Fifth Sunday in Lent

April 2, 2006

Scripture Readings: Hebrews 9:11-17, 22; John 11:47-57

Hymns: 178; 156; 157; 163; 651

            Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The word of God taken for our instruction in righteousness this morning comes from the prophet Zechariah 12:9 - 13:1:

9 It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves. 1 In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

The Cleansing Fountain of Jesus’ Blood

• Bringing about Repentance

• Offering Cleansing for all Sin

In the name of Jesus, whose blood cleanses us of all sin; Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Do you know what the two most important substances are for the sustaining of human life? Oxygen and Blood. Have you ever really thought about how important blood is? The blood in our bodies carries necessary oxygen to every part of our bodies. If blood is blocked from parts of our body, they begin to die. We are reminded of the importance of blood by the Red Cross which regularly promotes blood drives, especially after certain disasters which quickly use up the reserves of donated blood. But as important and necessary as blood is, there are limits to its benefits, and even times when it can become harmful. As an example we might think of the first plague which the LORD inflicted upon the Egyptians through Moses, turning the Nile river to blood. As useful as blood is, a river full of it became a plague to the people of Egypt. The Nile river gave needed life to the fertile farming land of Egypt, but when turned to blood it became a source of death and disease.

Blood is not a good substitute for water. Blood is not a good cleansing agent as water is. If you have ever tried to wash clothes that have a blood stain on it, you know what I mean. Blood stains, and is very difficult to get out. We don’t use blood to get out stains, since it only makes the stain worse. For that reason, our theme for this morning may seem rather odd, and yet, the Scriptures repeatedly speak of the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus! Consider these familiar passages: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7b); and “These are the ones who... washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).

At first such a thought doesn’t make much sense. So this morning I would ask you to consider the Cleansing Fountain of the Blood of Jesus. This cleansing blood brings about repentance in the hearts of sinners, and cleanses them of all sin. May our Heavenly Father sanctify us through His Word. Amen.

The prophet Zechariah was sent by the LORD at a critical time in His people’s history. He lived about 500 years before the time of Christ, just after the exiled people of Judah were given permission by Cyrus, the King of Persia, to return from Babylon to their homeland in Judah. While many of the exiles decided to stay in the land they had been taken to, there were many others who decided to return to their homeland, to rebuild their land, the capital city of Jerusalem, and most importantly the temple in which they would again be able to worship the LORD and offer the sacrifices He had given in the Old Testament Law.

I’d like for you to put yourself in their situation this morning. Imagine that your parents had been taken from their homeland against their will, and that you had grown up in a foreign land. You were not slaves - you were given freedom to conduct whatever business you wanted, but you missed your homeland. You had heard stories from your parents about the yearly trips to the temple in Jerusalem, the feasts and festivals, as well as the required sacrifices and offerings that were given there, and you longed for the opportunity to worship in that way.

Then when the Persian King gives permission for any Jewish people to return to their homeland, and his blessing and support to rebuild the city and the temple, you excitedly decide to join the other exiles who are returning to take up the task. But things were difficult. First you all had to get settled in the land, you had to build houses your families and find a way to provide for them. Finally after seven months in the land, you and the other exiles gathered to build an altar to the LORD and offer sacrifices. After a few more months you finally begin work on the temple itself, but this also was short lived. In the book of Ezra we are told, “the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia” (Ezra 4:4-5). Because of this it took the people more than 20 years to complete the rebuilding of the temple. Imagine how discouraging and disheartening this would be!

It was at this time that the LORD sent the prophet Zechariah to encourage the people at a very discouraging time, and to point them to the coming Savior who would give them deliverance over unbelievers, and whose blood would give them perfect cleansing from sin. Three times in our text he says “in that day...” (12:9;11;13:1). The prophet Zechariah looks to the future, to the time when the promised Savior would come.

The LORD begins with a promise that through the Savior He would bring deliverance from foreign (unbelieving) nations. Ezra describes how the people were oppressed by these nations, who did everything that they could to stop the building of the temple to the LORD. Do you know what is interesting? At first the people of the nations around the exiles offered to help them. But when they told these heathen nations that they didn’t want their help because of their false religion, they became angry and that’s when they began trying to stop the building process, using scare tactics, and even political pressure.

The same thing is true today. When I was in India, we found that people were willing to listen to the message of a new God, were even willing to contribute to the support of that message, until they were told that the other gods they believed in were false gods. Then they became distant, and some even hostile.

The same thing can be seen right here within Christian denominations. The big thing today is to have various Christian churches join together to build churches or go on mission or social ventures. But as soon as you point out that they don’t believe the same thing that you do, they no longer want to have anything to do with you! Like the heathen people who lived around Jerusalem at the time of Zechariah, so our society has become tolerant of any and all differences in religion - until someone stands up for the truth and points out that God is not tolerant of false gods, false religion, and false teaching. Those people are not tolerated, but are persecuted and condemned as loveless. As a church body we have taken that stand. As individuals we also need to take that stand, knowing that false teaching is dangerous and our God commands us to stay away from it, and neither support it, nor be supported by it.

But there was something more tragic than the oppression by the people around them. Zechariah points the people to the tragedy of sin. As we read through Zechariah we find that many of the exiles were involved in all kinds of sin and wickedness, and were far from a true knowledge of the LORD and His salvation through the coming Messiah. Zechariah encourages repentance from sin and proclaims cleansing through the blood of the Savior.

Verses 10-13 don’t seem very positive or encouraging. They speak of the mourning of the people over the death of the Savior. During this season of Lent, as we have considered the Passion of our Savior we have been reminded that the death of Jesus was a wonderful and necessary thing. Without it we would be eternally damned! But when we consider the sufferings and the death of Jesus, we should be greatly saddened when we realize that we were the ones who pierced Him. It was our sins that made the pouring out of His blood necessary.

Zechariah foretells: “I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced.” Through the working of the Holy Spirit, we have been brought to know our sins; we have been brought to know our Savior, whose body we pierced with our sins. True repentance is brought about by knowing that we caused His death with our sins, we crucified Him. There is another interesting thought in this verse. It is the LORD that is speaking in these verses through the prophet Zechariah. In this verse the LORD says that He would be pierced by human beings. Here we have another Old Testament passage which speaks of the deity of Jesus Christ - showing that He was indeed true God (cf. John 19:37)!

“Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family by itself...” The fact that we pierced the Savior, the Son of God, should cause us to mourn as if we lost our only child. The death of Jesus is compared to one of the most catastrophic events in the history of Judah - the untimely death of godly king Josiah who died in the battle of Megiddo against the Egyptians. His death was mourned by the entire nation of Judah and was mourned on a certain day every year for many years following his death.

But the mourning for Jesus would not be a political mourning. The death of Jesus would bring true repentant grieving over all people. In the Old Testament the Spirit was poured out only on certain people - usually kings, prophets and priests. But the LORD promises a day when the Spirit would be poured out on all people to bring about true godly repentance through the cleansing blood of Jesus. “And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.”

David was the father of the royal line of anointed kings, Nathan was his son who was not a king but was an ancestor of the coming Savior. Levi was the forefather of the priestly office, and Shimei was his grandson. Their wives are also specifically mentioned. The death of Jesus would bring repentant grief over all people - fathers, mothers, boys and girls. We are all full of sin, and we all are in great need of the grace and salvation of the LORD. We have all been brought to confess our sin and unworthiness regardless of our gender, age or occupation, only as a result of the work of the Spirit in bringing us to see Him whom we pierced. May the Spirit of Grace continue to lead us to realize the horrible nature of our every sin and bring us to godly sorrow over our sins.

By His suffering and death, that fountain, “filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins” was opened. Jesus provided His blood when He died on the cross for the sins of all. It is His blood which cleanses all who believe in Him from sin and uncleanness. This cleansing is ready for all people. “Sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” We have a special evidence of the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. As we partake of this Supper, we are receiving Christ’s very body and blood which continues to cleanse us from all sin.

We might not think that blood is a suitable cleansing agent. But Hebrews says, “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). When it comes to sin, only one thing can make us clean – the blood of Jesus. It is our cleansing fountain which brings about repentance in the hearts of sinners, and cleanses us of all sin. Amen.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 Amen.

Pastor Nathanael Mayhew