Reflections on Zechariah 9:9-12

My NRSV Bible, as yours I imagine, heads every section of the biblical account with an italicized introduction. These at times can be quite fanciful and roundly misleading. The one that precedes our lection for today is straightforward and correct in my judgment. It reads: “The Coming Ruler of God’s People.” Of course, in prophetic biblical terms the “when” of the ruler’s coming is completely unknown, and is thoroughly swallowed up in the description of just “what” this coming ruler will do. It is quite noticeable that the Hebrew prophets, of whatever age, had many similar notions about what would happen to their troubled nation and people in the distant future.

As a backdrop to Zechariah’s prophecy, it must always be remembered that at few times in the history of the nation of Israel, from its founding in the 13th century BCE to its dissolution in the 6th century BCE to its “dark age” of the 5th-3rd centuries to its demise at the hands of the Romans in the 1st century CE, did these people find anything like genuine peace. They were forever threatened with one external enemy or another, from Egyptians to Babylonians to Assyrians to Greeks to Romans, not to mention the more localized foes, Philistines, Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, Arameans, and on and on. Peace in Israel was elusive and ultimately non-existent. Yet, and inevitably, the prophets envisioned peace at the last, peace in the end, peace that will come with the promised ruler.

To be sure, that ruler was often pictured as a great warrior, one who could defeat the vast forces of the superior nations that surrounded them, whose weapons would end the threats once and for all. But at the end of the day it was less likely that Israel would defeat its enemies by force of arms. That unlikelihood led II-Isaiah to envision a suffering servant, rather than a warrior servant, since the former was so like the experience of the people for nearly all of their existence, rather than the latter.

Ands so, Zechariah, like the more famous I-Isaiah and Micah before him, imagined the coming ruler as one who would not wage war, but rather would make war impossible and unthinkable. Isaiah’s famous promise that “swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks” (Is. 2:4; see also Micah 4:3), is matched by Zechariah’s coming ruler. This one shall “cut off the chariot from Ephraim (a traditional euphemism for northern Israel) and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and the ruler shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth” (in other words, everywhere) (Zech. 9:10). There will be no more wars, since there are no more weapons, and the word spoken by the universal ruler will be only “peace.”

I contrast that with the world in which I now live. My president, Donald Trump, is currently on his second overseas trip to the G20 summit in Berlin. In a speech in Poland he said again and again that East and West were at war with one another and challenged those of us in the West to gird ourselves for a battle between “militant Islamic terrorism” and the values we hold dear: justice and freedom primary among them. This leader does not speak peace, but readies for war, whether the war be trade wars or potential military conflict with North Korea and its burgeoning nuclear capabilities. Though he calls America to be “great again,” that greatness has to do with strength and power, not with justice and peace. His words are as far from those of Zechariah and Isaiah and Micah as they can possibly be. Donald Trump has no right to claim the mantle of Christian when he calls us to fight wars.

Of course, Trump is not alone. The voices of peace are muted in our time. Rather than listen to one another we rail and shout. Rather than hear the cries of the weak, we applaud the actions of the strong; we hail the wealthy and decry the poor. Republicans offer a health plan that will crush the poor and enrich the powerful. Democrats speak in hushed tones of how they hate what is happening but offer little real alternatives to engender dialogue that serves the many rather than the few. How far we remain from mutual commitment to the good of so many of our fellow citizens and fellow planet dwellers! How desperately we need a prophet who speaks peace into a world clouded and deceived by the language of power and war.

“The ruler’s dominion shall be from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth,” promises Zechariah. It seems a pipe dream at best. The early church readers of this and other similar passages imagined that the one they called the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, was this promised ruler. But to date, they were surely wrong. Jesus was and is many things, but he has yet to be the insurer of peace in our or any time. In fact, horribly, many of his supposed followers use his name to propose more war and more conflict! Witness the just passed so-called “Independence Sunday” celebrations in our churches, waving the flag of America, calling on congregants to “love America,” and by implication to fear and hate those who are not “real” Americans, especially Americans who do not look and act like we do. And to despise and fear those who are not Christians, who follow Allah or Buddha or Vishnu or no higher power or person at all.

True Christians, I believe, continue to hold fast to the visions of the Hebrew prophets, visions of justice and peace for all God’s creatures. May our chariots at last be cut off; may our horses at last put out to pasture. May our battle bows be smashed. And may peace be spoken throughout the land. I swear it is not too late!

(images from Wikimedia Commons)