Zechariah 3:1-7
How to Be Good Enough

Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan [literally, the Accuser] standing at his right hand to accuse him.

And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?"

Now Joshua was dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes." And to him he said, "See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you with festal apparel." And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with the apparel; and the angel of the LORD was standing by.

Then the angel of the LORD assured Joshua, saying "Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here."

New Revised Standard Version

It helps to understand more about Zechariah and the era in which he lived to gain a more complete understanding of this magnificent vision from God. Zechariah was born in Babylon of Jewish parents who had been captured and taken from their homeland after the fall of Judah. During the Exile, the descendents of Abraham would have thought about how badly they had failed God for God to allow their nation to be conquered, to allow them to be taken from the Promised Land that God had given them. They longed to go back -- but to what? Their captors had told them of the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the devastation to Jerusalem. And to Whom? Since their rejection of God's Laws caused God to turn away from them, how could they every be God's chosen people again?

Some of the prophets, particularly Daniel, assured them of God's continued love, and of God's power stretching even to the capital city of their conquerors. Certainly the miracle of Daniel surviving in the lion's den would have given them hope. The miracles continued during their stay, until the surprise announcement by Cyrus of Persia allowed the Hebrews to leave Babylon and go home!

However, arriving back in Judah after the long trip only reinforced their doubts. Just like it had been after the Exodus from Egypt, the land was inhabited by many different groups, and none wanted to see the Hebrew people reestablish themselves. The Temple had been utterly destroyed, as had the wall that surrounded the city of Jerusalem. The work ahead daunted the returning faithful believers, as did the gross unfaithfulness of the Jews who the Babylonians had left in Judah.

To answer their despair, God gave the vision in the passage above to Zechariah, the assistant to the prophet Haggai. The scene opens confirming the fears of the people. Zechariah saw a familiar face, his very own high priest, Joshua, but Joshua didn't look very priestly. How could he, when the temple was nothing but a pile of rocks? How could he, when survival and reconstruction took the time the priests needed to do the work of God? How could he, when his people had failed God and abandoned the Law so completely as to bring about the downfall of their nation?

Joshua stood before God, dressed in rags befitting his unworthiness. In classic courtroom fashion, the Accuser stood prepared to bring the charges against Joshua. It isn't much of a stretch to imagine a solemn Joshua waiting for the ugly truth to be presented, waiting for the just condemnation to come, for he was a priest from a failed and sinful people. They had no defense and they deserved the sentence to be issued.

But God stops the proceedings before Satan has a chance to start! Why?

Grace.

Of course God knew that Joshua was a failure. Of course God knew that the people coming back from Babylon were filled with doubts that God would forgive them or that they could rebuild their city and the temple. Of course God knew that they could never be worthy of the relationship they so wanted to restore with God. Of course they would fail. Of course we fail, too.

Never mind all that, God declares! Take the dirty rags off Joshua that he deserves to wear, and dress him in splendid priestly festival garments, to affirm Joshua's role as the high priest and the people's opportunity to celebrate that relationship with God that they feared was gone.

Satan is stunned! "Why should this be?!"

"Because," God answers, "I snatched them out of the fire!"

At our best, we can manage no more than Joshua. Our spiritual attire is no better than ripped, tattered, filthy rags. Satan has provoked us to fail in every weakness, taunted us by turning our strengths into sins, and stands prepared to reveal how much we deserve God's condemnation. No matter how good we are and how hard we try, we can never be good enough.

But God's love isn't limited by our failures. God's love is more than good enough for restoration, for reconstruction, for celebration, and for making us into what we could never be on our own. There is only One who is good, Jesus said, and that One will bring us into that goodness -- if we only allow it.