Bible Passage: Zechariah 6:9-13
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: February 18, 2026

Bulletin – Ash Wednesday

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

The word of the LORD came to me (v. 9)  Thus begins our text.  With these words the prophet Zechariah tips us off he is going to tell us a story of what happened to him one day.  Maybe just a word about the man Zechariah.  Zechariah was a prophet at the time the Jews had returned from the Babylonian exile.  They had begun the work of rebuilding the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem.  Zechariah ministered to and among these returned exiles.  The word of the LORD came to me, says Zechariah.  And the LORD told him to do something very odd.

Zechariah was told to go to the home of a man named Josiah, son of Zephaniah.  There Zechariah would find three men who had returned from Babylon. Their names were Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah.  These men had returned with an offering they wanted to give for the rebuilding of the Temple.  They had brought gold and silver.  Zechariah was to take this offering of silver and gold and fashion a crown out of it!  One can imagine how puzzled Heldai and Tobijah and Jedaiah would have been as Zechariah takes their silver and gold and sets about his task!  The LORD had further instructions.  Zechariah was to take that crown and place it on the head of the high priest.  The high priest at the time was named Joshua.  Now imagine Joshua standing there dressed in his priestly garments with a kingly crown on his head, blinking in dazed confusion.  “Who ever heard of a priest wearing a king’s crown?  What is happening?”

The LORD would tell Joshua what was happening.  He is part of a “prophetic object lesson.”  This all points ahead to the future.  There is a man whose name is the Branch, because HE WILL branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD.  He is the one who WILL build the temple of the LORD. {Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah weren’t building it!] HE WILL be clothed with majesty, and HE WILL sit and rule on his throne.  HE WILL be a priest on his throne, and there WILL BE peace between the two offices. (v. 12-13)  “Joshua, there will come one who will bring the offices of priest and king together?  There will be a priest who sits on a throne as king!”

May I tell you more about the Joshua who was King and Priest?  We usually don’t refer to him as Joshua.  We usually refer to him as “Jesus.”  Did you know no one called Jesus “Jesus”?  “Jesus” is the Greek/Latin version of his name.  Jesus’ name in Aramaic was “Yeshua.”  Joshua.  It is a name that means “The LORD saves.”  It was a very common name at the time of Jesus.  There were many little boys at the time of Jesus named “Yeshua.”  But only one was the fulfillment of that scene that played out in Josiah’s living room!  Only one was born to be King and Priest!

It is Lent.  We have come to meditate upon our Savior’s suffering and death.  Have you ever noticed in the Passion history of Jesus the many references to Jesus’ kingly office?  It might surprise you how a “kingly” theme runs through it all!  As Jesus stands on trial Maundy Thursday night, the high priest demands to know of Jesus if he is the Messiah.  The Messiah was to be a king!  And Jesus answers, Yes, it is as you say. (Matthew 26:64)  The essence of the charge the Jews brought against Jesus when they took him to Pontius Pilate was this,  He…claims to be Christ, a King! (Luke 23:2)  Pilate would delve further into this charge with Jesus.  Are you the king of the Jews? (John 18:33)  Jesus would calmly answer, You are right in saying I am a king. (John 18:37)  The kingly office of Jesus was the punch line – literally – as the soldiers’ abused Jesus.  They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!”  And they struck him in the face. (John 19:3) Jesus suffered and bled and died under a sign that proclaimed: ישוע מנצרת מלך היהודים.  Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. (John 19:19)  One cannot miss the kingly office of Christ in all of this!

But here is the mysterious goodness of God in action.  The suffering and death of this King was also the once-for-all sacrifice of a High Priest.  The most distinguishing thing about the high priests in the Old Testament is what they got to do on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  It was on Yom Kippur that the high priest entered the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle and later the Temple.  He would enter with the blood of a bull and the blood of a goat that had been sacrificed as sin offerings.  The high priest would splash that blood in the presence of the LORD in the Most Holy Place.  And that blood made an “atonement” for sin.  “Atonement” means covering.  But who are we kidding?  The blood of bulls and goats splashed by a priest in a tent can’t really cover sins!

But the blood of Jesus can!  Good Friday is the real Yom Kippur!  Jesus is the real High Priest!  Jesus himself, not a bull or goat, is the real sin offering!  Paul wrote to the Romans, [God sent] his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. (Romans 8:3)  Jesus’ blood provides atonement; Jesus’ blood covers over sin.  The hymn says it so beautifully:  “Offered was he for greatest and for least; himself the victim and himself the priest.” (CW 309)

Listen well to those words!  Jesus is your priest!  You do not offer sacrifices to atone for your sins.  The tears you shed over sin do not atone or cover your sins.  The promises you make to do better do not atone or cover sins.  The time you spend reading your Bible or sitting in church do not atone or cover your sins.  This is the work of Jesus alone!  Jesus is the priest, Jesus is the sacrifice, Jesus holds the blood that covers over all sin.  Scripture declares blessed those who trust in his blood!  Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. (Psalm 32:1)  Covered in the blood of Christ!

So leave here tonight, begin this season of Lent, in the lightness of heart and the peace that comes in forgiveness!  And marvel again at Jesus, the “Joshua” who brought the offices of King and Priest together, to give it to you!

Amen.