Most of us are not strangers to a crippling sense of unworthiness. What we are in ourselves rises up before our eyes with paralysing force.

Ask many regular Free Church adherents why they don't come to the Lord's table and the answer almost invariably is: "I'm not worthy". For some, that is but an excuse — a statement lightly made, unaccom­panied by any conviction of the need to seek with urgency a cure for their unworthiness. For others, it expresses a genuine sense of sin which disturbs their hearts and distorts their attitudes and takes all confidence from them.

The same sense of un­worthiness paralyses our Christian witness. We know that we ought to speak to our neighbour or our work mates about the things of God, but there arises before our mind how imperfect the testimony of our lives has been and we feel ashamed, disqualified and incapacitated from that simple act of service.

So too in the service of the church. "Who am I to lead in prayer," our sense of unworthiness makes us ask, "to teach a Sunday School class, to open my mouth in the praise of God, to help in door to door visitation?"

When this sense of un­worthiness becomes chronic — when it constantly takes up the whole of our spiritual horizon — it plunges a person into introspection and depression; it stunts spiritual growth and leads to all sorts of other imbalances. When it becomes widespread in a congregation, corporate worship becomes charac­terised by gloom and the service of God by lethargy. The whole of spiritual life is jaundiced by it.

If we feel this crippling sense of unworthiness we may well sympathise with Joshua the high priest who was seen by Zechariah in a vision which is recorded for us in Zechariah 3.

The Background⤒🔗

The historical situation in which Zechariah lived and ministered was one of con­siderable difficulty, yet also of no little promise.

After years of exile in Babylon, the Jewish people have begun to return to their native land. The task that awaits them there is immense. The city of Jeru­salem is in ruins; the land desolate; the opposition to their resettlement there rampant. They face the considerable task of clearing land, constructing homes and providing a stable form of living for themselves. And in the midst of all this comes the call to the service of God: to reconstruct the temple at Jerusalem that had been destroyed when the Babylonians had swept away the kingdom of Judah.

In such circumstances the prophets Zechariah and Haggai minister, stirring up the people to the great task of reconstruction. Many of Zechariah's visions seem designed to meet the problems that the people feel in regard to setting their hands to the work to which they have been called. The vision recorded in chapter 3 is tailor made to meet the problem which might find expression in such words as: "I'm not worthy. Who am I to lend a hand in such a great and holy undertaking as the reconstruction of the temple." Thus Zechariah's vision, written down for all time, remains as an ongoing source of encouragement to all afflicted with a paralysing sense of unworthiness.

It's a vision about Joshua the high priest. The task of the high priest was to repre­sent the people before God and we take it that in this vision he is to be seen in that capacity: as priest, he represents the people; as high priest, he represents the priesthood.

The power of the vision lies in the sharpness of the contrast between Joshua's position at the start of the story and his position at the end of it. It is a vision that assures us that what the people, represented here by the priest, are in themselves and feel themselves to be is radically different from what they are in the sight of God. By encouraging them to see their lives from a dif­ferent perspective Zechariah deals with any crippling sense of unworthiness which might have impeded their service.

Accused and Defiled←⤒🔗

So much for the general outline. A few details can be painted in.

There are two main ways in which the negative side of Joshua's position is des­cribed. He is opposed by Satan and he is clothed in dirty garments.

As Joshua stands in the presence of the angel of God, Satan, the great adver­sary, stands at his side to resist or to accuse him: the devil's accusations of sin and unworthiness are a barrier standing in the way of the high priest being heard and accepted.

This corresponds to the way the people saw them­selves: they felt the reality of the barrier that separated them from God; they were deeply aware of the accusa­tions that might be made against them in the presence of God. Perhaps they had an inbuilt feeling of the inter­vention of Satan dragging up everything that might poss­ibly be used against them.

Similarly there is the picture of Joshua being dressed in defiled clothes. These were the very opposite of the garments prescribed by God for the priests to were. Clean garments designed to evoke a sense of beauty and dignity were what God had laid down for the priesthood. Joshua's are not acceptable to God.

There is no difficulty in recognizing what that speaks of. Dirty clothing is fre­quently used in the Scrip­tures as a picture of the defilement of sin: "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). This too represents the feelings of the people: when they think on coming to God they see themselves as defiled, polluted by sin, clothed in a garb that is unacceptable to him.

True and Necessary←⤒🔗

How easy it is for us sometimes to identify with this picture. There are occa­sions when the forces of darkness seem to be taking their stance against us; when we can think on nothing good that can be said about us in the presence of God and when the reality of the defilement that sin causes hangs heavily upon our conscience. In short, a feel­ing of unworthiness over­whelms with paralysing force.

How true that picture is! It is true to the teaching that Scripture gives of man's depraved condition. It is a feeling that is arrived at under the guiding influence of God's own Spirit. How necessary to see ourselves in that way! If we cannot recognise ourselves as we are in that picture of the highpriest then we are indeed dead and insensitive to spiritual realities, and progress in these matters will only come when the full realisation of what we are in ourselves dawns upon our consciousness.

But though this picture is both true and necessary and the starting point of spiritual experience, what this pas­sage teaches us is that it is neither the only picture of the believer nor is it the final one. The purpose of this vision is to show that God wants his people to see them­selves also from a different perspective. That is what the positive side of this vision demonstrates.

Cleansed and Accepted←⤒🔗

The comfort of this pas­sage flows from various factors.

There is, firstly, the fact that Satan is rebuked. "The Lord rebuke you, Satan!" (v. 2). The voice of Satan is silenced. No charge against God's people will be allowed. The accusations that might be brought with devastating effect against Joshua and the people whom he represents are not accepted. The adversary is restrained, his purpose impeded, the barrier he seeks to erect destroyed.

Secondly, the assurance of being chosen is conveyed to Joshua. "The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a burn­ing stick snatched from the fire?" (v. 2).

The electing mercy of God has been set upon Jerusalem: the one who administers the rebuke is the one who has chosen Jerusalem. As a result, Joshua, and the people he represents, are objects of God's un­restrained favour.

Moreover, Joshua is to be seen as a stick snatched out of the fire. The burning anger of God was displayed against his disobedient people. It led to ruin and destruction, exile and shame. Joshua too was a natural heir to that fiery destruction, but in his elect­ing love, God snatched him from the fire. Joshua is given the assurance of being accepted on the basis of grace: God's judgment will never touch him. There is no condemnation awaiting him.

Thirdly, the pollution is removed. Commands are issued and the dirty clothes are taken away. Fresh clothes are produced and the high priest is reinvested in the garments appropriate to his position. The prescribed priestly garments which are accepted to God are given to him. Finally he stands clean and pure, acceptable to God and therefore able to stand in his presence.

This is the picture that the people are encouraged to have of themselves. God through Zechariah is stimulating them to say:

in myself I stand before God, filthy, accused and unaccep­table. But by the grace of God I have the assurance that judgment will never touch me; I am an object of divine grace; I stand accepted and the voice of Satan is stilled.

Thus the sense of unworthiness is overwhelmed in a sense of acceptance and the paralysis is dealt a fatal blow, its crippling fetters broken.

Final and Complete←⤒🔗

Though thus revealed in the Old Testament, how much more in the New Testament is this picture one which the believer can lay hold of with the utmost con­fidence!

Jesus came to tie up the strong man (Matthew 12:29); he came to destroy the devil's work (1 John 3:8). Satan has been cast out of heaven. Seated at the right hand is not Satan but Jesus. He has the ear of the Father; what he speaks God will hear. The picture of Satan standing to accuse is replaced by a sight of the Advocate, whom we have with the Father, seated at his right hand.

We can say with the same air of triumph which pervaded Paul's writing: "who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justi­fies. Who is he that con­demns?" (Romans 8:33-34).

We too in Christ are sticks snatched from the fire. Though in our natural condition children of wrath, now there is the great assur­ance given: there is no con­demnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

We can see ourselves as stripped of the filthy rags of sin and clothed in Christ. We are invested with the perfect righteousness which he accomplished for us as he lived a life of obedience in this world acting as our representative. Clothed thus, we stand accepted.

When we lay hold upon this picture and the glory of it penetrates our conscious­ness, then the paralysis dis­appears. The wounded and bruised and crippled spirit is healed; the paralysed limbs are strengthened to be used in his service; the frightened mouth is opened to sing his praise; the faltering and fearful lips are moved to speak in testimony of our Lord. To capture the reality of this vision is the Chris­tian's cure for the paralysing sense of unworthiness which so often cripples us.

The One and The Other←⤒🔗

Here we have two pictures of the Christian life. Both are true; both are necessary. The first is the background against which the second will be the more clearly seen. The more sharply we discern the blackness of the first, the more vividly we will appre­ciate the glory of the second.

I wouldn't argue with anyone who alleged that we don't have a clear enough picture of personal unworthiness. Sin has been treated so lightly that the professing Church in general undoubtedly needs to grasp the seriousness of sin. But what we need even more is that against the background of man's total unworthiness and the bankruptcy of his natural state, we should also see with greater vividness the fulness of what is ours in Christ.

To see only the first pic­ture is to see the truth. But it is not to see the whole truth of God's attitude to believers. We need to see the full picture in all its glory.

McCheyne, I believe, said: "for every time that you look at yourself, look six times at the Lord". That, I believe, is the sort of priority which Zechariah was instru­mental in putting across in this vision of the high priest. To do otherwise breeds gloom and paralysis. To centre our attention on the sinfulness of self and to side­line the sufficiency of the Saviour leads to a destruc­tive imbalance in spiritual experience. To do what Zechariah encourages people to do here leads us to a con­fident and joyful, assured and God-honouring active life.