel from the
babylonian captivity
very important date everybody 587 bc
when israel
is conquered and jerusalem is burned to
the ground the temple is destroyed and
israel is taken away
to babylon they finally after 75 years
return
and during that period what they want to
do is reconstitute the nation
so zechariah is is writing and speaking
and active
during that period now here's the thing
that's most important to see
this is not just a question of kind of
israelite
patriotic pride let's you know rebuild
our nation
see at the very heart of israel's
self-understanding was the idea that
they
were the chosen people of god
chosen to learn the mind and heart of
god
listen so that by the very integrity of
their
life and worship they would in turn
become
a kind of magnet to the nations
that's a citation that i quote all the
time but
mount zion true pole of the earth
there all the tribes go up the tribe to
the lord
that's from the second chapter of isaiah
and that is an idea of the united israel
but the more important point is this
united israel
gathered around mount zion that means
the place of right praise
would now become a beacon for all the
kings of the earth
all the tribes would come
that was israel's self-understanding
that's israel's
purpose now
at the time of david let's go back now
several centuries before zechariah
the time of king david this dream seemed
plausible
david indeed had gathered the tribes
david indeed built a unified nation
and was beginning to build something
like an empire
this vision made some sense in david's
time
but then under solomon david's son and
more so under david's
grandson the nation falls apart
and then over the centuries it's overrun
by assyria and then terribly by babylon
the whole
country the capital destroyed the temple
destroyed
so israel wondered i mean what does this
mean how could we be the chosen people
of god
how will we ever fulfill our mission
okay that's the background for zechariah
that's the background for what we hear
today which is a
marvelous prophecy listen now to what he
says
thus says the lord rejoice
heartily o daughter zion shout for joy o
daughter jerusalem
see your king shall come to you
a just savior is he meek
and riding on an ass on a colt the foal
of an ass
there's zechariah's prophecy who's the
king in question
the new and definitive david
the one who would unite the country
the one who would make it in fact a
beacon for the nations
he's going up mount zion which means the
place of the temple
that means he's going to lead the right
praise which in turn
will draw the nations of the world
that's what zechariah is prophesying
notice to please he comes not on a royal
charger so a great horse that the king
would ride in time of battle
no no the animal that he favors here is
a donkey ridden by a king
yes indeed but when he's doing sort of
more ordinary business when he's
going about the peaceful business of his
reign
then we hear zechariah's prediction of
what his reign will be like
listen he shall banish the chariot from
ephraim
and the horse from jerusalem the
warriors bow
bow shall be banished and he shall
proclaim peace to the nations
for chariot horse and warriors bow
substitute if you want tanks missiles
and assault rifles i mean these were
just ancient references to the
instruments of war
the point is this king who
comes peacefully will rule
over a peaceful kingdom he will not be
like the kings of the world
but a king according to god's heart
his kingship will be one of
reconciliation non-violence
peace not just for israel
but for the world listen as the prophecy
continues his dominion shall be from
sea to sea and from the river to the
ends of the earth
that's just code here for everywhere
his reign will be a universal reign now
can i just play on something
this is a pretty extraordinary claim
mind you
here's a country that from the time of
david that was many centuries before
zechariah
it had been in kind of a decline then it
had been
overrun by enemies it had been conquered
and destroyed and sent into exile by
babylon
at the time of zechariah they're kind of
staggering back
and hoping maybe to start rebuilding
their country
this is not a world conquering power
we're talking about here this is not
some
some superpower this is a little a
little
nobody of a country and yet listen to
this man
listen to what he prophesies now this
king of israel is going to come he'll
reign in peace
and his rule will stretch from sea
to sea okay did it come true in
zechariah's lifetime
absolutely not absolutely not
by the way that's a good perspective on
things you know when you're leading the
religious life
you know sometimes what god wants to
accomplish through you
you're not going to see it it's not
going to happen in your lifetime
it didn't happen in zechariah's lifetime
israel
continued if you want it's kind of drift
and decline
some 150 years after zechariah the
greeks
would overrun the holy land after the
greeks
the romans would move in degradation
colonization
oppression i mean that's what followed
the time of zechariah
and yet they remembered
i find that one of the most
extraordinary things about the old
testament about the
the wonderful israelite tradition is
they they remembered these prophecies
and they they savored them
all evidence to the contrary
notwithstanding you could imagine
someone saying why are you
people clinging to these wild dreams
look at your country you're overrun
you're colonized
you think your king's gonna rule the
whole world are you crazy
but they remember them now
fast forward 500 years after zechariah
to a young rabbi commencing to preach
in the hill country of galilee
what was this theme the kingdom
of god now we've largely spiritualized
the meaning of that term
but this young teachers audience they
knew what he meant
he meant that the prophecy
of zechariah was coming
true he meant that the new david
had arrived he meant the tribes are
being gathered he meant
mount zion was being renewed that's what
kingdom of god meant
for a jew of the first century and so
when rabbi
jesus preaches the kingdom
they remembered zechariah
what became abundantly clear in this
young rabbi's teaching and action
was that astonishingly all this was
happening
in relation to him
he was the new david he was the one
who was gathering in the tribes think of
the 12 apostles
think of his open table fellowship think
of his outrage to those especially
on the margins they saw that he himself
was the renewed temple
the very things that people sought in
the temple they now sought in him
instruction healing the forgiveness of
sins
he was himself facing down the enemies
of god
like a great warrior
at the climax of his life this young
rabbi enters into the capital city
of jerusalem as david did centuries
before
but how did he enter we recall this
every palm sunday don't we
we read this reading listen
on an ass a cult the full of an ass
he entered not on a royal charger
not as a conquering king
but he came precisely as zechariah said
he would
as a prince of peace nobody at that time
trust me would have missed the reference
they who were soaked in the scriptures
of of ancient israel
no one missed the reference to zechariah
how devastated therefore his followers
must have been
when this young teacher prophet king
was brutally put to death by the enemies
of israel
it would seem to signal that he was
wrong after all that he wasn't the new
david he wasn't this
this king of peace
but i wonder if any of them even as they
watched him dying on the cross
remembered another of zechariah's
prophecies about the king
listen they shall look on the one
whom they have pierced
strange isn't it zechariah predicts the
coming of the king
whose reign will last from age to age
and and from sea to sea
this king of peace but then he observes
they will look upon him as someone whom
they have pierced
it was precisely everybody in the light
of the resurrection
that they put this together they
understood precisely that
as the crucified one as the pierced one
he was in fact reigning as king
that's why pontius pilate putting the
sign over the cross jesus of nazareth
king of the jews
was announcing the fulfillment of
zechariah's prophecy
in its totality they will look upon the
one they have pierced
and recognize him as the king of peace
and i'll end with this what is the reign
of this crucified and resurrected king
like
look around the church
does indeed stretch from sea
to sea what began on the top of mount
zion
what began on mount calvary
now extends to the ends of the world
old zechariah long time ago makes this
strange
prediction didn't come true in his
lifetime
didn't come true for 500 years
and finally fulfilled in christ the king
whose reign now is meant to extend
through us the church
to the ends of the world and god bless
you
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