If you turn within your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, the first chapter, beginning at verse 56:
‘And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, ‘No, he shall be called John.’ And they said to her, ‘None of your relatives is called by this name.’ And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing test and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors, and all of these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, ‘What then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.’
And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’
And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for giving us prophets and apostles who did and do speak for you and speak to us even today. Help us to hear your words, to receive your words, and believe them, trusting them, building them up, and using them in our hearts for encouragement in our faith in you. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So following her expression of joy, Mary remained with Elizabeth and Zechariah for three months. It’s commonly suggested that she did this in order to become familiar with the ins and outs of pregnancy since Elizabeth was six months pregnant when she arrived. However, that really is not the most probable reason for Luke to have included this short note about her stay.
The document that the Roman Catholics predominantly lean on for their excessive and idolatrous mariology is not in scripture. It’s an apocryphal extra-canonical book called the Infancy Gospel of James, and it was likely written somewhere between 140 and 170 AD, well after everybody involved had died, even the second generation of Christians. That fanciful text recounts Mary’s alleged miraculous birth herself to elder parents. It suggests that she had a closer relationship to the priest Zechariah, which establishes him as her guardian during her youth, to explain why this young girl from the tribe of Judah would somehow be related to this family of Levites.
It’s also the proof text used for the doctrine of her extraordinary virginity and her extra special holiness as herself being born sinless. Clearly, it’s a fantastical elaboration upon and strange fusion between the twin stories of Matthew and Luke, and it has never been accepted as part of the biblical canon, even by the Roman Catholics.
But if a person was inclined to accept or believe the broad sweep of that story at most as being true, then they could reasonably presume that maybe Mary stayed there with Zechariah and Elizabeth so that she could be instructed by Zechariah, which is the duty of a Levite and a priest to teach, teaching her everything she should know about the Messiah that she was carrying. But no, that still doesn’t work.
Still, I think the answer for why she stayed with Zechariah and Elizabeth is much more simple, and it doesn’t require us reading anything more into the text than what the Holy Spirit has inspired. Although it’s not expressly stated, it’s implied here that Mary was present for the birth of John the Baptist because Elizabeth was six months pregnant and she stayed for another three months. This makes her Mary to be Luke’s most probable and reliable source for this part of the Gospel, and really this note was Luke’s way of citing his sources.
Now, today’s text is divided really into two parts. The first is the story itself of John’s birth and its fulfillment of Gabriel’s pronouncement, while the second is Zechariah’s prophecy, his ultimate response to John’s birth and the Lord’s graciousness.
Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. It is probably pretty likely that many folks were skeptical about her condition, but once her pregnancy was proven true with the birth of her child, they all rejoiced with her for her good fortune.
Now they knew she was macarius, blessed by the Lord. But still, Zechariah was silent. Then on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, ‘No, he shall be called John.’ And they said to her, ‘But none of your relatives are called by this name.’
See, people have always been very unimaginative with how we choose names for our children. Even today, many names make no sense whatsoever, and they seem outrageous sometimes. The names we choose for children just don’t carry any meaning or special significance beyond us liking the sound of it. Sometimes children are named for family members as a way to honor them or respect them. For instance, I’m named for my two grandfathers, Joseph and Alvin, and that’s what they were suggesting they do by naming him Zechariah.
Sometimes children are named because of a hope for the future, selecting a name that the parents believe will be providential or fortuitous like Jacob’s son Joseph meaning ‘he will increase.’ Sometimes children are named because of circumstances related to their birth like the naming of Jacob’s other son Benjamin, which meant ‘son of my right hand’ instead of Ben-Oi, which Rachel wanted him to be called, meaning ‘son of my sorrow’ or ‘son of my strength,’ because she gave her last strength in birthing him.
So both choices of name made sense; they were both reasonable selections because John, or better Yanan, means ‘Yahweh is gracious,’ and clearly God had been gracious to them in their old age. And then without implying that Elizabeth just didn’t know what she was talking about—because they probably asked her first since she was the one who could talk—they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
So he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And so Zechariah agreed with her; he validated and verified her choice of name as the angel had said. But then immediately after he named his son John, they all wondered, and immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
And fear came on all of their neighbors; this guy had been silent for most of the past year, and suddenly he begins speaking again, praising and blessing the Lord. Therefore, it’s no surprise that they wondered and were afraid, but they weren’t afraid of Zechariah or his son. This was an inspired holy fear, a reverence and a sense of wonder at the amazing work of God.
So all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and it is no surprise that this event became the talk of the town, because it was clear to everyone who saw and heard that something miraculous, extraordinarily miraculous, had happened for the first time in a very long time, as all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, ‘What then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.’
So what Luke is describing there in this last portion was actually the general passage of time, meaning the time of John’s youth, evidenced by him being raised as a Nazarite dedicated to God and being trained as a Levitical priest like his father was before him. There was just something about John as a youth that made it clear that God’s favor was upon him, that he was someone special. Scripture doesn’t explain precisely what that was.
So with John’s naming, Gabriel’s word to Zechariah was fulfilled, and where hope had first been kindled in his heart, now the peace that passes all understanding burned within his heart, consuming all doubt and fear with his faith and his joy in the Lord. The perfect fairy tale story comes full circle and is complete.
But what about Zechariah’s final response? He who doubted God, who lacked faith, and was silenced, now could speak again. What would he say? And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying: Not only would he speak, but he would speak under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, publicly speaking prophecy.
Remember, prophecy is not just the singular type of thing; it is not limited to just the special revelation found in scripture. Prophecy is saying, ‘thus sayeth the Lord,’ and speaking God’s word. Prophecy is both forthtelling and foretelling, speaking divine truths in love in accord with what scripture has revealed. Prophecy is also dividing, expositing, and explaining God’s holy word as in preaching.
But pastors, we do not speak new revelation; nothing we say will ever be added to scripture. But all true prophecy done in the right spirit flows out of the influence of the Holy Spirit, especially when it involves praising God and giving Him the glory.
So Zechariah’s prophecy begins by him blessing the Lord and extolling his covenant faithfulness, similar to Mary’s song. ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all of our days.’
See, Zechariah blesses and glorifies God for his special divine attention to his chosen people in visiting them. Zechariah blesses and glorifies God for redeeming his people and then looking ahead to things yet uncompleted in time but decreed by the Lord from eternity past.
Zechariah blesses and glorifies God for raising up a horn of salvation from the house of David, as spoken by the prophets. This horn of salvation, though, presents two possible images: the first is of an animal horn, which implies that this salvation would come through violence, bloodshed, and conquest by a Davidic heir; or the horns of the altar, which imply an image of sacrifice on the part of a Davidic.
So when we say that first-century Jews were looking for the wrong kind of Messiah, it really is less that they did not know the scriptures and more that they simply misinterpreted them. Their expectation of worldly deliverance and a newly established Davidic empire was really a worldly interpretation and wrong, but it’s what they’d experienced before. Their incorrect interpretation simply proved that they did not understand truly the Lord’s character or what His ultimate plan of redemption was.
They were so close, but no cigar. And Zechariah blesses and glorifies God for his promise, God’s promise that they should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. So it is understandable for them to make the mistake of assuming that he meant the Romans and the whole Hellenistic worldview because they really did not recognize or understand who or what our true enemy is: Satan and our sinfulness.
Their incorrect assumptions and wrong understandings were unfortunately reasonable because nobody ever thinks about the puppeteer while the puppets are on stage. So long as he remains hidden behind the curtain, we remain distracted by the lesser things that are held out before us.
And Zechariah blesses and glorifies God for showing them the mercy promised to our fathers and for remembering His holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, which is the promise of Genesis 17: to be God to you and to your offspring after you. This promise, this covenant, is very, very specific, but with wide open-ended implications for us.
Because having God—the only God, the sovereign King and creator of the universe—choose to willingly bind himself to a people to be their God and they His people, His treasured possession, is the greatest of possible mercies and expressions of grace. For otherwise, one must naturally be at enmity with God, the only God. And if you try to stand against Him, then you are doomed.
Lastly, Zechariah blesses and glorifies God for why the Lord has done all of this, so that we might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. So we’ve been chosen and called to serve the Lord in holiness and righteousness, all day, every day, in every way.
We exist to worship and glorify God, for that is what it simply means to serve Him without fear—to worship God alone with awe and reverence and love. That’s what Adam was commanded to do when the Lord placed him in the Garden of Eden, to work it and keep it. And so as his natural successors in all things, that is what we should be doing now in the wider creation.
Although now, on account of our sin’s curse, our work has become toil, we remain obligated to serve the Lord, to be obedient to His commandments and His holy word even when we cannot do so perfectly.
And although we cannot perfectly obey God, and we cannot perfectly worship God, and we cannot perfectly serve Him, we will be considered to have done so because of Christ’s perfect works—His active work of obedience that is imputed to us as our own, along with His perfect righteousness. Truly, our God is worthy to be praised for all of His mighty works, and so therefore we should joyfully choose to worship Him.
Now Zechariah’s prophecy turns from directly blessing the Lord to foretelling the role of his son John—what John would do, the role he’d play in the great work of salvation. Zechariah proclaims that John would be called prophet of the Most High, a title and role that had not been rightly applied to anyone since Malachi 400 years earlier.
This clearly declares that there will be a change in the status quo. The Lord always spoke through the prophets to call Israel to repentance and to declare oracles of woe upon the enemies of God’s people. Zechariah proclaims that John would go before the Lord to prepare his ways, thereby fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy: ‘A voice cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
That John would do this by giving us knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, by proclaiming to them how their crippling moral debt could be wiped away by the Lord, that their sins would be utterly forgiven—in fact, that their moral balance would become zero; that their relationship with the Lord would be reset, and that all the spiritual barriers, their highs and lows, the peaks and valleys would be made smooth and make easy their access to God.
That John would do this by proclaiming why the Lord would do this—because of the tender mercy of our God. Since the Lord is merciful and He is gracious because He has chosen for Himself a people, and because He has chosen to enter into this covenant with us, and because He has chosen to save some of His creation when He’s obligated to save none.
That John would herald in the coming spiritual dawn, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace, announcing the glorious appearance of what Malachi prophesied: ‘But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.’
And that when this sun rises, we shall all rejoice because then, according to the Lord’s grace and mercy, we shall have peace. But everything that Zechariah proclaimed about his son John was not just about him, but also about that horn of salvation coming from the house of David—Mary’s son, to be Jesus, the true Him being the son of righteousness, the light of the world, and the revealed glory of the Lord.
Everything that Zechariah was prophesying here was a declaration of that divine peace. Peace is the final and only ultimate outcome of the Lord’s visitation because we know God wins. Our sinful rebellion against His sovereignty will be ended, and all of God’s enemies will be defeated, and they shall all acknowledge Him as their Lord. Our prior wickedness will be repented of, pardoned, and forgiven so that then we can and shall serve Him in all holiness.
Our toils and troubles shall all cease when the curse of Adam’s sin is lifted, for the offspring of the woman, Jesus, has crushed the head of that ancient serpent, Satan—the first murderer and the father of lies. Then rejoicing and glorifying God shall be our ultimate response to the Lord’s visitation. We shall rejoice because we will know the extent of His forgiveness of our sin, because we will know the full depth of our depravity and understand how great His mercy truly is. We shall rejoice because then we shall be able to obey His commandments completely, because obedience will be our earnest desire—because we want God to take pleasure in us.
And we shall glorify God in all that we do because then we shall do only that which is righteous, and holy, and just, and merciful, gracious, and wise. Therefore, upon the birth of his son John, Zechariah prophesied that the Lord would give us His peace and that therefore we would rejoice and glorify Him. Ultimately, what Zechariah prophesied was the fulfillment of the ironic blessing that has been spoken over every generation of Israel and the church since Mount Sinai: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you peace.’
So finally, after seeing Zechariah’s initial doubt and disbelief transformed into faith and joy, what lesson ought we to learn? Patience and peace. Whenever a person first begins to read scripture or even first hears the gospel, their initial reaction is almost universally to believe that everything God demands and claims is utterly impossible and outrageous.
Our initial reaction is to disbelieve it and doubt it because we do not want to. Because if we did believe it, then it would prove that everything else we think about the way the world is and what we believe about ourselves are lies—because they are. And upon first hearing the gospel, our sinful hearts rejected it, wanting it to not be true.
But once the Holy Spirit gets a hold of us and opens our eyes to God’s grace and mercy, then we see that the truth actually is reasonable, right, and absolutely necessary. Then we see that things are the way they must be because this is God’s eternal plan. But we must be patient before we can see it because not everybody believes or knows that they believe immediately; their faith must be confirmed.
Zechariah had to wait nine months before his initial lack of trust in Gabriel’s proclamation was totally crushed, before his disbelief was proven wrong and faith became sight. Although I bet he began to second guess his initial response the moment he realized that he could not talk. I’m sure that his faith began to grow and his hope once Elizabeth believed that she was pregnant.
And I’m certain that he came to accept the truth after Mary showed up, after she came to visit them and stayed. But most certainly, without a doubt, he knew and he believed and he finally understood the full weight of what Gabriel had told him once he was able to speak again. After writing, ‘His name is John,’ Zechariah was forced to be patient, and his patience was rewarded.
So too, we must be patient with our faith and with the growth of faith within our loved ones. We must trust that our patience will be rewarded like Zechariah. It’s very easy to become discouraged when we cannot see great progress towards or clear evidence of what we would wish, so we must watch and content ourselves with the smaller signs as they appear.
Taking comfort and finding encouragement in them as we may, we may doubt our faith, what we believe, and why we believe it. But if there was not a part of us that did believe, then we would not struggle with it.
We may doubt our regeneration when we fall back into persistent sin for a time. We may doubt our regeneration when we are plagued by wicked or blasphemous thoughts, ideas, and desires. We may doubt our sanctification because our language is not always pure and holy. Sometimes we still say things that we ought not to.
We may doubt our sanctification because we still do not do always what is right, good, noble, charitable, kind, or most loving towards our neighbor. Sometimes we still hold grudges and feel vindictive against the wrongs and slights that have been done towards us or which we’ve perceived as having been done against us.
We may doubt our sanctification because we often still prioritize the things of this world, and we still succumb to fear and worry over things that do not ultimately matter. So we must each remain patient. And the only thing more difficult than being patient with yourself is being patient with God.
The apostle Peter tells us that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day. But because we also know that the Lord is longsuffering, which means that God does not experience time the same way that we do, and because we know that He has been more patient with us than we deserve.
So cut yourself and everyone around you a little slack, and don’t worry or get upset because God does not act according to your plan or according to your timetable. His ways are not your ways; they are higher and better than you can possibly imagine.
So we must remain patient, and we must trust in the Lord and in the promises that He has made. Because if it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Because the Lord will and must keep His word; otherwise, He is not God.
And so what if Zechariah only had to wait 400 years between the most previous prophet and the birth of his son and the birth of the Messiah, while we’ve been waiting 2,000 years for His return? Jesus Christ will come on the day and time of the Lord’s choosing, no sooner and no later. We can’t hurry, therefore.
Until then, we must be patient. We must trust to hope, waiting with faith in the expectant joy of eternal peace when Jesus Christ, the light of the world, returns, and the son of righteousness rises with healing in its wings, and when all shall give glory and magnify the Lord. Amen.