Two Redemption Witnesses
Two Redemption Witnesses, from Everyday Bible Study on Luke, with questions by Becky Castle Miller.
Luke 1:5-25
1:5 When Herod was king of Judea, there was a Jewish priest named Zechariah. He was a member of the priestly order of Abijah, and his wife, Elizabeth, was also from the priestly line of Aaron. 6 Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations. 7 They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old.
8 One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week. 9 As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. 10 While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.
11 While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. 12 Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. 13 But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. 14 You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. 16 And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. 17 He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.
18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”
19 Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news! 20 But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.”
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah to come out of the sanctuary, wondering why he was taking so long. 22 When he finally did come out, he couldn’t speak to them. Then they realized from his gestures and his silence that he must have seen a vision in the sanctuary.
23 When Zechariah’s week of service in the Temple was over, he returned home. 24 Soon afterward his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months. 25 “How kind the Lord is!” she exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children.”
Stories of our families shape families so much one can say the family is a story.
Behind Jesus was his mother Mary. Behind Jesus was also a witness we call John the Baptist. Behind that witness were John’s parents, Zechariah the priest and Elizabeth his wife. The events described in this passage – Zechariah’s time to serve in the temple, the appearing of an angel – and they are not cute little pudgy cherubs – to him about the pregnancy of his “very old” (1:7) wife, the nature of the son she would give birth to, the seemingly innocent but evidently doubt-expressing question Zechariah asked, his divine silencing, and the words of gratitude for her pregnancy by Elizabeth – must have been told as a threaded story around the table in their home. That story shaped John, shaped Mary, shaped Jesus, and have now shaped how Christians tell the story of God’s redemption in the Lord Jesus.
Events, not just words, can rhyme. To listen to the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and then to listen to the stories of Jesus and Mary is to hear their rhyming.
A temple story
The inner temple formed the center of the temple, which formed the center of Jerusalem, which formed the center of Israel. In the very center of Israel’s holiest place a fresh redemption for Israel begins. Criticism of the temple is not to be found in this text. In fact, the sanctity of the temple is contrasted with the faith failure of a priest. Jesus will be dedicated in the temple; the elderly Anna and Simeon will declare the identity of Jesus in the temple area; and Jesus will return to the temple at twelve. All these are found in chapters one and two of Luke.
The time is set: Herod (the Great) is king. The location and the family are holy: Zechariah is a priest, which means in the line of Aaron, in the specific family of Abijah (see 1 Chronicles 24:1-20), and his wife is in the family of Aaron, too. They married inside the order. They were “righteous,” which means they knew the Torah and observed it faithfully. It does not mean they were sinless (1:6). They were childless and now beyond the age of giving birth (1:7). One hears echoes in this story about Elizabeth with other childless women: Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15), Rebekah (25:21), Rachel (30:22-24), and Hannah (1 Samuel 1).
A priest worked in the temple two weeks a year, but this year was different. As the lot fell to Zechariah to burn incense in the temple “all the assembled worshipers were praying outside” in the temple courts (1:9-10). Such a luck of the lot was a lifetime experience itself, but he got more than that: he encounters “an angel of the Lord” and responds as most would – it scared him in an overwhelming sense. Angels appear in the Bible especially at history-altering moments, and often enough people respond in fear (1:29; 24:38). Angels in the Bible are powerful spiritual beings that evoke fear – not charm.
God sends this angel to Zechariah to reveal a miracle baby who has a special redemptive mission (1:11-17). What is revealed? (1) His prayer for a baby has been heard; (2) the baby will be a son he is to name “John” (Yohanan in Hebrew); (3) he will be a “joy and delight to you” and to “many”’; (4) he will be “great in the sight of the Lord,” which indicates the significance of God’s vocation for John; (5) he will abstain from alcohol (cf. Leviticus 10:9; Numbers 6:3) and, even before his birth, (6) “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.” The angel’s not done: he will (7) lead many to convert back to the Lord (cf. Malachi 3:1), (8) he will carry on in this conversion mission in a way that reminds of Elijah, and the angel sums this up as a twofold conversion: turning parents to their children and the disobedient “to the wisdom of the righteous” (cf. Malachi 4:5-6). All this suggests a people wandering from God in need to turning back to God, and the angel sums it all up with (9) “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Very few parents get such a complete job description for their son, but one has to wonder how many would respond as Zechariah did.
A trust story
That revelation of John’s mission provokes Zechariah to ask for proof, which drops him into a story about trust. And perhaps too into a lack of concern for the body that mattered most here: Elizabeth’s! No sooner had the words spilled from his lips than the angel identifies himself as Gabriel (most angels were males in the Jewish tradition), and then reveals the good news about the birth of a son, and then all of a sudden moves from nice guy to tough guy: “you will be silent,” Gabriel tells him. Why? Because Zechariah “did not believe” (1:19-20).
This all seems a bit harsh but there is a family history at work in a moment like this. God had often challenged Israel’s leaders to trust (think of Abraham, think of Sarah). But, an angel appearing in the inner court of the temple, an angel speaking to Zechariah, and an angel informing him about a miracle baby should have been enough for the priest to take a big gulp of air and say, “OK, Lord, you know what you’re doing.”
Trusting someone requires a history of trustworthiness of the person making a claim, in this case an angel; it requires listening to the words that are promised or uttered; it entails believing their truthfulness; and it finds completion only in acting upon those words as reliable. In acting one learns the transforming power of trusting. Faith entails risk if the words are not true.
A miracle story
Zechariah returns to his home in the hill country of Judea (cf. 1:39), Elizabeth conceived and “remained in seclusion” for almost half a year (1:23-24). We don’t know why this occurred, but it does mean her first interaction is with Mary, whose story begins in our next passage. Elizabeth’s trusting witness contrasts with her husband’s, who doubted. God has shown her “favor,” she confesses, and has “taken away” the commonly “disgrace” of childlessness (1:25). The miracle here is a menopausal woman conceives by the power of God.
What does McKnight mean when he says stories can rhyme?
How does Zechariah’s response compare with Elizabeth’s?
Why is Zechariah disciplined for not trusting but Mary is not (cf. 1:29, 34)?
What stands out to you most about the miraculous plan for John’s life?
What stories does your family tell about itself?
Thank you