“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.”
John Piper unpacks this text from Zechariah:
Zechariah promises the people that at some future time a fountain would be opened which would take away their sin and guilt. I say this is the foundation for all the other blessings promised because the only way sinners can hope to inherit the riches of God is if their sins are forgiven. The fountain of cleansing is the first checkpoint on the road to heaven.
To understand this Advent promise in the context of Zechariah, I want to try to answer three questions about it: first, why did a fountain still have to be opened? Second, how does this fountain bring about forgiveness? Third, for whom does this fountain provide cleansing?
Why Open Another Fount?
First, then, why did a fountain still have to be opened? Do you see what a promise like this must have meant to a discerning Jew? It must have meant that all the provision for cleansing in the old sacrificial system was inadequate to deal with sin. Hebrews 10:2–4 makes this very point:
If the worshipers (in the Old Testament) had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Why were the animal sacrifices inadequate? Because the loss suffered by an animal does not compare to the injury which our sin brings upon the glory of God. The essential evil of sin is not the ruin that it brings on human life, but the scorn that it brings on the glory of God. If we could but grasp what a horrendous evil it is that human beings distrust and disobey their all-glorious Maker, we would not stumble over the justice of hell nor would we be surprised that the only one sacrifice could atone for our wickedness: namely, the sacrifice of the only Son of God. Our disobedience to an infinitely worthy God is an infinitely blameworthy disobedience, deserving of endless torment (Matthew 25:46). Therefore, no finite animal or even human sacrifice could make amends for our sin. Only an infinite humiliation out of respect to God could restore the injury with which we have assailed the glory of the Almighty through our distrust and disobedience. The fountain that had to be opened was not the neck of an animal, but the pierced side of the Son of God. Zechariah couldn’t see the whole story, but God showed him at least this much: if anybody is going to be saved from sin, a new fountain must be opened.
How Does This Fount Cleanse?
Second, how does this fountain bring about cleansing? In 3:8, 9 Zechariah shows that forgiveness of sin is connected to the coming Messiah, whom he calls the Branch (cf. Jeremiah 25:3; 35:15; Isaiah 11:1). At the end of verse 8 God says, “Behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.” Then at the end of verse 9: “and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day.” Two things are important here: first, there is a close connection between the coming of the Branch (Messiah) and the removal of guilt; and second, guilt is removed in a single day. This fits the death of Christ perfectly. He was the Messiah prophesied by Zechariah (cf. 9:9 with Matthew 21:5), and his sacrifice does not have to be repeated—he dealt with all sin in a single act of atonement once for all (Hebrews 9:24–26).
But in order for the fountain of Christ’s blood to take away sin, sinners must be penitent and call upon him for mercy. Humans are not naturally sorry for the way they bring scorn upon God by distrusting and disobeying him. In order for a spirit of sorrow for sin to come into a sinner, God has to act. The Holy Spirit must convict of sin. Zechariah 12:10, 11 prophesies that this is going to happen in Israel: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a first-born.” The only reason one mourns for an only child and weeps bitterly for a first-born is because they have died. Therefore, Zechariah must mean that the people have pierced and killed someone and now are deeply grieved and sorry for their sin. Three things are predicted in this mysterious passage. First, the inhabitants of Jerusalem are going to pierce and kill someone tremendously important. This they did in the crucifixion of Jesus, whose hands and feet and side were pierced (opening a fountain of cleansing!). Second, God is going to convict the house of David and dwellers in Jerusalem of their sin. Third, they will be filled with sorrow for their sin and cry out to God in supplications for mercy. (Which began to be fulfilled in the Jews’ response to Peter’s Pentecost sermon.)
When this happens, the fountain of God’s forgiveness flows freely and takes away the guilt of Jerusalem. So Zechariah can say in 14:11, “Jerusalem shall be inhabited, for there shall be no more curse; Jerusalem shall dwell in security.” And in 2:5, “For I will be to her a wall of fire round about, says the Lord, and I will be the glory within her.” And 2:10, “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord.” And 8:8, “I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in faithfulness and in righteousness.” All the promises made to Israel in the book of Zechariah (indeed, in the whole Bible) depend on the opened fountain of Christ’s blood and the repentance of God’s people. So in answer to our second question, How does the opened fountain bring about cleansing?—we’ve seen three things. 1) The Messiah (called the Branch) comes, and in being killed by his own people, he removes guilt in a single act of atonement. 2) God will cause Israel to be convicted of their sin. 3) Israel will weep and call upon God for forgiveness. The result of these three things will be that her curse is removed and God dwells as the glory in her midst.
Whom Does This Fount Cleanse?
Finally we ask, for whom does this opened fountain provide cleansing? Who can read Zechariah and find personal hope in it? The most obvious answer is the Jewish people. Even though they have displeased God (1 Thessalonians 2:15) by rejecting his Son, their Messiah, to this day, God still promises mercy. He will one day lift the veil off their minds (2 Corinthians 3:14), take away the hardening of their hearts (Romans 11:25), and pour out a spirit of grace and supplication upon them, and they will turn to Jesus and confess him as Lord and Christ. We may even be seeing the beginnings of that final outpouring in the contemporary messianic Jewish movement. And we should pray for all our Jewish friends and associates, and speak to them with boldness about Christ.
But the message of Zechariah is a word of hope to us Gentile Christians as well. If we understand what Christ has done for us in opening the fountain of his blood, then we will know that we are included in the promises of Zechariah.
When we hear God say in Zechariah 2:10, “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord,” we can’t help but also hear the words of Hebrews 12:22 addressed to us, “You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” And so we remember that in Christ we are no longer “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2:12). The hope and joy and glory of Zechariah is our hope and our joy and our glory, as children of Abraham and citizens of the new Jerusalem.
And God has been good enough to verify that to us even from the book of Zechariah itself. For example, right after that great promise in 2:10 he says, “And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know the Lord of hosts has sent me to you” (see also 9:7; 8:13, 20–23; 14:16). “Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord!” That’s you and me. The fountain of forgiveness has been opened for you. And if you cleanse yourself through faith in that fountain, all the subsequent promises to God’s people are yours. “I have purposed in these days (says the Lord) to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not, but let your hands be strong!” (8:15, 13b).
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