A midweek Lenten sermon on Zechariah 13:7-9. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.
The movie Full Metal Jacket, which I can’t fully endorse or recommend, is about a platoon of Marines who go through boot camp and fight in the Vietnam War. In the first half of the movie, one of the privates doesn’t make it. The pressure and brutality of boot camp make him crack and become delusional. One of the ways this manifests itself is in his relationship with his rifle. He gives his rifle a name, develops this overly intimate attachment to it, even talks to it, while the other privates look on in confusion. A Marine has to know his rifle, but if that relationship is too close, it’s a sign that something’s off.
If it seems a bit odd for a soldier to talk to their weapon, consider our prophecy from Zechariah for this evening. God speaks to His sword, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd.” Now, this isn’t a literal sword, but a symbol of the suffering and death that would come to Jesus. And in the Gospels, Jesus quotes this prophecy and relates it to Himself. Looking at this prophecy and its fulfillment, we see that although the Shepherd is struck and the sheep are scattered, the Shepherd rises again to gather and purify His flock.
I. Shepherd Struck, Sheep Scattered
When Jesus brings up these words from Zechariah, the timing is really ironic. It’s right after the Last Supper, where the disciples have all pledged their loyalty to Him. Then they go to the Mount of Olives, to Gethsemane, and these are the first words that Jesus says, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep of the flock will be scattered’”(Mt. 26:31). Jesus predicts His death, warns the disciples of what’s going to happen. But they just double down.
Peter says, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.” So Jesus predicts Peter’s denial, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” But Peter doesn’t let it go, “‘Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And so said all the disciples” (Mt 26:33-35). They’re all 100% committed, they’re gonna stick with Jesus. And then what happens just a few hours later?
The soldiers come to arrest Jesus. He says, “all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled,” calls back to all the prophecies He’s mentioned, “Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled” (Mt 26:56). So much for that undying loyalty. The Shepherd is struck and the sheep are scattered. Just like Jesus said would happen. Just like Zechariah said would happen.
Now, to be clear, that portion of the prophecy has been fulfilled, that’s not where we should see ourselves today in Zechariah’s words. But I think we often find ourselves at least feeling similar to the disciples as they unwittingly fulfilled this prophecy.
Because there are times when it’s easy to be a Christian. When things are going great, when life is good, “Yeah, sure, I’ll die with Jesus.” Loyalty is easy when it’s smooth sailing.
But what about when the Shepherd seems to be struck? What about when difficulties arise? Jesus is my Shepherd, that means that He’s going to watch over me and have this plan for my life. So what do you do when nothing seems to be going according to plan? When it feels like your Shepherd has taken off for the night and left you to fend for yourself? Does that loyalty still come so easily?
“Oh, don’t worry, God’s in control,” we say so easily to others when things are going well for us. A lot harder to trust that and cling to that when all of a sudden it’s your life in question. Then, we so easily jump to asking, “Where is God in all of this?”
When your faith is challenged by your neighbors or by the world, do you go out to boldly meet that challenge, confident in your Shepherd, or would you rather cower behind locked doors like the disciples on Holy Saturday? Do we always live our lives of faith like our Shepherd is there to guide us?
What do we do when it feels like the Shepherd has been struck? When we question whether God really is in control? When we face all kinds of difficulty and distress? So often, we scatter. We flee. We back down from the challenge and abandon our Shepherd. We go our own ways, retreat into ourselves, find some kind of escape in sin, wander like lost sheep. That only leaves us all the more defenseless, all the more vulnerable to the attacks aimed at us. Scattered sheep are ripe for the picking.
II. Shepherd Raised, Flock Gathered
But let’s revisit that whole God-talking-to-His-sword thing again, because the context that we see in Zechariah helps us see what’s going on when Jesus quotes it and when it is fulfilled.
Speaking to the sword is this rhetorical device that shows that this is intentional. This is what God wants to happen. He is sending His sword to strike the Shepherd and scatter the flock.
And that’s confusing. Especially to the sheep. Because this is a good Shepherd. Elsewhere in Zechariah, he proclaims God’s judgment against bad shepherds. “Woe to the worthless shepherd, Who leaves the flock! A sword shall be against his arm And against his right eye” (11:17). God’s judgment against bad shepherds, against the wicked leaders of His people, makes sense. But the Shepherd here is a good one.
“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man who is My Companion.” This Shepherd is God’s equal. His associate, His fellow. This Shepherd can only be one who is divine Himself. And it is God’s will to strike Him.
As confusing and bewildering as this must have been for Jesus’ disciples, we can see with the benefit of hindsight, with the benefit of all these prophecies in front of us, that this was always the plan. Jesus had to suffer and die. This is something that God allowed to happen and caused to happen because of what He would accomplish through it. God alone awakened His sword and struck the Shepherd.
Jesus was stricken, smitten, and afflicted to endure the punishment for our sins. He endured God’s sword, His wrath and His punishment, so that we might be spared from destruction. The Shepherd died for sheep who loved to wander. He forgives your sins, frees you from your guilt, gathers you back to Himself.
Our Shepherd did not stay in the grave. God says in Zechariah, “I will turn My hand against the little ones.” This is a positive thing, God is revisiting and returning to His people, to the flock that was once scattered. Directly after Jesus quoted Zechariah, He said, “But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee” (Mt 26:32). Our Shepherd rose from the dead to revisit His people, to gather His flock.
We have not been abandoned by our Shepherd. He was stricken, He was killed, but He did so as part of God’s plan. He did not forsake His scattered flock. But He rose again to gather His people and purify them.
So we find ourselves not in the “Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered” portion in verse 7, but later on in this prophecy when God gathers His remnant to refine and purify them.
Certainly the disciples were refined after Easter Sunday. They, who once had been scattered, are now gathered again and transformed by their encounter with the risen Lord and given the courage to go out and proclaim the Good News.
In Zechariah’s context, he’s looking at the people of Israel as a whole. With the death of the Shepherd, the sheep are scattered, and many are destroyed, many rejected Jesus and were cut off from God’s people. But God also gathers a remnant, which we see in the disciples, we see in us as Christians, the third that God will put into the fire. That’s the lens through which we should view the difficulties that we must face. Not that our Shepherd has abandoned us. But that God is purifying us.
Now that’s a difficult process. And if we’re not careful, we can easily let these challenges destroy us, just dash our lives to pieces, or define us, where we can’t move on from these things and constantly relive our disasters. But we need to let these things, we need to let this fire, develop us. That’s what God wants to accomplish.
And we need His help to accept His refining fire. When we face trials, we need God’s help to see them for what He intends them to be and to accept that pain. But that doesn’t mean that everything’s going wrong or that God has abandoned you. Christ is with you. He doesn’t neglect you or overlook you or forget you. He is with you in the midst of that pain because He is refining you, purifying you.
God uses this picture of refining silver and gold. You’re not a weed thrown into the fire to be burned up. No, these are precious, valuable things. God treasures you, He values you. So He tests you. Refines you. And this is a painful, uncomfortable process. But God gives you the strength to not be destroyed by them but to come out the other side even better than before.
And we see the result of this purifying process. “They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” God strikes the Shepherd and scatters the sheep, to gather them and purify them and enter this covenant relationship with them. We’re reminded of Thomas’ confession of faith when he sees the risen Lord, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28). These trials, these tests, strengthen the relationship between God and His people, draw them closer together. We cry out to Him for help and He gives us the strength. He names us as His people, has chosen you, and we respond with worship and acknowledge Him as our God.
“Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered.” On its own and even when Jesus quotes it, it seems rather grim. But looking at the rest of Zechariah’s prophecy, at the rest of what Jesus would do, we see God’s great love for His people. He struck the Shepherd, made Him endure the fiery ordeal of Good Friday to emerge again on Easter Sunday, victorious. Beauty came from ashes. The sheep are scattered, but only to be gathered again. And while we have to endure much in this world, we have a hopeful future. We know that this isn’t where it ends. We look forward, to the other side of this refining fire, we look out of this world of death and into life everlasting. Suffering does not have the last word. It didn’t with Jesus. And it won’t with you. God has made sure of that. Amen.
