July 25, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“‘What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground.’ Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!‘” (Zechariah 4.7)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

When Jesus was brought before Caiaphas in the company of “the 70,” the elders of the land, one of the accusations leveled against Him was His comments about the temple. No one is mentioned as to who reported Jesus’ words but it is clear that someone did. The words brought against Jesus were in light of His comment to the disciples as they marveled at the beauty and stability of the Temple. It was made of gleaming white stones carefully laid in place. I wonder who among them recalled Him saying to the Pharisees that they were like “whitewashed” tombs? Jesus said they were “clean” on the outside but corrupt on the inside. It would be the internal failure to comply with God’s call on their lives that would lead to their destruction. Now, following the cleansing of the Temple during that final week, Jesus and the disciples were leaving the scene of “the crime.” Could there have been a similar reflection of that previous conversation in Jesus’ words at that moment? He responded to the disciples (Matthew 24.2) “The day is coming when one stone will not be left standing upon another and the prophecy will be fulfilled.” Was Jesus referring to Zechariah at this point? Was there then a fatal flaw in the construction of the very Temple which stood before Jesus and the disciples, indeed before the whole world? When God was speaking to Zechariah, Joshua and his cohort of leaders there was the rebuilding of the Temple in mind. The restoration of Solomon’s Temple which his father, David, had himself begun was being directed. Or was it “prophesied”? As mentioned yesterday, “the mountain” mentioned was the Temple or at least the vision of the Temple. It was going to have to come down before it could go up. This represents a prophetic ebb and flow found in the wisdom literature of the day such as plowing before planting, dying before living, destroying before rebuilding. What was being said to Zerubbabel through this prophecy to Zechariah was a focus on “the capstone.”

Without the “capstone” in place either the building could not be engaged meaning it was the chief cornerstone or that it could not be completed meaning it was the “last stone put in place holding the whole project together.” It is clear in Zechariah that the “capstone” held divine meaning. The people would cry out when they saw it “God bless it! God bless it!” Was this an implied opportunity in the words of the people who lined the road leading up to Jerusalem when Jesus road in on a donkey? They cried out “Hail to the Son of God. Hail to the son of David. Hosanna! Hosanna!” Jesus had already taught “Do you not remember the scripture which speaks to the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone [or capstone]?” (Matthew 21.42) Could this imply that the Temple which was the rebuilding of the original failed because it used a cornerstone preferred by the builders, the elders, the Temple leadership? Was it intended to speak to an external and literal stone? Or was it speaking to the vital internalization of God’s word which expected integrity and fortitude of God’s people to it? Jesus would say in response to that same leadership of His day “Tear down this building and I will build it back again in three days!” It may seem obvious that there was no intention of Jesus to literally be the architect and construction team of a literal Temple building. Further, it would take a long time to destroy the literal building which had been constructed (in their words) over 46 years. This added to the incredible claim which they heard from Jesus who could “name that tune” in three days. Indeed, it had taken far longer to construct their construct of thinking than 46 years. It had been developed over hundreds of years into a fine art of “religiosity” which spoke of goodness but was rotten to the core. But in Jesus, a new construct was being initiated. It was a building up of the people of God from the inside out. It was speaking to the internal transformation of one’s heart, mind and soul to recapture the faith in God which had made them a great, feared and respected people.

It would take another forty years before the Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. The reality was that the Temple had “fallen” long before that. On the day of Pentecost as Peter and the others with him preached the gospel in Temple plaza this was evident as the beginning of the end. While the High Priest was conducting the Pentecost sacrifice to bless the first fruits of that year’s harvest, Peter declared the first fruits of Jesus’ labor of love as over 3000 people gave themselves to believing in Jesus as the Christ. In almost an antiphonal declaration the two men spoke their versions of the truth. It was a case of dueling “gospels.” In the end, a lamb died to bless a harvest from the ground while another had been claimed to have died to manifest a harvest of souls. The seed was planted in fertile ground which the crucifixion had plowed to make ready. Now the true cornerstone, or capstone, would be put in place and the building would be made complete. That cornerstone was meant to be faith in God, faith in the Messiah and faith in the Holy Spirit who would breathe new life and turn death into life. That cornerstone is, was and will always be: Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God and Messiah of God’s people. “God bless it! God bless it!“

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.