Last updated on August 18, 2022
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
The Gospel of Luke begins with the promise of John the Baptist and then the promise of Jesus. It then moves to the birth of John and then to the birth of Jesus. So this passage is easy to skip over in our hurry to get to the Christmas story, but the picture it paints is striking. Zechariah has, presumably, been unable to speak and, apparently unable to hear (v. 62) for over 9 months. Having seen Gabriel’s prophesy come true and, in obedience to God, naming the child John, he is delivered from his punishment.
Zechariah, unlike Mary and perhaps Elizabeth, is a character I relate to. Mary, in particular, has extraordinary faith. Zechariah had doubted even when an angel showed up. Placed in a similar situation, I would probably end up rationalizing my way to how unrealistic the prophesy was and then I’d probably move on to some self-loathing about why God would never choose me for such a task. I want to believe I wouldn’t try and debate Gabriel, but I know how I already tend to practically argue with God when I do the opposite of what I knows he’s commanded and called me to do. I know how I doubt his goodness and love despite no evidence of his disfavor or anger toward me. It makes no sense, but I try and reason my way there anyway. Why? There are many reasons for this, but it is, in part, because of how wonderful the truth really is. In a world of such darkness and pain, God’s unconditional love – His grace – seems preposterous. It flies in the face of all logic. We can only truly accept it by faith and, as Zechariah demonstrates when he writes John’s name, by acting into that faith.
When someone breaks through the doubt, the guilt, and all the other obstacles that keep us from acting in faith, good things happen. It brings hope, wonder, and, maybe, even fear to those around you (v. 65-66). It changes the conversation. And it is an invitation to the Holy Spirit to use you as He did with Zechariah’s prophecy.
Verses 68-79 are a single sentence in Greek, and it begins with the word “Benedictus” in Latin, for which the passage is named. Verses 68-75 speak to the coming Messiah and the promises of God soon to be fulfilled. Verses 76-79 declare the purposes for which his son, John, had been born: to prepare the way of the Lord. It is fitting, then, that liturgical traditions like my own use this passage as a regular piece of daily prayer. For Anglicans, the Benedictus is used in Morning Prayer following the Scripture reading as a response. This is fitting as, like Zechariah, we encounter both God’s promises and their fulfillment in the Bible.
A question I’ll leave you with, though, is what to do with verse 80. Why would John be called to go into the wilderness for this ministry of preparation?
Christmas Eve, we’ll turn to Luke 2 and the Christmas story.
P.S. Today, Dec. 21st is not only Winter Solstice, but it’s also the Feast of St. Thomas, one of Jesus’ apostles. Here is a Collect for the occassion:
