14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

Zechariah 9:9-10

Psalm 145: 1-2, 8-9, 10-11,13-14

Romans 8:9, 11-13

Matthew 11:25-30

 

The Jewish canon, that set of rules/laws for considering what is sacred Old Testament scripture, consider Zechariah as one of the Twelve Minor Prophets, along with Joel, Obadiah, Haggai, and Malachi. At first the "minor" prophets were considered to be inferior or less important because they followed the major prophets in the history of the Jewish people. However, the term "minor" should not carry the implication of not being as important as the major prophets, but should be thought of in terms of the length of the size of the writing itself. Sirach, 49:10, himself recognizes the Twelve in his writings in 300 BCE when he writes “Then too the TWELVE PROPHETS- may their bones return to life from their resting place-…”

The book of Zechariah was not written all at the same time. It can be looked at having been written into two sections that are a couple of centuries a part; First Zechariah, 1:1-8:23, is written about 520 BCE when Darius was ruler as noted in the opening verse of 1:1. They are being allowed to return to their homeland after being sent into exile in Babylon with the fall of the Kingdom in 587 BCE.

The specific date that Second Zechariah, 9:1-11:17, is written is not known, but it is thought to be written in the time when there is a new world empire that has emerged. With the decline of the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire under the leadership of Alexander the Great (336-323 BCE) is thought to be that new world empire. Scholars all agree that the final version of the book we have today was edited sometime before 200 BCE.

As should be expected, there is a great style difference in the way First and Second Zechariah have been written. They are both written from the aspect of the restoration of the community of Israel as well as the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem, and that when the temple has been restored, God would return to dwell in the temple. First Zechariah uses visions that point to the restoration while Second Zechariah uses oracles.

 

Second Zechariah is written to stir the hope that had gone dormant within the hearts of the people along with the apathy that followed upon their return to their homeland because of the hardships and utter destruction they witnessed when they began to return after the exile.

This hope for the future, these promises of God's future actions are written in a poetic style as the different prophecies from the past are all gathered together and given to the people.

Our passage today is from Second Zechariah 9:9-10. Verse 9 is the restoration of the King and is addressed to Daughter Zion and Daughter Jerusalem, which can be used interchangeably, and is in reference to the people of Israel. It calls them to rejoice because the just savior is returning to them.

This view is often referenced as the coming of the Prince of Peace, the One who will restore Israel to glory, the One who has dominion over all things, the One who will be actively participating in the vindication of Israel over all of their enemies. He will be the messianic King who, while appearing to be "meek", is truly acting in the role of a servant (Isaiah 49:4, Isaiah 50:8, Isaiah 53:12).

The end of verse 9 reads “and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass” (see Matt 21:5 and John 12:15) is exactly what they expected of their king. It was the custom of officials that they arrive on a colt (see Gen 49:10-11, Judges 5:10, 1 Kings 1:33).

When the writer changes to the first-person singular, they are making reference to the Lord and His role to bring peace by banning the horse and chariot, banning the warrior’s bows, all of those things used for destruction, for war. Finally, he ends with “and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.” For Israel, there was only two nations they really cared about, that of the northern kingdom of Ephraim and the southern kingdom of Jerusalem.

There are 855 references to the word spirit in the bible, and a couple hundred more of derivatives of the word spirit. Paul makes use of the word spirit 29 times in Chapter 8 and 6 times in verses 9-13. Paul uses the word spirit in two different ways. The first method of using spirit is to point to the way in which a person lives in a right relationship with God. The opposite of living in the spirit is living in the flesh, living in the ways of the world, not the ways of the Lord. It is wether a person is open to the was of the Lord or are they against, turned away from the Lord.

The second way Paul refers to the Spirit, is how we think of the third person of the Holy Trinity. It is the Spirit of God that gives the power, the life to all things. It is that breath that is breathed into our lungs, it is the power of the Lord descending upon the disciples at Pentecost that allows them to hear everyone speaking in their native tongue, but understanding what was being said by all.

Paul is telling us that without the spirit the human body is like a corpse because of the influence of sin in our lives. It is through the Spirit living within us that we belong to Christ as one of his flock, as one who he cares for and will look after as His own. When we live by the Spirit, we no longer have to worry about our eternal life, we have a share in it now because it is a life-giving gift from God.

This gospel passage, Matthew 11:25-30 has a parallel in Luke 10:21-22, but Matthew has a little more than Luke does as we will see in just a couple of minutes. Both start with the typical Jewish blessing of “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, to you I offer praise….” and goes on from there with the rest of the passage.

These passages are referred to as “Jesus as the Wisdom of God”, “Cry of Jubilee and Savior’s call”, “Hymn of Praise”, and “Jesus and the Father”.

The thing that they all have in common is that they are referring to Jesus as the reveler of divine wisdom. These passages can be broken down into three parts; verses 25 and 26 are a thanksgiving for revelation, verse 27 is the content of revelation and verses 28-30 is the invitation to revelation.

The difference between Matthew and Luke are the verses 28-30 in Matthew. Scholars have two theories as to why the difference. First, the scholars say simply that Matthew just added them on his own. Drawing from Old Testament scripture, Sirach 51:23-30 has a close similarity. The other theory is that Luke is writing to a Gentile community who would not understand the Jewish symbolism.

So just what is Jesus revealing and to who is He addressing this to?  Most of the people were uneducated and simple in the ways that they lived. These are the people that Jesus is blessing the Lord for because the Lord has revealed Jesus as His Only Son and Jesus acknowledges the Lord as His Father. When the people accepted Jesus, they were able to see the Father because the Son revealed the Father to them. Those who were the educated people, normally the Pharisees, priests and scribes, could not accept Jesus as the Son, and therefore the Father was hidden from them.

In verse 28 when Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary…” Jesus speaks as Wisdom personified (see Proverbs 8) who has a feminine characteristic as the giver of rest and comfort. He extends this invitation to all labor, all who find life worrisome, who find life to be a burdensome and says to them, come rest in me, come find refreshment for your soul as well as your body. All who seek wisdom are invited to come to Jesus, because in Him the wisdom of God dwells and can be learned. 

Jesus is calling all to discipleship in these verses saying that it is far easier to follow Him, then to follow the law. The law is a yoke upon their shoulders, a heavy burden that the religious authorities do nothing about, they do nothing to make the peoples journey any easier.

When you stop and think about what Jesus is calling us to do, it is really very simple in terms of what is being asked. But, when you fully understand that he is asking us to love God and to love our neighbors, then the task is not a burden, but it becomes more difficult because the demands of love of God and neighbor never cease, never end. Because of our human weaknesses it seems like we can never fulfill the task before us, but when we let Jesus carry that burden, when we go to Him and ask Him to lift that burden from our shoulders, then following His commands to love everyone become very easy for us to do.

Both Zechariah and Matthew are calling us back to God’s commands to love one another, which includes being at peace with each other, eliminating the tools of destruction that carry around as a burden around our necks. Paul says to us that we are to live by the spirit and when we do that we are living in the presence of God. When we look at all of these scriptures for this week, we should see what a loving Father we have and how he wants us to know and to Love Him, to Love His Son Jesus and we can do that when we live in the spirit of the Lord.