I have been away for a week and did not post a new message. This message begins a series looking at Luke's Gospel's account of the events leading up to and surrounding the birth of Jesus.
Luke
1:5-23
It
seems an unusual way for an author to begin what he would certainly consider
the most important story ever told.
Surely you wouldn’t begin such a story by discussing your research
methodology.
Luke
begins his gospel as a historian would.
He claims to have carefully researched the story he is about to present
and that it is, by implication, reliable.
Sir William Ramsey, the nineteenth-century archaeologist, set out to
demonstrate that Luke and the rest of the New Testament writers had made many
historical errors. He discovered
something quite unexpected; the New Testament writers were good historians. He said of Luke, “Luke’s history is
unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness,” and “Luke is a historian of the
first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy...this author
should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.”[1]
We
can be grateful that Luke took such pains to give the unknown Theophilus such a
reliable account of Jesus’ life and work.
We should be grateful for a couple reasons. First, it reminds us that the first people to
hear the gospel had questions; they weren’t credulous people who accepted
whatever a passing huckster told them.
Years ago said to me, “You’d make a good preacher; you can get people to
believe anything.” Even in high school,
I was sure that really wasn’t a good thing.
And, second, Luke reminds us that it’s okay to ask questions, to seek
confirmation for our claims about Jesus.
Luke is inviting us on that quest.
So,
his preface finished, Luke begins his remarkable account.
5. In the days of King Herod of Judaea there
lived a priest called Zechariah who belonged to the Abijah section of the priesthood,
and he had a wife, Elizabeth by name, who was a descendant of Aaron.
Luke
introduces us to Zechariah, one of hundreds of priests. He was married to Elizabeth who was a
descendant of Aaron, the first high priest.
This heritage would have been seen as a great honor by the people of
Israel.
6. Both were upright in the sight of God and
impeccably carried out all the commandments and observances of the Lord.
Because of the prominent place played
by the priests in opposing Jesus it is easy to believe that all were hypocrites
and only going through the motions of the rituals and ceremonies. Zechariah and Elizabeth were different. Their spirituality was genuine and sincere. Outwardly and inwardly their lives expressed
their commitment to God.
7. But they were childless: Elizabeth was
barren and they were both advanced in years.
While being childless is still
considered an unusual situation in our culture, it is not considered a
curse. It was in the ancient world; some would have even suggested that their
situation revealed that their reputation for piety and holiness was a
sham. In some cases a priest could be
excommunicated for childlessness.
Added to the problem was their
age; they were advanced in years,
rapidly approaching the time when pregnancy would be unlikely. Indeed, that
time may have already come. The God’s
Word translation puts it bluntly, “Both of them were too old to have
children.” Adam Clarke comments,
“sterility and old age both met in the person of Elisabeth, to render the birth
of a son (humanly speaking) impossible.”
People in the ancient world were not totally unfamiliar with biology.
8. Now it happened that it was the turn of his
section to serve, and he was exercising his priestly office before God 9.
when it fell to him by lot, as the priestly custom was, to enter the
Lord's sanctuary and burn incense there.
There were so many priests, it wasn’t
necessary for all of them to be on duty in Jerusalem at once. They were assigned to sections and these
sections were assigned to serve during particular times.
According to Barclay, one of the
greatest honors for a priest was to be able to preside over the burning of the
incense. This rite symbolically sent
the daily sacrifices to heaven surrounded by the people’s prayers.
10. And at the hour of incense all the people
were outside, praying.
During this special time of prayer did
Zechariah pray about his wife’s childlessness?
11. Then there appeared to him the angel of
the Lord, standing on the right of the altar of incense.
The temple was usually bustling with
people who came to pray or offer sacrifices.
The “Lord’s sanctuary” was one place where Zechariah could be
alone. But he wasn’t alone for long.
Angels were seen primarily as
messengers from God—one theologian calls them “God’s secret agents.” Angels play an important role in Luke’s
Gospel and this is just the first time we see an angel at work.
12. The sight disturbed Zechariah and he was
overcome with fear.
Angels could be frightening. In almost every instance, the angel appearing
to someone had to tell them not to be afraid.
13. But the angel said to him,
"Zechariah, do not be afraid, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife
Elizabeth is to bear you a son and you shall name him John.
14. He will be your joy and delight and many
will rejoice at his birth,
15. for he will be great in the sight of the
Lord; he must drink no wine, no strong drink; even from his mother's womb he
will be filled with the Holy Spirit,
16. and he will bring back many of the
Israelites to the Lord their God.
17. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he
will go before him to reconcile fathers to their children and the disobedient
to the good sense of the upright, preparing for the Lord a people
fit
for him."
The angel’s message was direct, they
would have a son. That son would be a
blessing to them, beyond question, but he would also be a blessing to the
larger world.
That son would be an answer to
prayer. If Zechariah was still praying
that prayer, his faith must have been stronger than his response to the angel
suggests. Of course, the angel could
have been referring to a prayer he had prayed long ago, one he hadn’t uttered
in a long time. In any case, the angel’s
words were unexpected.
18. Zechariah said to the angel, "How can
I know this? I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years."
What may seem a natural question to us
was, in fact, a reflection of doubt.
That he might doubt it if a mere man or woman had brought the promise we
could understand, but this came from an emissary from heaven.
19. The angel replied, "I am Gabriel, who
stand in God's presence, and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you
this good news.
20. Look! Since you did not believe my words,
which will come true at their appointed time, you will be silenced and have no
power of speech until this has happened."
The
silence was not simply a chastisement; it was a sign of the angel’s power.
21. Meanwhile the people were waiting for
Zechariah and were surprised that he stayed in the sanctuary so long.
22. When he came out he could not speak to
them, and they realised that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. But he
could only make signs to them and remained dumb.
The people were concerned about
Zechariah, wondering why he was taking so long.
When he did emerge the let them know something of what happened, but
perhaps not all.
23. When his time of service came to an end he
returned home.
It
appears Elizabeth was not with him.
********************
Zechariah, the central character in this
scene, was a priest. He belonged to the section of Abijah. Every direct
descendant of Aaron was automatically a priest, unless he had some physical
abnormality or moral defect. That meant that for all ordinary purposes there
were far too many priests. They were therefore divided into twenty-four
sections. Only at the Passover, at Pentecost and at the Feast of Tabernacles
did all the priests serve. For the rest of the year each course served two
periods of one week each. Priests who loved their work looked forward to that
week of service above all things; it was the highlight of their lives.
A priest might marry only a woman of
absolutely pure Jewish lineage. It was especially meritorious to marry a woman
who was also a descendant of Aaron, as was Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah.
Keep
this in mind. Please don’t think of this
as a spoiler. The child who would be
born to this couple who had such a link to the priestly line would announce the
coming of the One whose life and work would bring an end to the need for the
priestly system. And what a system it
was.
There was as many as twenty thousand priests
altogether and so there was just short of a thousand priests in each section.
Within the sections all the duties were allocated by lot. Every morning and
evening sacrifice was made for the whole nation. A burnt offering of a male
lamb, one year old, without spot or blemish was offered, together with a meat
offering of flour and oil and a drink offering of wine. Before the morning
sacrifice and after the evening sacrifice incense was burned on the altar of
incense so that, as it were, the sacrifices might go up to God wrapped in an
envelope of sweet-smelling incense. It was quite possible that many a priest
would never have the privilege of burning incense all his life; but if the lot
did fall on any priest that day was the greatest day in all his life, the day
he longed for and dreamed of. On this day the lot fell on Zechariah and he
would be thrilled to the core of his being.
But in Zechariah's life there was tragedy. He
and Elizabeth were childless. The Jewish Rabbis said that seven people were
excommunicated from God and the list began, "A Jew who has no wife, or a
Jew who has a wife and who has no child." Childlessness was a valid ground
for divorce. Not unnaturally Zechariah, even on his great day, was thinking of
his personal and domestic tragedy and was praying about it. Then the wondrous
vision came and the glad message that, even when hope was dead, a son would be
born to him.
The incense was burned and the offering made
in the inmost court of the Temple, the Court of the Priests. While the
sacrifice was being made, the congregation thronged the next court, the Court
of the Israelites. It was the privilege of the priest at the evening sacrifice
to come to the rail between the two courts after the incense had been burned in
order to bless the people. The people marveled that Zechariah was so long
delayed. When he came he could not speak and the people knew that he had seen a
vision. So in a wordless daze of joy Zechariah finished his week's duty and
went home; and then the message of God came true and Elizabeth knew she was
going to have a child.
One thing stands out here. It was in God's
house that God's message came to Zechariah. We may often wish that a message
from God would come to us. In Shaw's play, Saint Joan, Joan hears voices from
God. The king is annoyed. "Oh, your voices, your voices," he said,
"Why don't the voices come to me? I am king not you." "They do
come to you," said Joan, "but you do not hear them. You have not sat
in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you
cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart, and
listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you
would hear the voices as well as I do." Joan gave herself the chance to
hear God's voice. Zechariah was in the Temple waiting on God. God's voice comes
to those who listen for it--as Zechariah did--in God's house.
The
next few months were filled with anticipation and strange news. Elizabeth secluded herself for some five
months. Perhaps she didn’t want to
announce her pregnancy until it was clear to everyone she was going to have a
child.
Then,
just as Elizabeth came out of seclusion, her young relative Mary came to see
her. She, too, had had an angelic
visitation and she, too, was pregnant.
But Mary was a virgin. In
Elizabeth’s case, God had revived the natural processes so she could conceive;
in Mary’s case, God had overruled them.
Mary’s
own family and friends might been reluctant to believe she was with child
without having been with a man, but Elizabeth was a little more open to the
notion of miraculous pregnancies. The
older woman and the younger woman shared their fears and their sense of wonder
at what was happening to them. Each
realized that God was doing something remarkable in their lives.
Their
story highlights something else about Luke’s Gospel. He pays special attention to women as objects
of God’s interest. He would portray
Jesus as treating women with a respect that was unprecedented in that day.
Of
course, the time came for Elizabeth to give birth.
When
it was time for Elizabeth’s baby to be born, she gave birth to a son.
And when her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had been very merciful to her, everyone rejoiced with her.
When the baby was eight days old, they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They wanted to name him Zechariah, after his father.
But Elizabeth said, “No! His name is John!”
“What?” they exclaimed. “There is no one in all your family by that name.”
So they used gestures to ask the baby’s father what he wanted to name him.
He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.”
Instantly Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God.
Awe fell upon the whole neighborhood, and the news of what had happened spread throughout the Judean hills.
Everyone who heard about it reflected on these events and asked, “What will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was surely upon him in a special way.
And when her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had been very merciful to her, everyone rejoiced with her.
When the baby was eight days old, they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They wanted to name him Zechariah, after his father.
But Elizabeth said, “No! His name is John!”
“What?” they exclaimed. “There is no one in all your family by that name.”
So they used gestures to ask the baby’s father what he wanted to name him.
He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.”
Instantly Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God.
Awe fell upon the whole neighborhood, and the news of what had happened spread throughout the Judean hills.
Everyone who heard about it reflected on these events and asked, “What will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was surely upon him in a special way.
Zechariah
seems to have shared his story with Elizabeth but few others. So their friends were surprised when his
mother announced her boy would be named John.
But in an act of obedient faith, Zechariah insisted he would be called
John.
The
story spread of how the mute priest had suddenly found his voice and the barren
woman had given birth. Within a few
months the story of another birth would be told in those hills.
“John”
comes from a Hebrew name that means “Yahweh has been gracious.” Unquestionably the Lord had been gracious to
this childless couple. But Elizabeth had
certainly told hers husband of Mary’s visit and Zechariah realized the Lord’s
grace would extend far beyond his little home.
So, he sang:
Let us praise the Lord, the God of
Israel! He has come to the help of his people and has set them free.
He has provided for us a mighty Savior, a descendant of his servant David.
He promised through his holy prophets long ago
that he would save us from our enemies, from the power of all those who hate us.
He said he would show mercy to our ancestors and remember his sacred covenant.
With a solemn oath to our ancestor Abraham he promised to rescue us from our enemies and allow us to serve him without fear,
so that we might be holy and righteous before him all the days of our life.
“You, my son, will be called a prophet of the Most High God. You will go ahead of the Lord to prepare his road for him,
to tell his people that they will be saved by having their sins forgiven.
Our God is merciful and tender. He will cause the bright dawn of salvation to rise on us
and to shine from heaven on all those who live in the dark shadow of death, to guide our steps into the path of peace.”[2]
He has provided for us a mighty Savior, a descendant of his servant David.
He promised through his holy prophets long ago
that he would save us from our enemies, from the power of all those who hate us.
He said he would show mercy to our ancestors and remember his sacred covenant.
With a solemn oath to our ancestor Abraham he promised to rescue us from our enemies and allow us to serve him without fear,
so that we might be holy and righteous before him all the days of our life.
“You, my son, will be called a prophet of the Most High God. You will go ahead of the Lord to prepare his road for him,
to tell his people that they will be saved by having their sins forgiven.
Our God is merciful and tender. He will cause the bright dawn of salvation to rise on us
and to shine from heaven on all those who live in the dark shadow of death, to guide our steps into the path of peace.”[2]
In
the few months between the birth of John and the birth of Jesus most people
probably forgot all about the excitement at Zechariah and Elizabeth’s
house. They gossiped about other
things. And no doubt complained about
the taxes Caesar was demanding.
Few
would have believed what God was up to.
Some may have even wondered if God was up to anything at all.
The
birth of John and the birth of Jesus have a lot to teach us. Among those many lessons is one we who have
given up hope need to especially cherish:
God often acts when we least expect it.
Just ask that once childless couple and that virgin mother.
[1]
McDowell, J. (1997). Josh McDowell’s
handbook on apologetics (electronic ed.). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
