NT Text: Matthew 24:30
OT Source(s):
Source: Beale & Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007); Sigurd Grindheim, Christology in the Synoptic Gospels (2012)
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment
Anchor Text: Zech 12:10 — They Shall Look on Him
Significance: In the Olivet Discourse Jesus describes His own parousia with a composite citation fusing two prophetic texts: "all the tribes of the earth will mourn" (Zechariah 12:10/12:12) and "they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory" (Daniel 7:13). The Zechariah leg is unmistakable — kol-mišpəḥôt hāʾāreṣ ("all the families of the land/earth") mourning over the pierced one is the very vocabulary of Zechariah 12:10-14, where the inhabitants of Jerusalem look on the One they have pierced and mourn clan by clan. What is striking is that this same Zechariah-plus-Daniel composite reappears at Revelation 1:7, which establishes that the fusion is dominical — it originates on Jesus's own lips and is inherited, not invented, by the apostolic church. The two prophecies fuse two Christologies that might otherwise stand apart: the exalted cloud-coming Son of Man (Daniel) is identically the pierced One whom the nations mourn (Zechariah). The mourning at the parousia is the eschatological completion of the looking-and-mourning that began at the foot of the cross (John 19:37). For the believer this is no terror but the deepest comfort and the deepest summons of joy: the Lord who returns in glory is the Lord whose side was opened for us, and to behold Him pierced-and-coming is to be drawn to mourn over sin and to treasure the crucified King who is desirable above all — the One whose wounds are the ground of our welcome.