Old Testament Holy Week
Augist 4, 2013 | Patrick Preheim | Zechariah
It is good to be humbled now and then. Such was the case in my initial reading of Zechariah in preparation for this Sunday. CON – FUS – ING! I consider myself to be moderately well trained in the area of biblical allusions and symbols, and yet I found my first go at Zechariah a most trying experience. Bowls on lampstands, airborne scrolls, women in flying baskets, four horses, four smiths, four chariots – what does it all mean? Often I give thanks for people with bigger brains than me, but never so earnestly than in a week I am preaching from the likes of Zechariah. What I have learned is of some comfort. Zechariah is written for people in need of encouragement as they rebuild their lives. It is written to people for whom life isn’t turning out as expected. It is written for us.
The largest part of Zechariah 1-8 are eight visions and conversation about them between God, an angel and Zechariah. These visions are intended to encourage the Hebrews as they rebuild their lives in Judah. Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai, Erza and Nehemiah, and like these books was written to a people starting over. It is a word of hope in the making of a new life. The little chart which appears in your bulletin below the scripture reading is helpful to gaining an overview of the visions and the way in which their organization gets at this central message of encouragement. The text seems to follow a pattern of parallels in which the first and last visions bear similarity, the second and seventh are thematically linked, and so forth. Each step toward the middle draws the focus more tightly to Jerusalem and the Temple.
The first and last vision of Zechariah underscore the international scope of God’s presence. God is sovereign over the entire world. Representing the four directions, four horses with riders or chariots are sent out to take stock the realm. They literally go to the four corners of the earth. No exile will be forgotten. No lost tribe will be lost forever. God is sovereign.
The second and seventh visions relate to the presence of negative influences within Judah. Zechariah sees four horns. Horns are a symbol of might, and these horns have kept the people of Judah from lifting their heads. The number four would again suggest that countries from every direction have participated in the oppression. The four smiths arrive in the vision to trim the horns so that they no longer can hurt. Foreign occupation and oppression will come to an end. This scene is paralleled with a woman sent to Shinar in a basket. Female deities were common in the religious systems surrounding Judah. In this scene these foreign gods, represented as a woman, are packed in a basket and sent flying. They no longer will be a stumbling block to the Jewish peoples. Temptation to worship foreign gods will be a thing of the past.
The next two visions get ever closer to the spiritual centre. The third vision testifies that not only will Yahweh rebuild Jerusalem, repopulate it, and defend it, the LORD will be present everywhere within the city. The sixth vision parallels this. Here we have a flying scroll. And this scroll is big—thirty feet by fifteen feet. Clearly, this is no ordinary scroll. This is the Torah, the sacred writings, the story of God. Even as Yahweh will be omnipresent in Jerusalem the scroll will move unimpeded throughout the land. As Jeremiah put it, the law will be upon their hearts and all shall know the LORD.
At the heart of this reclamation project we find a restored priesthood and monarchy. Joshua the high priest gets a fresh set of clothes while Zerubbabel is pictured with icons unique to the Temple. It is during these visions that we hear the words we have on our bulletin cover: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD (4.6). It is God who will see to a renewed priesthood and a restored monarchy. Take comfort, o people, the work is the Lord’s and all will be accomplished.
The upshot of these visions is encouragement toward the task of building. The word for us? Start businesses and if your last business failed try again. Get married and if your first marriage didn’t survive try again. Reinvigorate old ministries. Begin new service projects. Expand the family. Do all this knowing that God seeks to bless our endeavors and allow the blessing to radiate from us and our congregation into the world. The Spirit of the Lord will do amazing things in our lives and through our lives. Get busy.
And then comes Zechariah chapters 9-14. If the first part of Zechariah is about encouragement, then the second part of Zechariah is about maintaining hope when the new project doesn’t work out. The reference to Greece as a world power in 9.13 places the composition of these oracles at least 150-200 years after first Zechariah. History tells us that the glorious restoration predicted by Zechariah, Ezekiel, Haggai didn’t come to pass. The gap between promise and reality was too great for glossing over. Something had to be said, so God spoke to the disciples of Zechariah and they tacked the additional oracles onto the original. Chapters 9-14 is the supplementary word. The disciples of Zechariah made no stylistic attempts to make the second message conform to the first prophecy. Zechariah’s name is not mentioned after chapter 8. There are no time markers listed within the last chapters. Whereas the first section was largely written in first person prose, these six chapters are statements made about and by God. The first section include ethical directives (speak truth, render just judgments, keep your word), but in the second part of Zechariah the people are called to only one task – to rejoice (9.9).
The discontinuity of the new section reflects the discontinuity between promise and reality. The disjunction between chapters eight and nine is so great no editorial staff could miss it, and yet the canon compilers let the book of Zechariah stand as a complete unit. About the only similarity between the two sections of Zechariah is that God is the primary actor. Even though the prophetic promises have not come to fruition, there are still grounds for hope. Hope rests with the LORD who appears as a messianic warrior recreating the world order. The way to the future, however, will be filled with conflict, suffering and death. This is the O.T. Holy Week. The people had great expectations as they rebuilt Jerusalem; expectations fuelled by priests and prophets. The monarchy was not restored. Foreign occupation continued. No vine or fig tree for every person. The exiles had made their triumphal entry and found the via Delarosa as well as the cross. Perhaps this is one reason the second part of Zechariah is so often cited in Jesus’ last week.
The gospel writers regularly alluded to second Zechariah in their Holy Week accounts. The triumphal entry of Jesus is a near verbatim of Zechariah 9.9 in which the messiah enters Jerusalem on a donkey. A worthless shepherd is paid 30 shekels of silver, just like Judas (11.12). Jesus is quoted as saying, “Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered” which comes from Zechariah 13.7. In Zechariah 14 a messianic warrior begins his final march to battle from none other than the Mount of Olives (14.4); the same place from which Jesus set out to the garden to begin his last battle. Maybe God arranged these events so that the shattered disciples could anchor themselves in the faith tradition despite unmet expectations, conflict, suffering and death. Perhaps they added those textual links to help us understand how they made sense of their experience using the story of Zechariah. The only difference between the passion texts of Zechariah and the gospels, and it is a big one, is that the Jesus Messiah is non-violent. Fascinating. Powerful. Instructive. These Christians interpreted violent texts through the non-violent lens of Jesus.
Zechariah and the New Testament appropriation of it provide us some direction as we deal with disillusionment, conflict, suffering and death in our lives. And in this world of toil and sorrow we all face disappointment. How shall we carry ourselves when we bring ailing friends and family members before the Great Physician and they do not receive healing? How shall mothers and fathers respond when a child is born with unique abilities better suited for Menno Homes than the home of a parent? How shall people of faith react when they are downsized, fired from work, unable to find employment in their area of training? How do we come to terms with marriages that have all the ingredients for success and yet struggle? How will we make sense of things when we, to the letter, have followed the instructions of prophet and priest only to find friends and family opting out of the faith tradition? Second Zechariah tells us to place our hope in the coming Messiah who will put things right. The New Testament builds on this. Our spiritual tradition encourages us to follow Jesus the Messiah through Holy Week, onto the cross, and into the tomb. We are called to believe that resurrection will find us. We are told to set aside the violence which comes from seeking to control, embrace our powerlessness, and trust that God will work resurrection. Somehow, someway, there will be a resurrection. We know this because it happened to Jesus and he will see us through our crucifixions into our restoration. The writer of Hebrews puts it well (4.14-16):
Since . . . we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Yes, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Amen.
