Sermon About Zechariah From Luke 1 delivered to The Crux 12/6

There once was a small town in Iowa which was being inflicted by a drought. The crops were drying up fast and they need rain in the worst way. So the local pastor decided to call for a prayer meeting on a Wednesday night. The whole congregation showed plus some others from the town. The pastor took the pulpit and said, “Every one of you go home and sit in judgment upon yourselves and when you really believe come back.” An elderly woman in the front row stood up and said, “But pastor we have filled the church to pray for rain, why are you sending us home?” The Pastor answered, “Because not one of you brought an umbrella.”

Zechariah in today’s reading is a lot like these people in the Iowa small town. Zechariah had prayed and prayed for a son and when an angel of the Lord appears and tells him his prayer has been answered he questions the angel and demands proof.

Zechariah was a temple priest. Luke calls he and his wife Elizabeth “righteous and blameless in all the commandments and status of the Lord.” Luke was a physician and an educated man. We can tell by the style of Greek that he used. Luke was also a companion of St. Paul on some of his missionary journeys and he collected the information for his gospel from several sources. This is the only use of this particular form of righteousness in Greek in Luke’s gospel. This would lead me to believe that Luke didn’t take this description of them as a Godly declaration about them rather the idea that they were righteous and blameless must have been what those who knew them thought of them. So they were well thought of in the community.

It is interesting that Zechariah and Elizabeth are described as righteous and blameless and yet in the nest verse we find out that they are barren which was considered a curse from God. This contrast reminds me that while we are servants of the Lord here on earth we are all both saint and sinner.

What seemed to be a curse for this couple in the end would be a blessing. Their advanced age and Elizabeth’s barrenness was the perfect setting to get the attention of God’s people whom he was about to call unto Himself. You see there hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for at least 500 years. And God was about to come to His creation incarnate in the man Jesus Christ. The scriptures had promised a fore runner, and Elijah if you will that will announce the arrival of the Messiah. John’s birth to a barren woman of advanced age was his first sermon to a people hungry for guidance and looking for a Savior.

At any given time, historians tell us, there were 20,000 temple priests and only 56 of them were selected by the casting of lots to officiate in the temple. So for Zechariah to be chosen to offer the incense sacrifice was a great honor. Especially if he was of advanced age his chances were running out.

So Zechariah enters the temple and the Holy of Holies alone. You might remember from the days of Moses when a Levite entered the temple they tied a rope around his foot so if he messed up the sacrifice and God struck him dead they could pull him out without any further loss of life. I bring this up to give you the idea of fear and trembling that Zechariah must have been feeling as he entered the space where only few in history were allowed by God to go.

Gabriel appears to Zechariah and tells him that his prayers have been answered, his barren wife is about to give birth to a son who will be great before the Lord and he will turn many of his people to the Lord and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit and the power of Elijah he will prepare a people for the Lord. Not to shabby of a commission for an only child.

Zechariah answers in with questions. He did a little better then Abraham who fell to the ground laughing that God told him that a 99 year old woman would give birth. You see a short 1500-2000 years ago God had made this same promise to Abraham and it came true. But just like we are today Zechariah was human and he couldn’t see any rational way that this could happen. But God doesn’t always operate in the rational, he is God he can do whatever he pleases. Just by speaking he created the universe is helping and elderly couple conceive a child really that much of a stretch?
An angel of the Lord appears to Zechariah and delivers a promise from the Creator of the Universe that his prayers are to be answered and he will have a son and a miraculous one at that; a son that will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. And Zechariah demands proof, Luke 1:18, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
As the reader of the story don’t you just want to say, “Hey Zach, my man, there is an angel of the Lord in front of you; does this happen every day? Come on dude something fantastic and beyond all human reason is happening here. Do a little more listening and a lot less talking.”
But Zechariah being a stubborn human not carrying an umbrella while he prays for rain, messes with the bull and gets the horns. Zechariah gets what he is looking for a sing as proof he is struck mute until the naming of the child. Mute until he fulfills the angel’s commission of him to name the child John; which in Hebrew is pronounced Yochanan and means “The Lord has shown favor.”
So Elizabeth becomes pregnant and she recognizes right away that this is a gift from God. However she does a curious thing she hides her pregnancy for five months. Perhaps she is afraid that her neighbors down at the local Templeabiou Coffee would gossip as to the Father of the child. “Zechariah hasn’t been able to perform in this way in the past maybe she took things into her own hands,” they might spew their poison. Or perhaps it is just too good to be true for her. After all it wasn’t like she was the one in the presence of an angel of the Lord.
I don’t think the reality of the child and his importance hit Elizabeth until Mary’s visit and her child leaped in her womb and she was filled with the Spirit. It wasn’t her human reason that brought this miracle to reality for her it was the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Possessing the Holy Spirit must a contagious thing because then Mary becomes filled and sings praises to God.
When John is born there is no more doubt and no more fear there, as the angel has promised joy; joy for this elderly couple and joy for their neighbors. Everyone realizes that the birth of this child was truly an act of God.
Jewish boys were circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. This is also the day that they name the child and everyone thought that this child would be named after his father. But Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, and Zechariah, still mute from his doubt, refused to question God again and the boy was named John. And Zechariah was cured.
Three things that we can learn from the account of the birth of John the Baptist; first when God makes you a promise it will be fulfilled regardless of what your human reason and experience tells you. And second, when you pray for something, pray expecting that it will be done for you. Our God is a God that chooses to work through every day people like Zechariah and Elizabeth and you and me to accomplish His will on earth. The Creator of the universe seeks to have a relationship with His creation in which they will trust and work with Him for the well being of our neighbor.