The Predecessor From God

Historian David Barton has an interesting discussion in an article entitled “Christmas—as Celebrated by the Presidents.” Barton writes,

Even though Christmas did not become a national holiday until 1870, it has a centuries old history in America. Interestingly, in colonial America, the southern regions that were more directly linked to High-Church traditions (e.g., Anglicans, Catholics, Episcopalians) celebrated Christmas; but the northern regions especially linked to Low-Church traditions (e.g., Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers) did not. Those Low-Church colonists associated the pomp and grandeur of Christmas celebrations directly with the autocratic leaders and monarchs in Europe that they so opposed. Massachusetts therefore passed an anti-Christmas law in 1659, and it was not until the 1830s and 1840s that Christmas celebrations became accepted in New England (although as late as 1870, a student missing school on Christmas Day in Boston public schools could be punished or expelled). But by the 1880s, Christmas celebrations were finally accepted across the country and began to appear at the White House. For example: in 1889, the first indoor decorated tree was placed in the White House, and in 1895, electric lights were added. In 1923, the first National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony was held. . . . In 1953, the first White House Christmas card was created by President Dwight Eisenhower. . . . Christmas was celebrated by our national leaders as a religious holiday, not the secular holiday it has become. For example, every Christmas Eve, President Teddy Roosevelt and his family would pile into the family sleigh (later the motor car) and travel to a Christmas service at Christ Church in Oyster Bay, New York. Following the pastor’s sermon, Teddy would deliver one of his famous “sermonettes” on the true meaning of Christmas and then close the service with one of his favorite hymns, “Christmas By the Sea.” President Franklin Roosevelt would set up and decorate a tree on Christmas Eve, gather the family round him, and either read Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” or recite it from memory.

Barton’s article comes against the backdrop of many in America pushing back against Christmas. But as Barton’s article suggests, we can find encouragement in the fact that our predecessors were not shy about celebrating Christmas. In our Gospel text this morning we consider an important predecessor of Jesus. We’ll entitle the sermon The Predecessor from God.

Luke introduces Jesus’ predecessor John the Baptist in our text by addressing him as the son of Zechariah. In order to understand who John is, we first have to look at who his father Zechariah is. For this we have to go back to the beginning of Luke’s Gospel. The first account in Luke’s Gospel is that of Zechariah in the temple in Jerusalem. It’s as if Luke’s Gospel is picking up right where the Old Testament left off. As the Old Testament concluded there were priests serving in the modest rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. They were awaiting the coming of the long-awaited Messiah, and the prophesies that accompanied their service indicated that his coming was getting near. So it is that at the beginning of Luke Zechariah steps right into this story. But there’s more to the story now for Zechariah than there was for those living at the end of Old Testament times. Many of you probably remember well that I believe that the Gospel of Luke has three main parts. The first part is centered in Galilee, the second part contains a journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, and the third part is holy week in Jerusalem. If this is the case, why does Luke begin his Gospel right in the heart of Jerusalem at the temple? Why doesn’t he begin way up north in Galilee? The answer to this question is that The Predecessor from God. Although Zechariah is in Jerusalem, the greater reality is that Luke places Jerusalem on a Roman map. Thus Luke introduces Zechariah by saying “In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah.” Herod was a Roman King approved by Augustus Caesar himself. Zechariah steps into a large and cosmopolitan Roman world. Here there are multitudes of people, people all created by God. Zechariah is in the presence of God is in fact the chief point of this account. Zechariah is offering incense on the altar of incense just outside of the inner room of the temple; he was in the presence of God, and in fact this was the closest that he could get to the presence of God in the holy of holies. And as he is serving, the angel Gabriel is sent to speak with him from heaven. A little later in the account Gabriel identifies himself by saying, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.” And while Zechariah is in Jerusalem, the greater reality is that he is in the Roman Empire among multitudes of people, and the greatest reality is that all of these people have been created and served by God. And Luke’s Gospel associates God being the creator of all people with the term Galilee than the term Jerusalem. So John the Baptist, whose conception is brought about in connection with his father Zechariah being in the presence of God, is a man sent from God (as John’s Gospel puts it [John 1:6]); or as is more fitting for Luke, he is The Predecessor from God.