Mark's Blog

Reading:  Zechariah 14:4-9

On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that half of the Mount shall withdraw northwards, and the other half southwards. And you shall flee by the valley of the Lord’s mountain, for the valley between the mountains shall reach to Azal; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

On that day there shall not be either cold or frost. And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the Lord), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light.

On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.

And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

This whole first week of Advent, Scripture has shown us that The Coming is not a tame, domesticated Nativity Scene nor a Kodak-moment filled with violins and glamour shots! No, we have read of the heavens being ripped open, mountains trembling, heavenly horns trumpeting, choruses filling the skies with world-changing anthem.

Zechariah describes the Mount of Olives—yes, the peaceful mount outside of Jerusalem where Jesus and His disciples go to pray—being split in two during The Coming.  I know some want to take this literally and to weave it into an eschatological system, but today we won’t.

Today, we let the Advent words “the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him, ” lead us to three beautiful pictures of the new creation after The Coming!

First, there will be light—warm light, continuous light! The Coming is the end of cold and darkness!   As far apart as East from West are darkness and light. We are so frail in our flesh that the Bright Light sometimes causes blindness as it did with Saul of Tarsus, but as with Saul, when we are healed of our sins, the lust of our eyes is only for the Light!

The second image is continual flowing, living water. We hardly know what to do with this metaphor because water is just in the next room on tap.  But to have water in summer as well as winter was a necessity for life and extraordinarily difficult to supply in more arid countries like Israel.

We do know, however, this life-threatening kind of dryness in our souls–the dryness of emptiness, of hopelessness, of loneliness–and we know how withering these seasons of life can be. The Coming is not just the promise of spring rains, but rather the gift of a river of life that never runs dry because its source water is God Himself. The Water of Heaven has come down.

And, finally, the Lord will be king—that’s a familiar image to us. What really makes me pause, however, are the next words:  the Lord will be one, and His name one. This rings in my ears as the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus in John 17, uttered in His last hours that His followers might be one.

The One Who Comes is One.  His Name is One.  Oh, Lord, make us who wear your Name one also!