Zechariah 9:9-13; Acts 2:39 Good News: Even Better Than Expected

 

Baptism and Palm Sunday are celebration days, both filled with promises and God acting among his people in special ways, pointing us to who he is and who we are. In baptism, we’re reminded of God’s saving grace and the claim he places on us as his children. Palm Sunday, reminds us that Jesus is our king. Both days are filled with good news pointing to the good news that rests in Jesus as our king and saviour; the one who frees us from slavery and oppression.

Zechariah was born in Babylon and returned with the exiles to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Joshua. Zechariah is sent to rebuke the people of Judah and push them to finish rebuilding the temple. The people have returned, rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, were building their homes and had begun rebuilding the temple, but daily life things kept getting in the way of finishing it, so Zechariah has to keep pushing them to remember the Lord is with them even though there is opposition to their rebuilding the temple from the people around them. In Zechariah 4:6 we hear, “So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” Here the Lord is reassuring Zerubbabel that even though he doesn’t feel strong, the Lord is powerful enough to accomplish all his plans to re-establish the people back in the Promised Land.

The people of Israel aren’t much different than we are, it’s not uncommon for us to have all kinds of good intentions to do things for Jesus, even start them, and then find ourselves repeatedly distracted and sidetracked from actually finishing them. We’re not building a new temple here, though we did do a pretty great reno, but how often do we put off inviting our neighbour to come to church with us, or to have that first or second faith conversation, or maybe it’s something else that we’ve been planning to do, or an area of our own faith life that we keep meaning to work on.

Zechariah talks a lot about the coming Messiah: that he’ll come in lowliness, about his humanity, rejection and betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, his crucifixion, priesthood, kingship, and more. In this passage that Brad and Grace chose, we’re told that the Messiah will come like a king, but not a warrior king, but a king who will bring peace, renewal, and restoration of the kingdom. Zechariah 9:9–10, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

Zechariah is contrasting the coming Messiah with the military strength of Babylon, a mighty empire who conquered numerous nations, often dispersing the people throughout the various nations in its empire so that the conquered peoples would marry among the other nations, losing their identity except for their identity as part of the Babylonian empire. Israel’s messiah king is riding a donkey, a humble work animal. Israel’s messiah king is going to break the military might of Israel and Judah, bringing universal peace rather than war. We hear the contrast between the ways of the Lord and the ways of empire and power where the Babylonians’ unjust ways are condemned. But the coming Messiah is also a king who calls his people to find their identity in him and his kingdom.

This is where we hear the echo ahead to Palm Sunday and the account in all 4 Gospels of Jesus riding into Jerusalem as the Passover is about to begin, riding in on a donkey rather than a horse as a sign he comes as a king of peace rather than a conquering king. Israel was placing its hope in a Messiah in the tradition of David or Solomon, kings of power and strength but Jesus is about bringing shalom and peace to the nations, not only Israel, and establishing his kingdom to the ends of the earth. As king, Jesus comes to reconcile us to God, as we hear in Romans 5:10, ^“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” We quickly think of others being enemies of God, especially those who don’t live according to God’s and Jesus’ teaching in the Bible, but Paul reminds us that we were all enemies of God and Jesus came to reconcile us to God through his death, through the blood of his covenant that God talks about in Zechariah 9:11, the blood that frees the prisoners from the waterless pit.

As Jesus comes as a king of shalom and peace. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the cross he’s riding towards on Palm Sunday, brings us peace and reconciliation with God, that kingdom of peace talked about by the prophets in the Old Testament. Jesus comes to save us from our sins; to bring the people back to God so we can experience peace that is more than an absence of conflict, a peace that brings hope, that encourages us to come together in order to bless, a peace that brings growth and flourishing. What a huge reason to be a people of celebration!

This is why the people were so excited when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields, as Mark tells us. As Jesus rode the donkey to Jerusalem, the crowds shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” These shouts of joy echo back to Psalm 118. The people were crying out for salvation from the Roman occupation. The crowd expected the Messiah to be an earthly king who will sit on David’s throne. While they were wrong about the kind of king Jesus is, they were right to connect Psalm 118 to Jesus. Psalm 118:25–29 cries out, “Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you… With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you.”

Jesus rides in as king. He’s not just any king, he’s the King of kings and Lord of lords, as we are reminded of in Revelation 17:14, “They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” Jesus’ kingdom stands in sharp contrast to the kingdoms of the day. We hear this is Jesus’ response to Pilate in John, “Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” … Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

 Rather than an earthly kingdom built through sword and might, Jesus comes humbly as a king of shalom, a king who comes to protect his people from the prince of this world, who is Satan. Satan brings chaos and condemnation; King Jesus brings renewal and forgiveness. Timothy Keller writes about this passage from Zechariah, “This odd juxtaposition that Jesus was King, but that he didn’t fit the world’s categories of kingship. He brought together majesty and meekness.” Keller goes on to refer to a sermon by Jonathan Edwards where Edwards writes, “In Jesus we find infinite majesty yet complete humility, perfect justice yet boundless grace, absolute sovereignty yet utter submission, all-sufficiency in himself yet entire trust and dependence on God. But in Jesus the result of these extremes of character is not mental and emotional breakdown. Jesus’ personality is a complete and beautiful whole. Watch this mighty King ride a little donkey into Jerusalem and deal with what he finds there.”

The good news of the gospel for us today is that Jesus saves us from our sins even while he’s with us in our struggles. We can cry out “Hosanna!” to him, “Save us,” and know that he will. As Peter remind us in Acts 2:39, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” This calls for celebration!