It had been just another Sabbath, so to speak, when it all began. Zechariah the priest had been doing it all his life, coming up to the temple in Jerusalem, just like his father and grandfather before him, all the way back to when Haggai and Zerubbabel had finally gotten the people to rebuild the temple five hundred years before. That’s not to say there hadn’t been ups and downs, far from it. There was the time when the Greeks had desecrated the temple and the Lord had miraculously kept the lamps burning until clean oil could be obtained, but that was almost two hundred years ago now. And of course the temple was a whole lot fancier than it used to be, since Herod had taken into his head to outdo Solomon and impress his Roman allies.
Some people had thought for a while that Herod’s building project was a signal that the prophecies were about to come true, but how could that be? Herod wasn’t even really a Jew, he was an Idumean, and everybody knew they only paid lip service at best to Jewish traditions. And besides, hadn’t they promised a just and righteous king? Jeremiah had said,
“'Behold, the days are coming,' says YHWH, 'when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: `YHWH is our righteousness.'” [23:5-6]
Some people called Herod “The Great,” but using slave labor to build palaces and so on, not to mention murdering your sons during fits of paranoia, was hardly what Zechariah thought the prophet had in mind. And besides, he really only ruled because it was convenient for Rome to let him.
So Zechariah came up to Jerusalem when it was his turn to serve, twice a year, and of course it was a tremendous privilege to be a priest of Abijah’s line, and of course it was especially meaningful this time when the lot fell on him to actually perform the sacrifice and put the incense on the altar, and of course YHWH God was real and present and holy and it was important to do everything right. But it wasn’t like he actually expected anything. I mean, after all, what could happen?
So when the angel appeared he was terrified. But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John....” Zechariah could still remember it, as clear as if it was yesterday. Sometimes he wished he hadn’t been so quick to speak; it’s not as if he didn’t know his Bible, and the stories of Sarah and Hannah. But no. He had to blurt out, “How do I know you’re telling me the truth? My wife and I are pretty old.” Because the angel, who turned out to Gabriel, took away his power to speak at all until the baby was born. To teach him not to talk back, I guess, or not to be so quick to doubt,
Zechariah had had a good nine months to think about what it all meant.
One of the things the angel had said was that their child, this unexpected and wonderful child of their old age, “would have the spirit and power of Elijah, and would turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” That was from Malachi, Zechariah knew, the last prophet God had sent before inexplicably going silent some four hundred years before. So Zechariah had been thinking about what that meant. What Malachi had said, exactly, was that God’s messenger “would turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that God would not come and strike the land with a curse.” [Mal 4:6]
Well, that particular change was sorely needed, Zechariah had no doubt about that! The younger generation was getting more rebellious and disobedient all the time, he and his friends had often remarked upon it. But after the angel rebuked him, Zechariah began to realize that their disrespect for the old ways was at least partly the fault of the elders themselves. Had they realized before he did that his faith in God was more a habit than a hope? Watching his wife Elizabeth accepting with such serenity and trust the astonishing prediction he had scribbled down for her after coming back home after his temple service made him even more acutely aware of how far away he had drifted from believing that God’s promises of redemption were ever really going to come true.
Nine months Zechariah had been given to think it over, to repent of his shallow faith, and to refresh his memory of the mighty deeds God had performed for Israel in the past. And so of course when the baby was born, he proved his re-energized faith by obeying the angel’s command to name his son John, which means “the Lord is gracious”. The neighbors were shocked. Nobody in that line had ever been named John before. What could he possibly be thinking of? Zechariah’s neighbors were, if anything, even less prepared than he had been for God to act in their midst. So, when his voice came back, Zechariah knew just what he wanted to say.
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
This hymn is called the “Benedictus,” meaning “blessed.” It is Zechariah’s announcement of the role his son John, whom we remember as The Baptizer, was to play in getting the people ready to receive the promised king, Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One. I wonder if he was still as upbeat some twenty or more years later as his son let his hair grow, went around in bare feet, and dissed the establishment priesthood. One hopes so....
Most people today are even less ready to recognize a messenger from God than Zechariah’s neighbors, aren’t they? How many people do you know who are shocked when you choose to obey God rather than going with the flow, whether popular culture, family tradition or local custom? It’s far too easy to let their doubts infect us, to push us away from what we know is right. Even those of us who believe in angels, and there are for more nowadays than there were a generation ago, don’t really expect to see one, and they certainly don’t expect angels to be scary, or ask them to do something difficult, something that might shock the neighbors.
Do we know what to say, when someone challenges us about why we’re going against the tide? Zechariah had the lesson of having his voice taken away when what came out of his mouth wasn’t what God wanted to hear from him, and he’d had nine months to figure out what he was going to say. But when you stop to think about it, we’ve had plenty of time, too, unless we too have just been doing what Zechariah had been doing: going through the motions of religion, but not really expecting God to act in power, or to ask us to act in faith.
So that’s our lesson from Zechariah’s own story, before he even opens his mouth in praise. Are we ready? Are we - are you - ready to obey? Are we - are you - ready to speak up about who God is and what he requires of us?
But we’ve got some other lessons here, too.
What does Zechariah start with? He starts by reminding his hearers of God’s actions in the past and his promises for the future. The verbs he uses imply continued action, not something done once in the past and over with. Zechariah reminds his hearers - and us - that God has visited them - us - and once again is visiting them - us. He reminds them that God not only visited them, but also redeemed - that is rescued, or saved them - and continues to redeem them. It is God's habit to visit and to redeem.
Next, Zechariah reminds them who it is who is to be the agent of redemption. It is to be someone from the house of David. Someone right from among us.
And then he reminds his hearers of what they are to be saved from: and it’s all their enemies. Wow. That’s really something, isn’t it? Not just a few, but all. And, of course, that sounds simply terrific, doesn’t it, but then Zechariah reminds them - and us - of why God is saving his people:
It’s so that they can serve him “without fear in holiness and righteousness.”
And when we hear that we start feeling a little guilty, don’t we? Or if we don’t, maybe we should. Because after all the times God has rescued his people, what have we done in return? History has shown over and over again that the minute life gets too easy people forget all about God and start building idols in their own image. At the very least we get complacent and shallow, and even pious and obedient people like Zechariah start doing the religious thing only part time, or only out of habit. It’s far too easy to forget that God has purposes far beyond our own comfort and security, and to not even notice the cues that God may be calling us into a new adventure of faith.
The third lesson we have from Zechariah’s song is that God uses people to accomplish his purposes. Zechariah’s son John would be a spokesman for God, getting the people ready for the coming of the One for whom they had been waiting, the true and righteous king, ever since David.
And guess who has inherited John’s job?
You got it. It’s us.
Now, there are some branches of Christianity, I think in particular the Seventh Day Adventists, who believe that Jesus will not return until a particular number or percentage of the world’s population has had a chance to hear the Gospel. And this may be so. If it is, the next and final coming of the king won’t even happen until God’s people get serious about being voices in the wilderness.
But whether that is true or not, what is absolutely true is that the need is just as great as it was 2,000 years ago, if not greater, to “turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous.” Because only those whose hearts are right with God and with one another will be able to look upon the face of the shining One, the bright morning star, when he comes again. The rest will run and hide. Some will hide because, as Jesus said, “the people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” [John 3:19] But others will hide because when they see the light truly, for the first time, they will also see themselves, and be ashamed.
How many of you, if told you were going to - well, I was going to say “dinner at the White House” - but I’m not all that sure it’s such a treat nowadays. Let’s back up a step. Have you ever been invited to something you didn’t have the right clothes for? Something that elicited the classic, “but I don’t have anything to wear!” complaint? Well, think of that occasion and multiply it by about a hundred. That’s the kind of clothes you need to be ready for dinner with the king. Most people’s reaction when King Jesus comes again will be something akin to that awful realization that you aren’t dressed for the occasion. You hide.
An interesting thing about the clothes you’ll need to be wearing for the King’s reception: nobody has them hanging in their closets, because they have a funny characteristic. They wear out if you don’t wear them.
The only clothing suitable for meeting this king is the garment of forgiveness, given by the king himself to all who repent, who stand up and follow his light. “...the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our way into the way of peace.”
Only when dressed in Christ’s forgiveness are we able to walk in - and toward - the light of the king.
Are you ready for the royal visit? Zechariah provides a simple checklist for us.
Do you really expect to hear from God?
Are you doing what God has called you to do?
Are you dressed and ready for the King to come?
