Zechariah 9,9-10. Populus Zion

Zechariah 9,9-10   0121

Populus Zion 1. Sonntag im Advent  01

Noah

Saturninus, Bishop of Toulouse, France. Martyr 250

29. November 2020

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank, laud and praise You eternally, that You have appointed Your Son a King for us poor men and women, who had to be under death’ and Satan’s tyranny on account of our sins, a Righteous King who frees us from our sins by His death and wants to be a Savior, who helps us against and saves us from death. We also beseech You: enlighten, rule and guide us with your Holy Spirit, so that we hold fast alone to this Righteous King and Savior, and do not, like the world, take offense at His humble form and despised word and thus be saved eternally by a firm trust in Him.  Amen. (Veit Dietrich) 

2. »Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is drawing near to you; He is justifying and saving, humble and mounted on a donkey and a you g colt. ¹⁰And I will utterly destroy the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem, and He will rule over the bow of warfare, and abundance and peace will be upon the nations; and His will rule from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.« 

3. The Prophet Zechariah writes the book the bears his name in the 8. month in the 2. year of Darius; this dates to November 520 bc. The Darius mentioned is Darius I aka Darius the Great, King of Persia from 522-486 bc. Israel’s Babylonian Captivity has ended. Cyrus had declared that the Jewish exiles may return to Judah 18 years prior in 538 bc. Four years after Zechariah prophesies, the temple was rebuilt and ready for use in 516 bc. Zechariah was living and prophesying at a time of great change. In chapter 8, Zechariah declares that Zion will experience peace and prosperity. In chapter 9 he declares that Judah’s enemies will be judged. This is then contrasted with the Messiah’s arrival mentioned in verse 9. 

4. Messiah arrives humbly on an ass with righteousness and salvation. He will speak peace to the nations and rule to the ends of the earth. Having endured 2020, we long for peace and salvation from the hand of Christ. We have endured partisan politics, a bitter election cycle and a worldwide pandemic complete with lockdowns and other demanding restrictions. Zechariah’s message arrives at the most opportune moment in human history. The Apostle Paul’s words of edification strike at our hearts: »And you knew the time, that the hour has arrived for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed« (Romans 13,11). We begin a new Church Year with this 1. Sunday in Advent rejoicing in Jesus’ advent in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and thus fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9,9-10. Jesus entered Jerusalem to justify and save us fallen sinners. In Jesus’ day, many Jews only focused on the blessings Messiah would bring for Judah, but Zechariah reminds us that the Christ is for all people and all nations; He justifies and saves not just Judah but all the world. 

5. Luther comments on verse 9, saying: „He arrives to you a just Savior. This is quite a wonderful description of this King. Just as He is very different from all the kings of the world, so also His area of responsibility and His royal apparatus are clearly different from those which fit a king of this world. Here there is no violence, no armor, no power, no anger and no wrath. All these, you see, or proper for kings of this world. Here there are only kindness, justice, salvation, mercy and every good thing. In short, He dispenses the sweetness and the mercy of God. He is just, because He justifies. He is Savior, because He saves. These are qualities which no king could ever bring to his throne. They are qualities far greater than those which befit a man. Moreover, all of these properties are spiritual and depict a spiritual kingdom, which the arrival and ascension of this just King reveal. For he arrives in humility, riding on an ass.“

6. Zechariah proclaims the advent of the Messiah. His message is: Yahwe shows mercy and remembers His covenant by rescuing His people and guiding our feet into the way of peace. Jesus began to fulfill this covenant on Palm Sunday when He entered Jerusalem where five days later He was crucified in the place of sinners and raised as the first fruit of their resurrection. Today begins the new Church Year with the season of Advent that prepares us for the incarnation and birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus was born into this fallen world to justify and save us sinners in need of redemption.  Amen. 

7. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of Zion; shine forth upon us as we prepare to celebrate Your birth, so that we celebrate with joyful hearts certain of our forgiveness and eternal life.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House. 

Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 20. Lectures on the Minor Prophets III Zechariah. Hilton C. Oswald, editor. Copyright © 1973 Concordia Publishing House.