God’s Word for You
Zechariah 12:10 The one they pierced
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, September 5, 2022
10 “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace, who pleads for mercy. Then they will look on me, the one they have pierced.” They will cry for him as one cries for an only child, and weep bitterly over him as one weeps bitterly over a firstborn.
The first sentence, “I will pour out… the Spirit of grace,” is another description of the coming of the New Testament Church. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the Apostles at Pentecost, and the gospel began to go out into the nations from that day, and it has never stopped. The Spirit pours out God’s grace, and he also pleads for mercy on our behalf, just as the risen and ascended Christ does. With two such witnesses praying for us, the Father looks kindly on us, and it is always our prayer and hope that he will do this. “And hope,” Paul says, “does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5).
But these words also teach us the true office of being a Christian. The Spirit of grace (that is, compassion), and the Spirit who pleads for mercy, is poured into our hearts and dwells within us (1 Corinthians 6:19). He convinces us and assures us that we have a compassionate and gracious God who loves us. This is the gospel working in us. Then, the Spirit enables us to help other people by pleading for God’s mercy on them. This is the gospel working through us on behalf of others. This is one of the reasons why God’s people gather in worship; so that we join our prayers together as well as hearing the gospel, hearing the forgiveness of the absolution, and joining our voices in song to respond to God’s grace.
The speaker in the beginning of the verse is Christ himself, the Son of God, who knows that the house of David and the people of Jerusalem will look upon his body when it would be pierced, which John describes: “When they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water” (John 19:33-34). John even quotes this verse of Zechariah shortly after (John 19:37). And so the prophet brings each of us, the children of the New Testament church, to the scene of the cross on Good Friday, so that we will concern ourselves with his cross before we consider any of our own crosses. The piercing of Christ’s body was the Romans’ proof of his death. The Romans were Gentiles, unconcerned in any way with the spiritual results of Christ’s death. They only wanted to prove for themselves that he had died; that their task was finished. But before God the Father, the death of his Son was the payment for all sins of all mankind. “The death he died, he died to sin once for all” (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 9:28, 10:14). The author of our Confession was also forced to write that “it is an unprecedented novelty in church doctrine that Christ’s death should [as the Roman Catholic church claims] have made satisfaction only for original sin and not for other sins as well. Accordingly, it is to be hoped that everyone will understand that this error is not unjustly condemned” (Augsburg Confession, XXIV:25). To summarize:
1, The secular authority judged Christ to be dead, to satisfy the orders of Pontius Pilate the governor, who also judged Christ to be innocent of any crime (John 19:4). This is why they pierced him.
2, God the Father accepted the death of Christ as the atoning sacrifice for all sins of mankind, not only saving from the guilt of inherited sin, but saving from eternal death in hell for all sins, according to Hosea 13:14, “O Death, I will be your death.” Again, Isaiah says: “He was pierced [not only for our guilt, but] for our transgressions” emphasizing that our transgressions are many (Isaiah 53:5). And in Hebrews we read: “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).
But look again at our verse, and see that the Son of God speaks about sending the Holy Spirit, and then about his own death, and then the Holy Spirit, speaking through the prophet, proclaims about the crucified Christ. The voices of the Persons of the Holy Trinity are all speaking at one and the same time here, one after another, and as always, all in perfect agreement with one another. God is One (Deuteronomy 6:4), “not three Gods, but one God,” as we say in the Athanasian Creed; “not three Lords, but one Lord.”
And so the crying and bitter weeping are not only a reference to Peter’s tears at his betrayal of Jesus (Matthew 26:75), but our own tears and grief when we acknowledge specific sins in our lives, and we pray, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). And where we confess our sins and ask God’s forgiveness, we are assured by Christ that our sins are forgiven, in the name of the Father and of the Son (who was pierced for our transgressions) and of the Holy Spirit.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.