Zechariah 13:1-9: a reflection

1“In that day there will be a fountain opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. 2It will come to pass in that day, says the LORD of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land. 3It will happen that when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, ‘You must die, because you speak lies in the LORD’s name;’ and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies. 4It will happen in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they won’t wear a hairy mantle to deceive, 5but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.’ 6One will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’ 7“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says the LORD of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones. 8It shall happen that in all the land,” says the LORD, “two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it. 9I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

Zechariah opens a vision of cleansing with a beautiful promise: On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. Into a people stained by sin and idolatry, God promises to open a fountain, a source of cleansing, freely available, for the washing away of sin. The uncleanness that no human effort could remove, God provides a fountain to cleanse.

Notice the image: a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. Not a trickle, not a limited supply, but a fountain, an abundant, flowing source of cleansing, opened freely for the people. And it is God who opens it; the cleansing they could never accomplish for themselves, he provides. Christians have long seen this fulfilled in Christ, whose blood is the fountain opened for the cleansing of sin, the abundant, freely available source of the washing we cannot do ourselves.

That promise is a deep comfort for anyone burdened by sin and the sense of uncleanness. We cannot cleanse ourselves; no amount of effort washes away the stain of sin. But God has opened a fountain, in Christ, an abundant, freely flowing source of cleansing, available to all who come. Whatever uncleanness you carry, whatever sin has stained you, the fountain is open; you do not have to earn or achieve your cleansing, only come and be washed. Come to the fountain God has opened for sin and uncleanness, freely flowing in Christ, and be made clean.

Lord, you promised to open a fountain for sin and uncleanness, an abundant, freely flowing source of cleansing that we could never provide for ourselves, fulfilled in Christ, whose blood cleanses us. When I am burdened by sin and the sense of uncleanness I cannot wash away, remind me that the fountain is open, freely flowing, available to all who come. I do not have to earn my cleansing, only come and be washed. Wash me in the fountain you have opened in Christ, and make me clean.