03. Luke 1:8-23

Exposition

Zechariah is at his appointed duty to offer incense in the temple. This is the Tamid service (1: 8– 10), at which sacrifice for the forgiveness of the people were offered twice each day.

The “whole assembly” is gathered in prayer outside. Luke pictures the chosen people acting in obedience to the Lord (vv.8-10).

While at his service an angel, Gabriel as it turns out (v.19), appears announcing to him the birth of a son through his up-till-now barren wife Elizabeth. As is usual in these kinds of appearances, fear is the (appropriate) human response. But the angel’s news is good news. A son is coming to this couple! Zechariah’s prayers have been answered (like Isaac, Gen.25:21). The angelic announcement is also similar to that made to Abraham (Gen.17:19). This puts this episode within the story-line Luke is tracing for his readers. As Garland put it: “Divine intervention in the lives of this couple is divine intervention for Israel. Their personal prayers have meshed with God’s plans in the drama of redemption to restore Israel to God” (Garland, Luke: 1729-1731).

A son whose name is to be John and will serve great purposes in the coming kingdom of God. He will herald that Kingdom and its king. Though not conceived by the Spirit John will be filled with the Spirit from even before his birth. He will be fully devoted to the work of God (“never drink wine or strong drink”; (see Judg.13: 4– 5, 7; 1 Sam.1: 11). His Elijah-like ministry lead a renewal of Israel back to its Lord as well as usher into the time of Messiah. “The prophet’s message is the last chance for the nation in view of the coming day of the Lord with its consuming judgment (Mal 4: 1, 6 )…. 

The Baptist’s future activity thus receives an eschatological apocalyptic significance” (François Bovon, Luke 1: 1– 9: 50 (Hermeneia; trans. Christine M. Thomas; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002), 37).

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The upshot of John’s work, his preparation for Messiah is to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (v.20). Jesus, as we will see, has as the chief objective of his earthly ministry a consolidation of John’s work by reconstituting Israel as the Abrahamic people they were meant to be.

Zechariah cannot quite buy into all things however. He trusts biology more than theology (as did Abraham and Sarah) and questions this announcement. He asks the angel for a sign which the angel takes as a sign of disobedience. The sign is gives is to strike Zechariah mute until this promise is fulfilled (see 1:1).

Delayed because of this angelic visitation, the people grow restive outside waiting for him. Then he appears but he cannot speak. Zechariah tries to signal what has happened to him in what is perhaps the most bizarre game of charades ever! The people realize he had a vision but not what it was about. And then, when his duty in the temple is done, he and Elizabeth return home.

Reflection

1.       Zechariah

“Zechariah is pious though still afflicted by doubt. Note the contrast between Zechariah’s demand to know (v. 18) and Gabriel’s emphasis on belief (v. 20). Knowledge provides the illusion of certainty, which then becomes a poor substitute for the more vital confidence of faith. Knowledge would also provide Zechariah with the illusion that he has some measure of control over what happens. But only One is in control— God. Zechariah’s silence, which I interpret as a punishment and not simply the aftereffects of a vision, makes a theological point: “God looks to the human being to accept his plan, but does not depend on the human being for its implementation” (Mark Coleridge, The Birth of the Lukan Narrative: Narrative as Christology in Luke 1– 2 (JSNTSup 88; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1993).

2.       Hope

“To live in hope is to adopt a basic stance or direction, like iron filings in a magnetic field. It is to be drawn to something beyond the immediate concerns of the everyday, to look to the horizon and to see more than a limit to our vision, and our own possibilities. In short, it is to be oriented to the future, understood as a gift with God, with new divinely imagined possibilities, not just the outcome of events and actions in the past and present. To live in hope is to live in the energy field of the future” (Christiaan Mostert, “Living in Hope,” in Hope: Challenging the Culture of Despair (ed. C. Mostert; Hindmarsh: ATF, 2004), 62).