Thoughts on Zechariah 13

Today’s reading: Zechariah 13-14; 1 Peter 1

“On that day,” the day in which they pierce Yahweh, a fountain shall be opened to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. 

I know it was a while ago now that we went through Leviticus, but one of the things we talked a lot about as we were going through that book is the fact that there were no sacrifices for intentional sin. The point of the sacrificial system was to keep sacred space “clean” so that Yahweh could continue to dwell among His people. The sacrifices and offerings cleansed people from ritual uncleanness (not caused by sin), and/or cleansed sacred space itself from incidental/accidental uncleanness that had contaminated it. The only sacrifices for sin were for unknown sins when you became aware that what you had done was wrong, or to cleanse a city from the guilt of sin when they didn’t know who did it (e.g. someone was found murdered out in the field). But for the forgiveness of personal sin, times when you chose to commit an act that you knew was wrong, there was no sacrifice or forgiveness.

And yet, Zechariah is not just speaking of a day when the people can be cleansed from their ritual uncleanness, but also cleansed from their sin.

It’s common to hear Christians today talk about Jesus’ sacrifice like it’s simply a more permanent version of the sacrifices made under the law of Moses, but the reality is so much greater than that. Jesus’ death on the cross didn’t simply cleanse sacred space, but it makes us clean, inside and out, so that God’s Spirit can take up residence in our hearts, making us the new sacred space! This was never possible before, even when God’s Spirit would come upon a person in the Old Testament to perform a task for the Lord, they didn’t become sacred space, but in Christ, that is exactly what happens!

I just don't want us to miss how significant of a shift this is, as Zechariah calls out here, at the opening of chapter 13, that in that day, there will be true, total, and full cleansing, both from uncleanness, and also from sin. God is not simply offering, through Zechariah, more of the same as has always been available to His people, or extending what His people have already had to those outside of Israel, but He is promising to do something entirely new in salvation history.

Only in Christ can we find true, complete, and total cleansing from anything and everything, moral or otherwise, that could possibly stand between us and our Heavenly Father.