What did Zechariah do to deserve to be made mute for nine months? I said earlier that all he had asked was “How?,” when the angel told him he and Elizabeth would become parents in their old age. But I wasn’t looking closely enough. What he actually said was, “How will I know that this is so?,” citing their advanced age.
That’s what the angel was punishing, if punishment it was – his lack of faith in what was unseen, his worldly reliance on "observable facts," his desire for assurance. Here he had an angel standing in front of him! And he wondered how God would accomplish what he had purposed? Maybe Gabriel gave him nine months of silence to reflect on faith and endurance – and maybe to prepare to have an infant in the house.
So, at the moment when Zechariah in faith declares his son will not be named after him, but will be named John (“God is gracious”), his muteness is lifted and he bursts into poetry: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old…” (Today's passage is here.)
Zechariah, having waited so long for his prayers for his family and for his oppressed people to be answered, is so astonished that God is indeed faithful, he can scarcely contain himself. After praising God, he turns his praise to his infant son:
“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 by the forgiveness of their sins. “
This boy was born for a purpose. Perhaps all children are born for a purpose, but the purpose is not always so clearly known even before birth. Zechariah is now ready to declare that he believes everything the angel told him, and what the prophets of old had foreseen – and what this miracle child of his will be, long after he is around to witness it.
Our faith is often strengthened when we see answers to our prayers, isn’t it? But then it’s not really faith. Faith by definition is trusting in promises we can’t be absolutely certain we’ve received correctly. We gather confirmation from others, and marshal evidence that God is moving in the way we think God is moving… and we wait, believing in the good will of God no matter what we experience. That’s hard! Thanks be to God, we are often (not always…) given just enough signs to encourage us to persevere, and discernment to give thanks for what we experience along the way.
Do you have a long-term prayer project requiring extra faith? What indications do you have that God is moving? What do you wish you could witness? How do you maintain your faith in the not-knowing?
Zechariah did not excel in faith to begin with – but he seems to have learned from his enforced retreat. For he sees in his own son – the fact that his son exists, and the promise he represents – God’s larger purpose to redeem the world, to restore all things and all people to perfect peace. And so this father’s song gives voice to the deeper song of the Father Almighty:
"By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
In a few days, we will gather in darkened churches lit by candles to celebrate that rising Son from on high breaking in upon us - may He guide our feet into the way of peace.
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