God’s Word for You
Zechariah 12:11-14 Mourning and repentance
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, September 6, 2022
11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
Luther explains this verse by remembering the death of king Josiah, the last of the righteous kings of Judah. Josiah showed his faith by ridding the land of mediums, witches, spiritists, idols; everyone and everything that violated the First and Third Commandments (2 Kings 23:24). But when Pharaoh Neco of Egypt crossed through Judah to fight as an ally with the King of Assyria, Josiah attacked him “in the plain of Megiddo” and was killed. “All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him, and Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah” (2 Chronicles 35:24-25).
Another way of understanding this verse is by identifying Hadad Rimmon with heathen gods (Hadad, Jeremiah 49:27; Rimmon, 2 Kings 5:18). Hadad, also known as Tammuz, was a god publicly mourned in the spring month that bore his name. Ezekiel condemned this pagan worship when he witnessed it happening in Jerusalem: “I saw women sitting and wailing for Tammuz” (Ezekiel 8:14. Pagan mythology lamented the god’s murder at the hands of demons).
The point of the prophet is that such great mourning and grief will extend into the New Testament church in grief over the death of Christ. The whole point of the season of Lent each springtime is that the church considers the willingness of Jesus’ suffering, the innocence of his suffering, the extreme extent of his suffering, but most of all the cause, within each one of us, of Jesus’ suffering and death. We worship on Good Friday and call it “Good” because the result was good for us, but the event was dark, wicked, and sinful. He was put to death by unbelievers who rejected him and who conspired to murder him (Mark 3:6). The hymns of the Lenten season are especially poignant and beloved by many Christians because they lead us through the path from my sinfulness to Christ’s forgiveness on the cross. How tragic that many churches today avoid celebrating Lent on account of its focus on the individual’s sinfulness and rob the people of the true celebration of Easter, which is more than Christ’s resurrection from the dead, but also the Father’s acceptance of his sacrifice on our behalf.
12 The land will mourn, each 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 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
Here the prophet takes us figuratively tent by tent by tent to see people mourning Christ’s death on the cross. The family of David is easy to understand. “Nathan” here is not the priest of David’s time, but David’s son Nathan, who was in the line of the Savior (Luke 3:31). Shimei was a descendant of Levi, and the father of a clan of priests in the family of Gershon. Among the duties of that clan was the care and transportation of the tent and covering of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, as well as the curtain that separated the two (Numbers 3:25). This was the curtain that was torn at the ninth hour just as Jesus was dying on the cross and darkness still covered the land (Luke 24:44-45). The curtain was torn from top to bottom (Mark 15:38), and at that moment the earth shook and rocks were split (Matthew 27:51). In that moment, the duties of those priests came to an end as far as the Father was concerned; there are no longer any priests in Israel, because the sacrifices are completed, once and for all.
The people mourning in these verses are, in part, the people who betrayed him, “even those who pierced him” (Revelation 1:7); the people of Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s crucifixion now consider what they had done. The royal family and the line of the priests would mourn. At least some of them, if not all of them, would mourn. Our reaction is to praise God for those who did mourn, just as we praise God when we are led to grieve about our sins and repent.
True repentance is a gift from God. Zechariah sees people repenting each alone, husbands apart from wives and wives apart from husbands, priests apart from the royal family, and the royals and the priests apart from the ordinary Jews. They have fallen into the grief of repentance on account of their many sins. This grief over sin and the terror of punishment in hell is the first part of repentance, but it isn’t the only part. Repentance also consists in faith in Christ for forgiveness over those sins, so that the Christian is led from sorrow to sober thanks for God’s grace and mercy, and then is led to show his change of heart by some change in his life, a change having to do with that sinfulness that brought his terror. The thief makes restitution for what he stole (Exodus 22:7). The adulterer gives up his or her adultery (Hosea 2:2). The gossips close their mouths and find right and proper things to say that repair the damage they’ve done with their endless chatter and their backbiting ways (Galatians 5:15; Proverbs 16:28). Turn to the Lord in repentance, but don’t turn to him with empty hands. Bring a change of heart, a prayer for help in turning from sin and temptation, and a desire to live at peace with the world under the loving will of God. You are God’s own child. Live in gratitude of that, and seek, with God’s help, to live up to the name as well.
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.