Wednesday, December 12, 2012 – Zechariah 12 & 13 – Anticipation
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Advent is the time of year when we anticipate the coming of the one king who really matters. This is the king who brings justice and shows mercy. This is the king who binds wounds and heals broken hearts. This is the king who is invincible, everlasting and omniscient. This is the only king who matters.
Today another prophet, Zechariah, tells us what we already know to be true. Falsehood cannot last – truth lives forever. Idol worship is a game – worship of the Lord God is a way of life. Fidelity brings its own reward of serenity – betrayal also brings its own consequence . . . the shepherd is killed, the sheep scatter . . . but those who are genuinely faithful will be brought back to the fold in a new way. Through pain and mourning they will return . . . and they will be full members in the Body of Christ. This New and Good Shepherd does not leave the flock unwatched yet is so present to all that he is able to go in search of those who are lost. He forgives sin, heals suffering, redeems those who are authentic and restores them in love.
The coming of Christ signals the end of falsehood and the beginning of the only kingdom that matters. This kingdom is one of justice and mercy. This kingdom is a place of refuge for those who are bedeviled by tormentors. This kingdom is unassailable, eternal, and present to us now. This is the only kingdom that matters.
When we read Zechariah’s Song of the Sword (13:7-9) we may think that God’s plan is crazy and ill-conceived. But when we realize that this process is a winnowing that yields the fruitful away from the fruitless, we will begin to see God’s wisdom. And this is what Zechariah celebrates and anticipates. It is what we celebrate and anticipate as we near the Feast of the Nativity. For this has been foretold, and this is what we know to be true: Christ has come to carry back all of those faithful who were scattered, Christ has returned to heal the brokenness of the world, Christ has come again to shepherd us into the kingdom.
When we meditate on this story in this prophecy, we see that this is the only plan that a loving God can conceive. A coming . . . a birth . . . a redemption for all.
Written on December 18, 2010 and posted today as a Favorite.
The Noontimes 