Project 119: Heaven and Nature Sing | Zechariah 12:10-13:1 and John 19:16-37
| Project 119 | Ben Winder
Reading for Friday, December 11: Zechariah 12:10-13:1 and John 19:16-37
Ev'ry eye shall now behold Him,
Robed in splendor’s majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold Him,
Pierced, and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.
-"Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending"
The liturgical season of Advent is sometimes called “little Lent” because while it is shorter than the season of Lent, it is in like manner intended to draw us toward repentance. The shared liturgical color of purple is to remind us not only of Christ’s royal character but also our need for contrition and penitence.
Even as we begin our many celebrations in this season and rejoice together at Christ’s coming and His coming again, we should not lose sight of the cause which necessitated God’s very enfleshment as human like us and His coming again to consummate His reign. It was and is our sin.
If we are to be as serious about our sinfulness as God is, it will drive us to a despair so deep it can only be sufficiently met by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. True and deep reflection upon where sin has taken us, both the whole of humankind and each of us individually, and upon the love of God in Christ Jesus displayed in His sacrificial, atoning death will invariably lead us to the kind of lament which is represented both in today’s carol verse and Zechariah’s prophecy.
“Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, shall the true Messiah see.”
“They will look on Me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn …”
(Zechariah 12:10b-12a NIV).
As we celebrate Christ’s coming and the good news it is, let us also mourn at our own sinfulness that necessitated it. Let us also remember our sinfulness was outdone only by God’s love, and mourn, too, what God’s love for us cost Christ Jesus our Lord.
Behold Him. Mourn. And rejoice! For that is what this “little Lent” of Advent invites us to do.