Advent with Luke #3
Before scurrying ahead to the stories of Mary and the angel, the manger and the shepherds, let’s be attentive to what matters to Luke, that great literary artist and wise theologian. For him, you can’t get to Jesus without first walking a while with Elizabeth and Zechariah and their son John.
Let’s admit that John the Baptist isn’t the kind of guy you want hanging around at Christmas: hairy, hollering, like a survivalist in the wild, bellowing “Repent!” John shows up in no manger scenes; John is on no Christmas cards (prompting a friend, who heard me say this in a sermon, to create the world’s first John the Baptist Christmas card!).
Luke’s story is high drama, poignant, and moving. Look it up in a Bible or online and read: Luke 1:5-25 and also Luke 1:57-66. It was “in the days of King Herod,” so shiver, feel the Judeans loathing their government, and read on about a priest, Zechariah, married to Elizabeth. Righteous folks, but childless, and “getting on in years.” Hint, hint: Luke hopes your mind will drift back to Abraham and Sarah, surprised by a very late in life, miraculous birth! Is God up to something again?
Zechariah, chosen by lot (so, by chance? Or is God orchestrating things?) to offer incense in the temple. Alone in that sacred space, Zechariah sees an angel. He’s terrified: for Bible people, angels weren’t sweet, protective young women with wings, but intimidating male warriors. Sympathetic to his terror, the angel says “Be not afraid” – reminding us of Elie Wiesel’s brilliant remark: “If an angel ever says Be not afraid, watch out: a big assignment is on the way.”
The message is that his way-past-her-prime Elizabeth will bear a son whom, the angel insists, will be named John. He’ll be important, dedicated in all his habits to God and placed on earth to prepare people for the coming of the Lord.
Zechariah is speechless. Literally. He is struck dumb and cannot speak at all. Exiting the temple, he could only gesture to friends and family. Elizabeth did conceive, and in time bore a healthy son, who survived the horrors of childbirth, as did she.
A quirky twist in the drama: the family gathers for the baby’s circumcision and naming. They feel sure he’ll be “Zechariah” (Jr.!). But Elizabeth startles them by calling him John. An oddity, a name never used in that family. They then go to Zechariah, motioning to him (so, aha! – he’s not just mute but also deaf! – and so he’d not heard her say “John”) what he’d name his son. On a tablet he wrote “John.” They all freaked out a bit over this: a sign from God – and there had not been any signs for a very long time.
Two thoughts. Elizabeth and Zechariah had wanted a child forever. But this child isn’t just for them. “Many will rejoice at his birth… He will turn many to the Lord.” This child is for God. What if we thought of our children, not as blessings for us, or as people to go out and consume what the world has to offer, but as “for God”?
Also, Luke does us a great favor by lingering over the birth of John. God takes God’s time with us. We’re made in a way that we are blessed, not by instant gratification of even our spiritual desires, but that we wait, we prepare, we dust out our souls, we plow the ground and go out on a journey seeking God – so then, when it comes, we’re ready, hungrier, and the joy expands all the more.
And how great is Jesus? What unfolds with Elizabeth, Zechariah and John is flat out amazing! But with Mary, Joseph and Jesus? Way more astonishing. Not an unlikely pregnancy, but an impossible one. Not a miracle baby, but God in the flesh. Grownup John always said “One greater than I is coming.”