Midweek Lent 2 - The High Priest - March 4, 2020

Dear fellow redeemed,

Zechariah 3:8-9 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. 9 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. (ESV)

If you want to make something last, you have to make it legal. I don’t mean the distinction between illegal and legal. What I mean is having a way for formalize it, to legitimize your idea or action. We talk about going through the “legal” process of something to verify it or to make it certain. If you need to provide a signature on an important document, you’ll use a notary to make sure it’s legal. If an elected official wants to establish a new law, there’s a process to legalizing it, and it must be verified by several parties. The beginning of an organization is verified through a legal process. Sometimes, this is depicted literally in the sides of their buildings, carving into stone the year of origin. Each of these elements of our modern culture has a connection to our theme for tonight – the high priest.

When most people think of the priesthood, they imagine mystery, symbolism, and ritual. The priest is seen as someone shrouded in tradition and practices that don’t always make sense – things to stimulate the abstract thoughts of religion without any real practical purpose. But in reality, the priest is simply someone who verifies the legality of something. They are the agents through which God declares His unchangeable truth. They bring legitimacy to the practices of faith that we conduct, not because of who they are, but because they verify what is done in our name through the power of God.

This evening we see Jesus in a prophecy from Zechariah about payment for sins taking place in one day. We know this day was fulfilled on Good Friday, when Jesus offered up His life to make atonement for all sinners. What happened on that one day secured salvation for all people. This is a beautiful piece of prophecy in and of itself, but the words of our text run even deeper through Christ and give us even greater insight into the legality of our standing before God as redeemed. To accomplish this, Jesus needed to be our High Priest.

The New Testament also gives evidence of Jesus as the High Priest in the Scripture reading from Hebrews that we had this evening. But we also see Jesus in these verses from Zechariah in terms of the covenant of God. Now, you’re probably familiar with the concept of the covenant, it’s an important Biblical term; but you might also be thinking – why do we see Jesus through it here since the word covenant isn’t in our text. While the word itself isn’t here, the explanation of what a covenant is, and what a covenant secures, absolutely is.

A covenant is a sacred promise meant to guarantee something. In the OT, it was the legal contract and the priest was often the one who formalized the covenant, especially between God and people. The literal image of a covenant in the Hebrew mind was something that was cut. This pertained both to a stone, such as etching writing into something to make it last, and to a sacrifice, such as cutting an animal to offer its life. It was on God’s altar where these two images met – the stone and the sacrifice, and the priest was in the middle of it all.

We also see that Zechariah refers to a stone in these verses, and what a stone it is! He writes, For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. This stone with seven eyes certainly portrays an intriguing scene. What we know about this stone is that God says through it He will remove the iniquity of the land – which prophesied of Christ’s death. He also says that it has seven eyes, which seems to be symbolic for God’s ability to know all and see all. Eyes are the body part through which you see reality and seven is a number in the Bible that portrays perfection. God sees all things in wisdom and power. The image of seven eyes comes up again in chapter 4, this time in connection with the Temple’s foundation, and they are defined as the LORD’s eyes. We could think of our verse in a similar way. The seven eyes of this stone are symbolic for the LORD’s will – the way in which He sees, and oversees, with total perfection the events of the world.

Truly then, as Zechariah writes, it was through this stone – the LORD God Almighty’s will, that Christ was sacrificed for the sins of the world. Remember how many times Christ talked about having to fulfill His Father’s will, both before and after the events of the crucifixion. These words of Zechariah are a prophecy of exactly what Jesus was referring to. But for this stone to testify of salvation, it needed not just the will of the Father, but the willingness of the Son – who was both the priest and sacrifice. Here’s where the imagery of the covenant brings an even greater awareness of Christ’s accomplishment. It was on the stone of His Father’s will that His own blood was shed. The guarantee of our inheritance in heaven was verified by cutting the sacrifice upon the altar of divine justice. And that event in history stands as a testament, yes, an enduring covenant, marking the moment of God’s grace. It’s like a date engraved into the cornerstone of a building, signifying the year of completion. The day of atonement is God’s marker of time that His will was made complete through His Son. The law was upheld. Condemnation was paid for. The sinner’s righteousness was verified before the almighty God. Cut into stone. Cut into the very body of Christ.       

And this is also what makes Jesus the “Chief Cornerstone” that He is, and that He was promised to be. It’s not just about being the foundation of our faith. It’s not just about setting us on the straight and narrow before God. It’s about being in complete harmony with His Father’s will – with that stone of seven eyes. Listen to the opening of the book of Hebrews describe this:

Hebrews 1:1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

And so, we rejoice with the words of the Spirit to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

What results from Christ’s work for us as victim and priest is that He is now the stable foundation for our faith. We don’t have to hope in ourselves. We don’t have to place our trust in a person or thing of this world. We don’t have to try to recreate God’s act of atonement in our own lives. Jesus is the foundation for salvation – and He provides stability for your life.

The book of Haggai the prophet comes just before Zechariah in the OT. Haggai was a contemporary of Zechariah and ministered to many of the same people. In Haggai chapter 2, the LORD commanded Haggai to speak to the leaders of Judah, which included the same Joshua from Zechariah’s prophecy. Here’s what God told Haggai to say, Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.'" (Haggai 2:4-8)   

The LORD told the people that He would “shake” the heavens and the earth. This shaking would reveal the glory of the LORD’s temple. The shaking indicated here refers to God’s activity on earth. We might think of it as God getting into the mix of life around us. Though God’s shaking can involve judgment, it doesn’t refer to that alone. Anytime God enters our lives He changes up the typical pace and routine that we have. At times, He tests us to strengthen our faith. At other times, He intervenes to deliver on a need we have or to comfort us when experiencing a trial. These are all examples of the LORD’s shaking of our current time and space.

The most immediate way in which the LORD would intervene at this time was by sending His Son to earth. God was preparing Haggai, Zechariah, Joshua, and the rest of His people for that event. And His underlying promise is that despite the shaking, the commotion and agitation that Jesus would bring out in the world around Him, the Holy Spirit would be present to strengthen believers. There was no reason to fear. The LORD promised as much in His covenant, the same covenant He cut with Adam and Eve, and the same covenant He remained faithful to for thousands of years. This covenant was affirmed in the peoples’ sight through the OT priesthood, offering animal sacrifices regularly to assert the legal security God’s people had to trust that a total payment for all sins was coming.

Jesus would shake heaven, earth, and all nations when He came to earth and declared Himself to be that sacrifice, and also the priest to legitimize the offering for sin. Jesus would be both judge and victim and in so doing would achieve peace for all people before God. This provides the most stable and secure foundation stone for your faith and your expectation of eternal life with God.    

That Jesus was both sacrifice and priest shows the extent He was willing to go for our salvation. He did what no other person could even fathom doing. But, we also see in that devotion what Jesus accomplished before His Father’s will. Jesus was the exact imprint of God’s perfect will. He fulfilled the covenant promises that we given by the seven-eyed stone. But Jesus went even further. He willingly entered the covenant, became the substance of the covenant, by allowing His Father to cut into His very body the praise of salvation – the marks of the nails, the spear, and the thorns. Jesus gave up His own body as an enduring reminder that God kept His Word and that your sins have been taken away – now it is your legal and spiritual right to be heaven. Therefore, what God says in His Word is made sure and certain - Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.