Luke 1:67-79 Zechariah Speaks

 

Zechariah has been silent for more than 9 months now, unable to speak a single word because he doubted the angel’s announcement that he and his wife Elizabeth, both well past the age of having babies, are going to have a baby boy. Now honestly, if God would have come in a dream or vision, I could understand doubting what I heard, but Zechariah was in the Holy of Holies in the temple, the place where you would expect to meet God, so why doubt then when God does show up? Zechariah has grown up on the stories of Abraham and Sarah, and other special births, and still doubts. It makes me wonder how many of us doubt that God can still do amazing things through us, even though we’ve also grown up on the stories of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Is this why we have a hard time talking about our faith with others and inviting them to follow Jesus with us? Something to think about. God’s not far away, he’s active, even now, why do we doubt God can build his kingdom through us, through our sharing Jesus with others. Have we such little faith in the moving of the Holy Spirit?

It’s not until after Zechariah’s son’s birth that Zechariah gets his voice back. It’s circumcision day, and also the day that the parents reveal the baby’s name. Everyone’s waiting to hear the name, who are the parents going to name the baby after, one of the fathers, a hero from the past, maybe a favourite uncle. The time comes, and since Zechariah can’t speak, Elizabeth makes the grand announcement, “He is to be called John.” The family is thinking, “Huh? John, where did that come from?” All eyes turn to Zechariah, so he writes on a tablet, “His name is John.” Because Zechariah has had 9 months to learn to trust in God and what God can do, Zechariah’s voice returns and the first thing he does in praise God! The church has named Zechariah’s prophecy the Benedictus, which is Latin for benediction or blessed. It’s a prayer that many monks now pray every morning to begin their day. It comes from St Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible called the Vulgate who translated the first line of Zechariah’s prophecy, “Benedictus esto Dominus Deus Israelis,” which in English is, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel.”

I would have been bursting to talk about my new son, but Zechariah is so God centered that the first words he speaks come from the Holy Spirit and are a prophecy that begins with a blessing to God! Now we think of prophecy as pointing to the future, but most prophecy is what we call “forthcoming,” which means the words being spoken are all about what God is doing right now. They are meant to help us see God at work around us and in us.

From the blessing, Zechariah goes straight into telling everyone that, “God has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David.” Did you hear that? God has come, not God is coming! The word come in Greek is the word used to describe a doctor coming to visit a patient; God has come to bring healing! God has come as a child in Mary’s womb, come to experience the brokenness and hurt of the world in order to bring healing and hope. God is redeeming his people already by becoming human in Mary. Jesus has come to save his people, he’s come as the horn of salvation, an image of power and strength. Just as Jesus is a human baby still being formed in Mary’s womb, he also the Son of God. Revelation 5 shows Jesus as a slain lamb with 7 horns and 7 eyes, a powerful image of strength that sees everything that’s happening on earth. Revelation 19 pictures Jesus as a warrior on a white horse riding out to do battle against Satan and the beast that brings destruction.

Zechariah picks up on the horn mentioned in Psalm 132, “Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one.” Jesus is coming as the descendant of the warrior King David to save his people from their enemies and the hand of all who hate them. As I hear Zechariah’s prophecy talking about the “hand of all who hate us,” I look around and see how much hatred there is in the world today towards the Jews. Anti-Semitism is alive and well and found all over, even in our own province. Historically, even the church has, at times, hated and persecuted the Jewish people.

All the people at Zechariah’s house would have heard him as referring to the Romans, but Jesus has come to fight much more powerful and deadly enemies: Satan and death. The battle is on for the salvation of God’s people. Not long after Jesus’ birth, Satan works through Herod to kill Jesus by murdering all the children under two years old in Bethlehem. Satan directly challenges Jesus in the wilderness at the start of Jesus’ ministry, tempting Jesus to do things the easy way rather than God’s way. Jesus puts on the armour of God, as described in Ephesians, and counters Satan’s temptations with the sword of the word of God. Jesus knows he’s in a battle and at state are the souls of all God’s people.

We’re part of the same battle Jesus fights against Satan. This is something we need to keep front and center in our ministry: that as Bethel Church, we follow Jesus, love others, serve our community in order to express the love of Jesus, and share our faith so the Holy Spirit can use us to save souls by leading others to Jesus. God fulfills his promises to send a Messiah who will crush the head of the serpent and save God’s people. God remembers his holy covenant to Abraham to rescues us from the hands of our enemies. Jesus enters this battle is so that we can serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness all our days. We serve God by engaging in the good works he has prepared for us to do, by working for justice and a healthy community, working to build people up and help them be whom God has created them to be and come to know Jesus.

Zechariah now turns to the role his son John is going to play for Jesus, “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.” John is the advance troops for Jesus’ coming, getting everything ready so that when Jesus comes with the message that the kingdom of heaven is near, the people are ready to receive his message and accept his invitation to follow him and find freedom and salvation rather than follow Herod or Caesar or the temple leadership who found salvation in rule following rather than in faith in God.

But what a kingdom Jesus is bringing in; a kingdom where salvation and freedom is found through forgiveness of our sins rather than with swords and battle axes. Our enemies are not governments or our culture, but the things and people that draw us into sin, including our own hearts. John the Baptist’s message is going to be a call to repentance and a return to God as the way to prepare for Jesus’ coming. John points to the kingdom of heaven as a heart kingdom where loyalty is to God over everything else, including our own wants and desires; a kingdom where we are servants of God who serve rather than to be served and obey Jesus’ call in Matthew 5 to “be perfect as God is perfect.” We are called to be holy as God is holy, meaning that we are set apart for God’s use.

As Melissa Overmyer writes, “Holiness is possible: God, by his mercy and grace, has made it possible for each of us to be holy. He actually promised it to us. This is the good news that we are to proclaim. May we follow the example of John and take to heart the words Zachariah spoke about him: “Go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.” When we share this good news, “the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace." 

Jesus enters into the world take on Satan and death and redeem us and save us and bring peace. Jesus is more than a gentle shepherd; he’s more like the warrior King David who fought lions and bears to protect his sheep, who fought giants to protect his people, who pays the ultimate price of being separated from God on the cross for us so that we never have to be separated from God our father. Like light brings hope into the darkness, so Jesus, in defeating Satan and death on the cross shines hope into our hearts and calls us to shine his hope into the world through his resurrection!

These are words of hope that we bring to those living in the darkness of fear, anxiety, guilt, shame and doubt, that Jesus has come for us to shine his light into our darkness, to lift us up and bring us strength and peace. We are called to let Jesus’ light shine through us into the world, into people who are seeking hope and a way through life where they can find healing and flourish into the people God has created them to be.