The first Advent of Jesus Christ had a cast of characters that – to say the least – were not what many might have expected. The story that the Gospel of Luke tells begins with an “aged Priest”, named Zechariah, who we are told is a righteous man who is married to a godly woman, named Elizabeth. As it develops, we discover they weren’t able to conceive and have children – which invited a lot of judgment on the part of the Jewish people, as if to say, “what did you do wrong that God has withheld children from you?”
Luke 1:5-7
In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named
Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of
Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the
commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because
Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
With that
as background, the scene shifts and we see Zechariah, as a Priest, “on duty”. He belongs to a division of Priests called
“Abijah”. Each division had about 1500
priest, among some 18000 estimated in total from the 24 divisions. Since Israel would have been on a Lunar
calendar, we can see that each division worked two weeks of the year in
Jerusalem at the Temple. Not only was
Zechariah on duty for this period of time, but he was specifically chosen to
carry out the duties of the daily offerings inside of the Temple’s “Holy Place”.
Luke
1:8-10
Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on
duty,
according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter
the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the
people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
Being
chosen to “enter the Temple of the Lord and burn incense” was considered to be
a high honor, and since it was “by lot”, everyone agreed that God chose the
Priest he wanted to represent the people’s prayers. It was a once-in-a-life-time honor that any
of the 1500 Priests in Zechariah’s division would have felt a privilege to
perform. Zechariah had several duties to
perform in the Temple’s Holy Place, but the last – and considered to be the
most important – was to stand in front of the curtain that led to the Holy of
Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant stood, and there a table stood with
various forms of incense. Zechariah’s
job was to light the incense, and as the smoke of the incense arose the people
outside waiting saw that their prayers, and Zechariah’s prayers were arising
toward heaven and God’s throne. It was a
sacred moment, and even more sacred for Zechariah since it was the first time,
and the last time, he would ever be given the privilege to be in that Holy
Place.
We Pray…don’t
we? We pray – hopefully as a regular part
of our daily worship of God. We pray for
ourselves, for our family, for friends and family in trouble, for sickness,
disease, hospital stays, surgeries, and even sometimes we pray with praise and
thanksgiving for good things that occurred.
We pray by faith, because nothing (usually) happens while we pray. I know that from experience that there are
very holy moments in prayer where it seems God is present – but they are not
normal experiences. In fact, one of the
problems of praying – for many – is that God is largely silent, listening, but
not answering! Occasionally someone will say, “I heard the Lord tell me”…but we
often ignore that as too far-fetched. What
we believe about prayer is more “faith” oriented – i.e., as the writer of
Hebrews speaks of faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of which is not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1).
Zechariah prayed in the Temple that evening. He prayed for the coming of
the Messiah. He prayed for the nation
under Roman occupation. He was faithful in performing his duties, but then the
unexpected happened – his prayers were interrupted.
Luke
1:11-13
And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right
side of the altar of incense.
And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer
has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call
his name John…
We pray – I’m
sure all of us do – in one manner or another.
We pray in faith, believing God listens to our prayers, but none of us
expect an Angel of God to “appear”! “Zechariah
was troubled…fear fell upon him!”. Yeah! Me too! No one expects an Angel of God to show
up. But this angel – who we find out is
Gabriel – tells Zechariah that his prayer has been heard and they will have a
child! Wow! Don’t you wished that God would send us advanced
notice about our prayers? The question
in my mind is was Zechariah and Elizabeth still praying? I have often wondered – since Zechariah was
described as “advanced in years” – if Zechariah had given up praying for
a child? I know that I have prayed many
prayers and at times carried a prayer in my heart and lips for years; but I
also know that eventually I stopped praying them. Why? Circumstances
change and with it, prayers change. I
have been praying for a friend who is facing a debilitating disease for years
now, but I stopped praying for a friend whose disease led to their death. Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for a
child, that I’m convinced of, but had they stopped praying? I think Zechariah had.
Luke
1:18
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an
old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
While I
understand the question, and I might have responded in the same way, it seems
that Angels sent from God with a message don’t have a lot of time for doubters.
Luke
1:19-20
And the angel answered him, “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 behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that
these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be
fulfilled in their time.”
Gabriel is
not merely an Angel of the Lord, Gabriel stands in God’s presence. God sent him
to tell Zechariah the “good news” (literally Gospel). Since Zechariah has doubts, he’s not a good
representative of the Good News he was given.
Since Zechariah has doubts, Gabriel informs him that he will not be able
to speak until John is born.
And so, this
silent Priest steps out of the Temple and says nothing to the crowd gathered to
receive the blessing. This silent Priest
returns home to his wife and can say nothing of what had occurred. This silent
Priest – advanced in years – makes love to his wife, and she becomes pregnant! That is the good news without words.
Are we convinced
of our prayers before God? Why not? Because we don’t get what we wanted when we
prayed? Because what I asked for didn’t
turn out to be what I hoped for? Because
I’m not sure God really cares about what I’m praying for? There are probably many more reasons, but let
us not doubt that God, Our Father, invites us to come to his throne of grace in
prayer!
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