Mourning for the one they pierced
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.”
There is some uncertainty as to whether the spirit in verse 10 refers to the Holy Spirit or whether it is a spirit given to the people, a motivating spirit or attitude. It could be both. It is this in Psalm 51:10,11: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”
The spirit of verse 10 is associated with grace and supplication. These two attributes certainly speak of God’s Holy Spirit. The word in Hebrew, here translated grace, is a word that also means “charm” or “favor.”
Romans chapter 8 makes the connection that when we talk about the Holy Spirit, we are also talking about the spirit we have as a result of his working. “The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (verse 6). God’s favor rests upon us when we are privileged to call him Father: “You received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (verse 15). And verses 26 and 27 speak about the favor and grace we enjoy as the result of the Spirit’s intercession for us: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. . . . The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
It is also the work of the Holy Spirit that God’s people are led to repentance. In David’s words of repentance for his sin with Bathsheba in Psalm 51, he mentioned God’s Spirit several times: “Do not . . . take your Holy Spirit from me” (verse 11). And Ananias and Sapphira, who did not repent of their sin of lying, were told by Peter, “You have lied to the Holy Spirit. . . . How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” (Acts 5:3,9).
Repentance brought through God’s Spirit brings weeping with it, a weeping of sorrow and loss and deprivation. The Lutheran Confessions describe contrition as “terror smiting the conscience over a knowledge of sin.” Someone has died. Someone must die. We are guilty. Zechariah’s people were drawn with all people to the foot of the cross where they too saw the one they pierced.
We learn from 2 Chronicles 35:20-24 that it was on the plains of Megiddo that good King Josiah was shot and killed by archers of Egypt’s Pharaoh Neco. Verse 24 says, “He was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.” The mourning described by Zechariah is like the mourning for an only child, for a first born, for a good king.
The horrifying thing is that we do not feel more grief for what we have done. We, with Zechariah’s people, killed God’s Son! Yet when this message is preached in churches, people fidget, yawn, and look furtively at their watches, ,slipped secretly from the sleeves of their suitcoats.
This awful apathy was also felt by the hymn writer who confessed:
Thus might I hide my blushing face While his dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, And melt my eyes to tears. (CW 129:4)
To this we too join, “Lord dissolve my heart, and melt my eyes to tears.” By ourselves this kind of sorrow is not going to happen. We desire this Spirit of grace and supplication that will lead us to godly sorrow over our sins. Forgive us, forgiving Spirit, for our dry eyes.
Verses 12 and 13 list the clans, families, wives, and children—everyone! This was not political mourning, with its entourage of respectable representative mourners. The grief would sweep over everyone—fathers, mothers, boys, and girls. All have reason to weep as they struggle up the slopes of Golgotha to behold the one they pierced.