“On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more, and I will remove from the land the unclean spirit.” (Zechariah 13:1-2)
A cleansing is taking place, says the prophet Zechariah on God’s behalf. God’s people will have their sin washed away, as well as the idolatrous instinct to place our trust in everything and everyone who makes cheap, hollow promises. The “unclean spirit” that contaminates the purity with which God created us is being eradicated, too. It makes us wonder if, when we Jesus do battle with the unclean spirits (Mark 1:21-28 is a good example), if he’s not just liberating a few plagued people, but liberating all of God’s people from an a spirit of contamination.
The first half of the book of Zechariah contains a series of strange visions, feeling a bit like the book of Revelation. In one of these visions (5:1-4), the prophet sees a giant scroll (30 feet long and 15 feet wide). The writing on this scroll puts a curse on stealing and lying (if you’ve ever been stolen from or lied to enough, you might not mind such a curse…). The scroll is sent by God to and fro, coming uninvited to dwell in places where stealing and lying run rampant, and then consuming that place and the stealing and lying with it. Stealing and lying are both an idolatrous failure to accept reality as God has made it, a failure to be honest and grateful about what we already have and what is already true or not true. And so comes a bizarre, prophetic promise that the written word of God is arriving, invited or uninvited, into our lives to erode any dissatisfaction with God’s reality. Doesn’t an idolatrous failure to receive life from God on God’s terms seem like something we’d like to be cursed and consumed into nonexistence? What better reason to invite the written word of scripture into our lives, into our daily routines?
God is active in the world and in our lives to bring about these changes, this cleansing. God cannot abide with the grip that idolatry has on us, with the unclean spirit that dwells among us, and will not be satisfied until he has fully ended their power over us. God is not ignorant of our plight, our weakness in the face of such forces opposed to us. He is not sleeping on the job, the prophets remind us, even if it can feel like it at times. And in response to this graciously active God, Zechariah has a calling for us. “Be silent before the LORD, all humanity, for he is springing into action from his holy dwelling.” (2:13) What can we do but silently watch God carry out his saving work in and around us.
All of this is born out of Zechariah’s opening: “Return to me, says the LORD, and I will return to you.” (1:3) God’s cleansing of our sins, God’s written word that erodes dissatisfaction with God’s reality, God’s activity that makes us still and silent in awe: it’s all moving us in God’s direction, just as sure as God is moving in our direction. We are being united to God with fewer and fewer interruptions. Fewer distractions. Fewer lies. And it’s happening because it’s what God wants to happen. The question is, how much will you and I resist this transforming grace?
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