23 November 2010
Psalm 121, 122, 123; Zech 11.4-17; 1 Cor 3.10-23; Luke 18.31-43

Here Zechariah acts out the prophetic word. The Lord is the shepherd of His people and the prophet is instructed to assume that post in order to act out the word of the Lord. The Lord is rejected as the prophet is rejected and when he asks for payment for services rendered it is the end of the relationship. His pay is a pittance and therefore he is told how little he is valued as shepherd. The Messianic shepherd also is rejected as this parable points toward that rejection of Jesus. The staffs of favor and union are symbols of the covenant of God with His people and here we see Him breaking those staffs, dissolving the covenant He has made.

Jesus tells the disciples plainly what will happen next and yet they have no framework to truly understand or believe it will be so. Their belief about Jesus is that He is Messiah and they have a particular belief about what that means and the prophecy He makes doesn’t fit that structure. The Messiah doesn’t die. Even as He goes to Jerusalem for the final time, He knows what lies ahead, but even now He is outwardly focused and heals these men on the road. Even then, Jesus doesn’t presume to heal them without their asking for healing. They could simply want money or they could want something else, they have to speak the words that express their faith. Of all the pilgrims passing by, these men call out to Jesus asking for mercy and then for healing. It takes faith to ask someone to restore your sight.

What is the foundation of your life? A friend of mine was building a house in the mountains, a very nice home in fact. As they got into the construction they realized there were problems on the site that required a great deal of money be spent on the foundation, nearly as much as had been budgeted for the house itself. There was no choice but to continue construction, too much had been spent to abandon the project, but the costly foundation now demanded a more expensive house in order to justify the cost of the foundation. Paul says we are to properly evaluate the foundation of our lives and be careful to build on that foundation with care as in the end all we have built will be burned away and only that which is eternal will remain.

To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he has mercy upon us.