I believe Luke includes this story because it is the good news Israel has been waiting for: God is listening! Your waiting has not been in vain! God is at work to answer your greatest yearning!
Luke 1:5-25
December 8, 2024
Dr. Todd R. Wright
There is a lot of waiting going on in our passage. Perhaps you noticed it.
Zechariah and Elizabeth are childless despite years of trying and praying … and waiting.
Scholars estimate he was one of 20,000 priests in Israel. He has been waiting all his life to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.
While spending a week just outside the Holy of Holies, he sees an angel. Luke says Zechariah is paralyzed with fear as he waits to hear what the angel will say.
The angel Gabriel tells him his prayer has been heard: they will have a son who will prepare people for the Lord. Zechariah can’t believe it! Gabriel says, “Just wait (silently) and you will see every word fulfilled, in God’s time!”
The Temple-goers waiting for Zechariah to bless them get restless. When he finally emerges, he could not speak, and it took a while for him to explain using gestures. (What’s the sign for angel?)
He had to finish his term of service in Jerusalem with the good news burning a hole in his heart before he could rush to Elizabeth who was waiting for him a days walk away in Ein Karem.
It was a short wait until she conceived, but like everybody else they will have to wait the full 9 months to give birth … and a live birth was not guaranteed at her age. Still, Luke tells us that Elizabeth takes satisfaction that her many years of disgrace are over. It has been a long wait!
That’s a lot of waiting! We can empathize since we are experienced with waiting.
We wait for the next bank teller, or in line at the grocery store.
We wait in line to pick up the kids at school, or in the slowed traffic around the school.
We wait for a coal train to pass, or for the water from the faucet to heat up.
We wait for the coffee maker, or for the toast to pop.
We wait for a call from a friend, or results from our doctor.
We wait for another semester to end; or for the holidays to finally arrive.
We wait for the next episode to drop, or for the best seller to become available at the library.
But most of our waiting is of a different type from the story Luke tells.
I found myself waiting for a bus the other day. I’m used to flying and waiting for either the grim news that my flight has been delayed or the joyful news that group 9 is now able to board! I’m used to taking the Metro into DC with the strip of lights next to the tracks that flash when a train is arriving. But I’m not used to buses. I walked to school. If you ride them regularly, you know where to catch them, when to expect them, and which one to take to get where you want to go. I had only the vaguest idea of those things, which made the waiting hard. Still, I knew a bus, my bus, the right bus, was coming.
Most of our waiting is like that. It is simply a matter of patience.
Luke is telling us a story of a different kind of waiting.
Zechariah could hope that he might get picked to serve, but the odds were against him
– something like a one in six hundred chance.
He and Elizabeth could hope to have a child, but their prospects decreased every year.
Israel could hope that they would be freed from Roman occupation, but it didn’t look likely.
How do you keep hoping, keep believing, keep waiting, when it’s not just patience but belief?
For years the assumption has been that Zechariah and Elizabeth were the kind of plucky, optimistic, blindly trusting sort of people that never doubted that their prayers would be answered.
You know people like that. Not many, but some. They never seem to doubt that all will turn out right, that God is listening and already at work, that the bus is coming!
A J Sherrill wonders about Zechariah. He is willing to entertain the possibility that Zechariah is not that kind of person; that he is, in fact, like most of us.
He writes, “So, if Zechariah and Elizabeth were blameless, why were they barren? Barrenness was perceived as a sign of God’s displeasure. [Were they hiding something?] The whispering gossip in the village must have been deafening for them. Did their bareness cause others to question his integrity for performing the priestly duties. Questions like these can torment a soul.”[i]
Sherrill imagines barrenness devolving into bitterness so that the smoke of the offering incense serves as a mocking reminder that his prayers were going nowhere or that he was serving a God who simply didn’t care about their pain.
Sherrill invites us to “think about all the disappointment, shame, and confusion Zechariah carried into the Holy Place.”
What is it like to wait for something that you have given up expecting?
As I waited for that bus, my bus, the right bus, three Fairfax Flyers came to the stop. I asked each one, “Are you headed toward the Vienna Metro station?” None of them were. At some point I would have been a fool to keep waiting. Did Zechariah feel that way?
Sherrill writes, “Maybe that’s the place you find yourself at right now. Disappointment is hard, particularly when we feel we’ve done all the right things. We’ve gone to church, prayed, read the Bible, and given of our time and money ... [Nothing!] Our sorrows lead to [blaming.] Sometimes we blame God, sometimes we blame others, sometimes we blame ourselves. It’s a punishing cycle. And the blame takes its toll.”
That’s where Zechariah finds himself ... and then the angel appeared!
Can you imagine how that must have felt – to have a messenger from God meet you face to face and say your prayers have been heard? And better, that God has said YES! Thrilling, right?
This is the good news Zechariah and Elizabeth have been waiting for – an end to doubt!
I believe Luke includes this story because it is the good news Israel has been waiting for: God is listening! Your waiting has not been in vain! God is at work to answer your greatest yearning!
That is a message of hope that resonates for generations of waiting people, people like us.
There is one more element to the story I want to explore: Zechariah’s season of silence.
Is this a punishment for his doubt? That’s usually how it is presented.
But what if Gabriel strikes him mute as a gift.
One scholar writes, “God is seldom discovered in the noise. [No, God] is discovered in the quiet.”[ii] So nine months of silence gives Zechariah time to improve his ability to discover God.
Ironically Advent does not tend to be a quiet time. We tune our radios to play Christmas music 24/7. We fill our schedules with extra parties and plays. We rush about. There is no time for our souls to find peace. No time to discover God!
As a gift, Luke points us to Zechariah. Look at what 9 months of silence did for him. When he finally gets his voice back, he breaks into song! He has reflected on the long history of God’s faithfulness and has praise stored up! Silence has been a path to wonder and stillness has led to awe!
So I offer you a taste of silence – one minute to sit with this story, to lift a prayer, or perhaps to wait on a whisper of good news from God – it is a gift that’ll make you hunger for more
[i] Here and following, from Rediscovering Christmas, pages 44, 49, and 50
[ii] Ibid, page 53
Comments