Worship

Holy Thursday                    April 2, 2026

Zechariah 13:1-3                  Pastor Ryan Wolfe

A Cleansing Fountain

Grace to you and peace from him who took on the powers of darkness on Holy Thursday.

“Did you wash your hands?” Between raising my own kids and being a pastor at churches with childcares and schools I wonder where that question would be on the list of phrases I’ve heard most in my life. Especially with my office in earshot of the bathrooms here at Salem! But we ask that to our kids because as adults, we know its value. It’s smart to wash your hands: before you eat, after shaking hands at church, after working in the yard, after using the bathroom. It’s just a basic step to protect your health and the health of others.

So maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise when God, the perfect Father, asks us too: Did you wash your hands? In Psalm 24 God says, “Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.” If we are going to stand with God in his holy place, we better be clean.

Of course, no amount of soap and water can purify hands that are filthy with dirty deeds. No mouthwash can clean out the hurtful, disgusting words that have come off our tongues. There is no cleaning agent to sanitize our minds polluted by unclean thoughts, or our hearts that become hard and jaded. One of the more famous verses in the Bible is Isaiah 64:6. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Even those things we might hold up to God and say, “Look at this”…they’re tainted by the sinful hearts that produce them. Like trying to get good water out of a poisoned well, we and all we do are unclean.

But God has provided a fountain where we can be cleansed. On this Holy Thursday, let’s hear the Holy Week Prophet tell us about that fountain in Zechariah 13:1-3. “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
“On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the LORD’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.”

As we consider once again everything we’re going to see this weekend at the end of Jesus’ life, let’s start with this undeniable truth. Because of our sin, both what we do and what’s in our hearts, we are unclean. We can hide it from others. We can try to minimize it and justify it, but in the end we know that, as Scripture says, “All fall short of the glory of God. All are by nature, objects of God’s wrath.”

So the natural and innate question of all humanity is then, “What are we to do?” If we are condemned by nature. And unable even to pretend we have righteous acts before God, what can we do to save ourselves. To find a path to a good end? Scripture’s answer is a painful, final, “nothing.” There is nothing we can do. We are sinners in an ocean of sin with nothing but sin to cling to.

But while Scripture tells us there is nothing we can do, it also tells us there is nothing we need to do. Not because there’s not hope, but because our hope can only be in realizing that the Lord has already done what’s needed for us.

Zechariah said, “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” What day is “that day”? That would be easy if we were reading the whole book. The prophet said in the chapter before this, “they will look on me, the one they have pierced.” “That day” is the day our Savior was crucified.

The Hebrew that we translate “there will be a fountain” could also be translated, “he will be a fountain.” But it makes no difference. You know who this is. On the day of crucifixion Jesus was pierced. John’s Gospel tells us, “One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” From his head, from his hands, from his feet, from his side, there flowed a fountain of blood that day. Cleansing blood.

The night before, Holy Thursday, Jesus told Peter: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” You heard Peter’s response earlier in our service. He said, “Then, Lord, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well.” And that is just what God does through this fountain of blood. He cleanses us of every sin that dirties our hands, our lips, our minds, our hearts. In Jesus we find such a thorough washing that Revelation 7:14 pictures our filthy robes as being made white in the blood of the Lamb.

It is this fountain that we drink from again and again as we receive the Lord’s Supper. It’s a strange sacrament, isn’t it? That Jesus would miraculously make his actual body and blood present, and then tell us to consume it? But in each partaking we find ourselves washed anew by that body and blood, by his promise that our souls have been cleansed. And not 99.9 percent as the hand sanitizers have to say in their marketing. 100 percent. Every speck of sin, every bit of guilt – gone. Forever. No wonder Jesus invites us to this mighty meal in remembrance of him. There we see the unclean made clean, by God’s sacrifice, not ours. By his love, not our work.

As you leave the altar though, reflecting on the sacrifice that makes us clean, we are moved to consider our response to such love. If we’ve been cleansed in Christ, why would we return to the things we needed cleansing from? Who cleans their house and then immediately tromps through with messy, muddy boots? Okay, I know…kids do. But you are not children who don’t know any better.

The Apostle Peter actually wrote about people who knew their Savior and then returned to their sins. He says in 2 Peter 2, “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

It’s this danger that caused God to speak the shocking words in the second paragraph of our Scripture reading. This cleansing day of Jesus’ sacrifice would be the greatest of blessings, but it’s a blessing that could be lost. Zechariah describes that together with this fountain of forgiveness he would banish the idols from the land. And he would remove the false prophets and spirits of impurity. It would be so complete that even the parents of false prophets would oppose them and bring judgment on them.

It’s harsh and swift justice, yes. But worship of false gods had brought destruction to the whole nation of Israel before, both worldly and for too many, eternally as well. God was telling this generation of Israel, home now from the exile, that the poison of idolatry must be rooted out. Israel’s exile to Babylon should have taught them the dangers of idol worship.

If it was that serious for them, how serious should it be for us? Are you serious about keeping your hands and heart clean? What idols need to be eliminated from your life? What is competing for first place in your heart? A job? The images on a screen? A friend? A hobby? A sport? Take a look at your budget, your schedule, your phone. Identify the idols that make you look like a freshly washed sow that goes right back to the mud. Then banish that thing from your life. Sometimes all it takes is the choice to do it.

Let me be clear. Parents, please don’t stab your children, even if they have departed from the truth. But hear how urgently God impresses this matter on us. This is a matter of life and death for our faith. Pray for those who are straying, and pray for each other for faithfulness in the face of temptation.

We all know that germs are everywhere. That is why we wash our hands often. Threats to our faith are everywhere too. Act decisively against those things that lead you away from your Savior—work, play, social media, friends, even family. “Stab” it. Get it out of your life. Plan for it, recognize it, and stay away.

Do it because you have been cleansed at great cost. By blood more precious than diamonds. By love far greater than gold. This evening as we remember a humble Savior who gave all, for all, remember the reason for it. This fountain filled with blood washes our sins away. This meal of body and blood renews that promise and assures us again and again of its truth. God bless us to seek out this sacrament often, and to rejoice in the fullness of its promise. To God be the glory. Amen.