A midweek Lenten sermon on Zechariah 6:9-13. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.

The opening chapters of the book of Zechariah focus on a series of eight visions. The content is kinda wild, like you might expect from a vision, but it’s largely a message of comfort for God’s people. Zechariah’s ministry is taking place among the Israelites who have returned from exile in Babylon. And there’s a lot of questions and a lot of worrying, and understandably so. Across these eight visions, God speaks directly to their immediate circumstances and needs and promises peace, justice, God’s presence, righteousness, cleansing, victory, the restoration of the temple… but something’s missing. There’s no king. So this series of visions concludes with this prophetic oracle attached to a visual aid. Zechariah makes a crown and sets it on the head… of the high priest. That’s a bit of a mixed signal. Priests don’t wear crowns. Priests aren’t kings. And Joshua, the one crowned, doesn’t become the king after this. So what’s going on? What does this really mean? What is this pointing to?

While so many of the earlier visions and prophecies were pointing to the more immediate context, this prophecy is looking forward to something else. Everything that’s going on with the restoration of Jerusalem is great, but all of it is only a means to an end, pointing forward to something better. With this visual aid, Zechariah prophecies about one to come who is both priest and king; those two offices are combined. In this kingly priest, we see Jesus and His saving work. Although He is rejected by kings and priests alike, Jesus is the final fulfillment of these offices and He rebuilds the true temple.

I. Rejected by Kings and Priests

One of the things that makes it really obvious that this prophecy is not fulfilled in its immediate context is that, after the exile, Israel never had an independent king. The return is sponsored by Persia and while Zerubbabel is made governor, he is never made king. There’s two other dynasties that claim kingship during the intertestamental and New Testament period but they’re not divinely appointed and they’re under the authority of the Greeks or the Romans.

So while this prophecy shows the offices of priest and king combining in one person, that certainly didn’t reflect the political realities at Jesus’ time. The high priests and the rulers didn’t really get along. We’ve met Annas in the Passion History—he was high priest until the Romans kicked him out of office in favor of his son-in-law Caiaphas. And whatever factions might have been at play there paled in comparison to the contempt the priests had for the Romans and they weren’t necessarily fans of King Herod either.

The situation with the political rulers wasn’t much better. Pilate and the Romans didn’t always get along with Herod and the Jews, and the priests were a thorn in both of their sides. Far from the unity of the spiritual and the social that Zechariah presents, the situation at Jesus’ time couldn’t be more fractured. But the one thing everyone can agree on is that they don’t really like Jesus.

He’s a threat to the spiritual power of the priests, so they put on a sham trial and find Him guilty of blasphemy. Herod is initially intrigued but mistreats Jesus when He doesn’t perform a magic trick on demand. Pilate tries to act more compassionately, but has to try and get along with everyone else, so he throws Jesus under the bus too and cements a friendship with Herod by doing so.

And it’s here, once Jesus has been shuffled around from the priests to Pilate to Herod and back to Pilate again that we see a really interesting connection with Zechariah’s prophecy.

Pilate roughs Jesus up a bit to try and satisfy the bloodlust of the crowd. He has Jesus flogged and the soldiers adorn Him with a scarlet robe and the crown of thorns. Pilate presents Jesus to the crowd. He is dressed as a king and already shedding His blood as the priestly sacrifice. And Pilate says, “Behold, the Man!” (Jn 19:5). Did you catch that? That’s the same language as Zechariah. (This translation is a little different, but) it’s the same thing, “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH!” Here is the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. The Man who is priest and king.

But notice the great irony of this scene. The priests had condemned the High Priest, the Man who was the fulfillment of their office. The rulers mocked and ridiculed the King of kings, who gave them their authority. How could they miss it?

Well, you can’t blame them. Jesus certainly doesn’t look the part. His priestly ministry is testified by the streams of blood flowing from Him, not any ornate vestments. His kingly office is signified by a crown made of thorns and a scarlet robe, a cheap imitation of royal purple. Perhaps that is why so many in His day and so many in our day dismiss Him. He appears helpless, naive, weak, unfit to serve as either a political or a spiritual leader.

Is that why we so often do the same? We want to be the king. We imagine that we are in control of our lives so we dismiss the commands and decrees of the King. We want to be priests. We want to approach God on our terms, define spirituality for ourselves, find a way around Jesus’ sacrifice and the sacrifices He asks us to make for Him. We’re just as foolish as Annas, Caiphais, Herod, and Pilate. We don’t want to submit to Jesus’ ministry or reign either. What kind of priest, what kind of king, is this?

II. Rebuilds the True Temple

We see in Zechariah that one of the main jobs of this kingly priest is to “build the temple of the LORD.” While the physical temple was rebuilt, just like the offices of king and priest, the temple was pointing forward to something else.

After Jesus cleansed the temple of its abuses, He prophesied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And John helpfully clarifies, “He was speaking of the temple of His body” (Jn 2:18, 21). What kind of priest is this? Only one so aware of the damaging effects of sin that He would offer Himself as the only sufficient sacrifice. What kind of king is this? Only one strong enough to submit Himself to death to win freedom for His subjects. Our kingly priest allowed the temple of His body to be destroyed only to raise it up again.

In His Passion, Jesus doesn’t appear very priestly or kingly. But it is then that He performs both of these roles, fulfills both of these offices. He is the temple, the priest, and the sacrifice. He is the locus of God’s presence among His people and He willingly sacrifices Himself, freely sheds His blood on the altar of the cross to atone for the sins of all people. He is the king who reigns from the throne of the cross. Lifted up high for all to see, with a placard in three languages proclaiming His rule over all people. This is the King who defeats our enemies, who has destroyed death, conquered sin, and crushed Satan.

In His Passion, Jesus doesn’t appear very priestly or kingly. But in the resurrection, He does. One minor grammatical detail in Zechariah, is that the word translated “crown” in the singular is, literally, “crowns” in the plural. There’s silver and gold so it seems to be two crowns maybe twisted together or stacked on top of each other. Maybe not that significant, but in Revelation, when John sees a vision of Jesus, “on His head were many crowns” (19:12). This is the resurrected Jesus, in power and authority, our victorious kingly priest.

In the resurrection, the temple that lay in ruins in the tomb is built again by His almighty power. When Joshua and Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the temple again, many wept because it was not as glorious as the first (Ezra 3:12). Not so with this kingly priest. The temple of His body was restored to glory, better than it was before, no longer in humility. This is the power of the resurrection, that Jesus builds back better. And this is the promise of the resurrection, that Jesus will do the same for you.

After Jesus rebuilt the temple of His body, He built another temple, a new temple, the Church. Peter tells us that we are “living stones … being built up a spiritual house” (1 Pet 2:5). As Paul says, we have “been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2:20-22).

Just as Jesus built up His body in the resurrection, He builds up the Church as His body. He takes us, living stones, places us on the foundation of the Scriptures and stacks us with other stones, with one another, makes us part of this community as we gather around Him in Word and Sacrament. Jesus makes this happen, especially in the Lord’s Supper. Because you are what you eat. We receive Jesus’ body for the forgiveness of sins and we become Jesus’ body, the Church.

Jesus’ ministry as priest and rule as king continues. As priest, He intercedes for us as the one Mediator between God and man, who is Himself both God and Man. In the Lord’s Supper, He makes His once-for-all sacrifice present among us as He gives us His body and blood which were sacrificed and, with them, all the benefits of that sacrifice. As king, He rules and reigns, directs all things for our benefit. And these two offices work together. EHV “[T]here will be peaceful relations between the two offices” / NKJV “[T]he counsel of peace shall be between [c]them both,” that is, between the two offices. Zechariah prophesied, “He shall be a priest on His throne,” meshing two elements that don’t seem to go together, but we are told again in Hebrews, “We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (8:1).

Jesus is both priest and king in His Passion, in His resurrection, and is still doing both of those things for the benefit of the Church. And as the Head is, so is the body. Peter continues, “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And we are told again in Revelation, He “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father” (1:6). We, too, offer God prayer and praise and the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Indeed, we offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices. We rule and reign with our king, even when the world seems against us, because He has overcome the world. As that verse from Revelation continues, “to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”