All who heard these things took them to
heart, saying, "What, then, will this child be?" For surely the hand
of the Lord was with him.
Luke has been preparing the reader for this
question since he introduced Zechariah in the first verses of his narrative. By
immersing ourselves in the narrative of the events that led up to it, we
participate in the Lord’s preparation of his people for John’s prophetic voice,
more importantly, we become prepared to be able to recognize and welcome the
visit of the Word when he comes, who by the transforming power of his grace can
make us more like John, a burning and shining lamp capable of shedding light on
the figure of Jesus for those whom we encounter.
All who heard these things took them to
heart. One way to enter
into this immersion is to look at the experience of all those who heard
these things, and through them explore what it might mean to take them to
heart. The first of these was the great mercy that the Lord had shown
Elizabeth by giving her a son in her old age, after many years of barrenness,
of suffering the burden of being childless. And they rejoiced with her.
They were happy, first of all, in their participation in her joy, but also in
the recognition of this wondrous sign of the divine goodness, of the active
presence of God who in utter gratuity, out of no motive but his own divine good
pleasure, has intervened in the lives of these two people, and, therefore, in
Israel, God’s holy people, of whom they are a part.
Next, when both Elizabeth and Zechariah,
independently, and contrary to the custom of naming a son after his father,
insisted that he be called John, All, we learn, were amazed. We
come across this word “amazed” often in the Gospel, especially as a reaction to
miracles. When we are amazed or astonished at something, we are suddenly and
unexpectedly caught up out of ourselves. Amazement is not something we can
produce out of ourselves, or approach gradually, through a process of thought;
we experience a shock, our breath is taken away. There is always an excess in
amazement, something is both given to us for our understanding, yet it is
always in excess of what the mind can grasp clearly and comprehensively. There
is a “too-muchness” that is both overwhelming and yet fascinating.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors, when, immediately,
“[Zechariah’s] mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.”
In this instance the reaction is again spontaneous, but the emphasis is on an
honor and respect that pierces soul and body, a reverent distancing, a bending
of the knee before what was clearly a manifestation of something of the divine
glory and power in the way God had taken over Zechariah’s faculties, held them
bound for a time and then freed them; not wholly different from the reaction
their ancestors experienced in the desert, when they feared to come near Moses
because of how the skin of his face shown when he descended from Mount Sion
with the two tablets.
First there was shared joy, then amazement,
then fear, from this followed puzzlement, the desire to come to terms with what
they had seen and heard and to share it. So next we are told that these things
were talked about throughout the hill country of Judea. And in this
interpersonal back and forth and in their own personal reflection, many began
to make connections with these events and other significant events in the
history of God’s people.
Many thought it had always seemed odd that
Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless. Some thought that God must be punishing
them in some way. Yet what sense did it make that they should bear this pain
and shame? Zechariah was a priest, a member of the order of Abijah, and both he
and Elizabeth were descendants of Aaron, therefore they were both of honorable
families and lineage. For the Jews of that time this was in itself a sign of
divine favor. Moreover, everyone knew these were good people, they ordered
their lives according to the commandments and regulations of God, just as Moses
has commanded. No one had a thing to say against them, by all accounts their
lives are blameless. They are among God’s righteous. On the other hand, Moses
had also said that “if you obey the voice of the Lord your God…Blessed shall be
the fruit of your womb…” (Dt 28:4) and yet they were childless.
Other such examples in Israel’s history
would have come to mind. Not least, Abraham and Sarah. God had called Abraham
to go forth from his own country and kindred to go a new land where he promised
he would make of him a great nation and bless him and make his name great. So
great, in fact, that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. Yet
Abraham and Sarah, too, found themselves childless in their old age. Sarah
suffered much humiliation for her barrenness. Abraham begged God for a child,
and God responded by promising Abraham that his offspring would be as numerous
as the stars in the heavens.
God established a covenant with Abraham, he
told him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make
my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly”.
When the Lord appeared again and told
Abraham that he was to give him a son by Sarah, Abraham fell on his face and
laughed, saying to himself, “Shall a child be borne to a man who is a hundred
years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” When, at the
Oaks of Mamre, Sarah learned she was to bear a child, she too laughed to
herself, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” For
“the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.” Just as the Lord had promised
Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the great patriarch, and circumcised him when he was
eight days old, in accordance with God’s commandment to Abraham for all newborn
males (Gen 21:4).
As the Lord had said to Abraham: “Is
anything impossible with God?” (Gen 18:14). In her joy Sarah said “‘God has
brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me’” (21:16)
Likewise, there was Elkanah and Hannah.
Elkanah was a priest, and he and his wife Hannah were both faithful servants of
the Lord, living according to the commandments, yet they too were childless,
and Hannah, too, suffered much at her barrenness. At Shiloh, she prayed to the
Lord out of her “great anxiety and vexation”, and the Lord remembered Hannah
and she conceived and gave birth to the great prophet Samuel.
They thought too, the gift of a son by the
Lords’ loving kindness that blessed the lives of Abraham and Sarah, Elkanah and
Hannah was intended not only for them but for all of Israel. Likewise, this
child cannot be given for Zechariah and Elizabeth alone, but for all of us.
But such reflections cannot be the end of it, but only the opening of new beginnings in the hearts of all who heard these things. Amazement is not yet faith. Fear is not yet conversion. Discussion and personal reflection are not yet action. To maintain the process of keeping these things in one’s heart, it is impossible to stop here; there must be movement: to faith, to conversion, to love of God and neighbor. They must take up the exhortation Jesus later gave to his disciples: “Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.”
As Zechariah and Elizabeth, Abraham and Sarah, Elkanah and Hannah prayed for an end to their barrenness, they too must pray. Israel must bring its suffering and anxieties before the Lord with renewed fervor and confidence, for the Lord is showing them that he has not forgotten them, has the power to bring an end to their barrenness, to the long, dry centuries that they have suffered from having no prophet among them. No doubt these events brought about many conversions of life. No doubt many said in their hearts, Zechariah and Elizabeth, Abraham and Sarah, Elkanah and Hannah, lived lives of deep prayer and in obedient faith, I should be more like them, I should change my life and follow the Lord more closely. I should repent and turn to the Lord and be ready for more acts of his gracious favor among us. For God is faithful, he has not abandoned us, nothing is impossible for him. This is the path of preparation for the witness of John. This is our path too, if we wish to ready ourselves for the visit of the Word in our midst.
