Zechariah 13:7, commentary and pictures

The sword is God's own justice and wrath against broken law, awakened by the Father's command to fall upon Christ, who is the shepherd and the man equal with God, His only begotten Son one with Him from eternity. To smite the shepherd is for the Father not to spare His Son but to lay upon Him the full debt and penalty for a guilty world, withdrawing light and comfort and demanding complete atonement without abatement. His agony in Gethsemane came from God Himself turning His hand upon His fellow, not from Satan or from the insults, rejection and abuse of men. That same night the striking of the Shepherd under judgment in garden, trial and cross scatters the sheep, His disciples and little ones, who stumble, forsake Him and flee when He most needs them. Yet the scattering is temporary and under the Father's hand, for Christ bears punishment as sinless substitute and surety to satisfy justice fully, so that sinners treated as righteous may be gathered again when He rises and goes before them.

Sword Against God's Fellow

The shepherd is Christ, and the man who is God's fellow is His only begotten Son, equal with God, one with Him from eternity, in the bosom of the Father in close communion. That communion between Him and God is the pattern for communion between Christ and His children, for He is not only shepherd but everlasting Father who loves them as His own sons and daughters, more than a shepherd loves sheep, as His Father's gift and the reward of His work beyond which heaven can give nothing greater. He was innocent of any disloyalty, yet was to suffer under divine justice as substitute and surety for sinful people, wounded for transgressions, bruised for iniquities, bearing the chastisement that brings peace and bringing healing by His stripes to cancel guilt and bring life in fulfillment of the covenant made before the world was created. His suffering showed what justice means and what it is for sinners to stand before God without an intercessor.

The sword is divine justice awakened by the voice and command of God the Father in the secret place of heaven, meaning His wrath and punishment against transgression of His law falling upon Christ. To smite the shepherd means the Father did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for sinners and for a guilty world, laying upon Him the penalty of transgression. It means the Father separated from the beloved Son of His bosom the beams of light, love and glory because of human sin, revealing how offensive sin is in His sight. It means God demanded from Him as Mediator the whole debt owed for transgression, requiring a full atonement with the extreme penalty of the law, and justice did not spare Him nor remit the penalty because He was the Son of God, but without abatement the full penalty and vials of wrath fell on the divine-human Substitute until the sword was bathed in His blood on Calvary.

Christ's intense mental distress and agony of soul in Gethsemane came from God Himself turning His hand against His fellow, not from Satan nor from man. It did not come from insults, rejection, hatred, abuse by those He came to bless and save, nor from false charges of being linked with Beelzebub and doing miracles of healing through satanic agencies. In Gethsemane He stood where He had never stood before, no longer only as intercessor for others but as substitute and surety for sinful man needing an intercessor Himself, longing for an intercessor for Himself. Lying prostrate in soul anguish upon the cold earth, separated from the Father by the broad, black, deep gulf of sin, He felt what justice meant and what it is to stand before God without an intercessor, as man enduring God's wrath against transgression and suffering the consequences of man's sin without using His divine power to escape.

The setting is Gethsemane, where Jesus as shepherd enters the secluded recess of the garden with Peter, James and John, His closest companions who had been with Him on the mount of transfiguration. He desires their presence near Him in His great struggle and bids them remain behind to watch with Him and pray for themselves and for Him, while He goes farther alone into an agony that He cannot bear even they should witness. There the divine sufferer is fainting and dying and needs a messenger from the Father to strengthen Him to tread His blood-stained path, before being betrayed by a kiss into the hands of His enemies and hurried to the judgment hall of an earthly court to be derided and condemned to death by sinful mortals. The smiting comes through His agony in the garden, His trial, crucifixion and death.

In His human nature He faces the last fearful struggle with the powers of darkness, with the destiny of the human race at stake as in the wilderness of temptation where He had conquered. He feels His unity with the Father broken up and dreads separation from God as surety for a sinful world, fearing He will be unable to endure. Satan presses Him with the claim that if He becomes surety the separation will be eternal, He will be identified with Satan's kingdom, and will never more be one with God. The issue is whether Satan keeps mastery, the earth becomes Satan's kingdom and the human race stays forever in his power, or Satan is overthrown and cast out and the kingdoms of the world finally become Christ's. The crushing weight is the guilt and ingratitude of men, the rejection by the people with the greatest temporal and spiritual advantages who seek to destroy Him as foundation, center and seal of the promises, the betrayal by one of His own disciples, the denial by one of His most zealous followers, and the forsaking by all He undertook to save and loves, which pierces His soul because they unite in Satan's plots, with the sins of men weighing heavily upon Him and the sense of God's wrath against sin crushing out His life, measured by the guilt of His nation, of His accusers and betrayer, and of a world lying in wickedness.

Shepherd Struck, Sheep Scattered

The prophecy points to a single night, when after leaving the upper room and crossing the brook Kidron toward Gethsemane, Christ the Shepherd would be struck under the judgment brought by transgressed law. That smiting would come through His agony in the garden, His trial in the judgment hall, and His crucifixion and death. Jesus Himself applied the words to that night, speaking them to His companions with sorrow and anguish of heart.

The sheep are His disciples, the little flock, the little ones. Their scattering means that same night all would be offended because of Him, would stumble, forsake Him, flee and abandon Him in His suffering. This would happen when He most needed their sympathy and prayers. Even then Peter vehemently insisted he would never be offended and would die with Him rather than deny Him.

The fulfillment came after the high hopes raised when He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem into the humiliation of the way to Calvary. Struck and taken from them, He was followed only at a distance by disciples bowed with grief and disappointed hopes. They still faintly hoped He would manifest His power to escape His enemies and deliver Himself. Left as sheep without a shepherd and deprived of His presence to comfort and strengthen them, their faith was clouded with doubt and they were so perplexed and confused they could not recall His warning beforehand that these things would happen. Deprived of Him, they never loved Him as then and never felt His worth and their need of Him as then.

That scattering was temporary and under the Father's hand because of transgressed law. After being smitten He would rise from the dead and go before them into Galilee to meet, gather and comfort them again.

He foreknew beforehand every phase of their fearful trial in His betrayal and death upon the cross, their temptation and unbelief, with sympathy and love and sorrow of heart. Though facing His own suffering, He was concerned to prepare them, to comfort them, and to shield them from what was coming. He was thinking of them and praying for them, with His eye upon their future experience, watching over them and guiding and upholding them through the trial so they were not alone, and afterward He would gather them again with comforting assurances of love and good cheer. Understanding this prediction and His loving concern would have helped them grasp more what His great sacrifice meant.

Substitute Satisfying Divine Justice

Christ readied Himself to take the punishment for sin as humanity's substitute and surety and propitiation, accepting full responsibility for guilt in fulfillment of the covenant made before the world was created. Though He knew no sin and was innocent of any disloyalty, He was made sin in the sinner's place, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, bearing the chastisement that brings peace and bringing healing by His stripes to cancel guilt and bring life. As Mediator the whole debt owed for transgression of God's law was demanded of Him, with full atonement required and the extreme penalty of the law suffered so that justice was fully satisfied.

That penalty was not remitted because He was the Son of God, but the vials of wrath fell without abatement until the sword was bathed in His blood on Calvary. This testifies to the holy dignity and immutability of the law, that the guiltless suffered for the guilty. It was fulfilled by God allowing the prince of hell to bruise Him through men imbued with the spirit of demons, so that the people became agents of the enemy to put Him to death.

He was treated as a sinner so that sinners may be treated as righteous, that God might be just and yet the justifier of the sinner. The unsheathed sword against the Fellow of the Almighty shows the depth of the Father's love and the sorrow to which He subjected Himself in not sparing His own Son but freely delivering Him up for all. For God, in whom is no fury, this was a strange work, revealing a wonderful love that needs to be better understood.

The same sword proves God is a God of justice and stands as warning that those who refuse the atoning sacrifice, continue in sin, and are indifferent to so great salvation will face punishment without excuse and cannot escape wrath. The communion between Christ and the Father is the pattern for communion between Christ and His children on earth. For He is not only Shepherd but Everlasting Father, loving His people as His own sons and daughters, more than a shepherd loves sheep, because they are His Father's gift and the reward of His work beyond which heaven can give nothing greater or better, so they should trust Him.