December 16
:
Redemption for Skeptics

♫ Music:

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The Birth of John the Baptist
Scripture: Luke 1: 57-66
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 tablet 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 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.

To Saint John The Baptist
by Andrezj Morsztyn

Of course you are the messenger, you who
Shed the grey brightness which the sun breaks
through.

As when pale dawn provokes the birds to play
Their music glorifies the shape of day,
So your birth violates your father’s tongue
Till, from his lips, a shriek of praise is wrung.
And as the sun burns red when the last gleam
Of styptic dawn admits a blood-red stream,
Your blood, too, gushes on the world whose gate
The sun you herald will illuminate.

REDEMPTION FOR SKEPTICS
Sometimes it’s difficult to believe. Doubt seems easier. And we live in a culture of reticence to trust God — or anything that defies common sense or human tradition. But Lesslie Newbigin, in The Gospel in a Pluralist Society says this dogma of doubt goes against something within us. G.K. Chesterton, in Orthodoxy, argues that all of us, deep down, have a desire to believe. Even the most hardened among us sense there’s more to us, more to what’s really happening in our world, than what our senses tell us — what received empiricism claims as explanation.

Zechariah doubted. An earlier passage in this devotion series spoke of it. The Angel Gabriel, in what we can be called a stern tone, had told him, in essence, that God didn’t need this old priest’s belief to complete His purposes. A child would be born to him and his aged wife, and in a miraculous way. That child, whether Zechariah trusted God about it or not, would become a prophet more significant than any seen in Scripture.

But what we see in Zechariah’s role in this passage is God’s mercy. There is a way back from doubt. Henri Nouwen suggests that something about silence, or the absence of words from our mouths, sharpens our ability to hear God. And in the months that Zechariah was unable to speak, perhaps he learned in new ways to trust God, to hear Him, to believe amid the unexpected.

One wonders why Gabriel didn’t go to Elizabeth, as he had to Mary, with news of this miraculous birth. Why her crusty, skeptical husband instead? Nothing in Scripture is wasted space. This is a story of redemption for skeptics. It’s a narrative aimed at men who say they know God but who, in the realities of life, know Him less intimately than perhaps they even grasp. And it’s about the women in their lives. Zechariah had married well. The woman God put in his life was ready to be the celebrated mother of the renowned prophet John. Luke 1:41-45 tells us Elizabeth had a sense of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the baby growing within her. She got it.

Finally, this is a story about names. Scripture shows us that a name goes deep. A name is a heritage. It speaks volumes about a person, a family, even a location. Names are stories. And God uses a name to show the world that Zechariah was truly His. The Lord could have left Zechariah mute. But before a small crowd of gathered family and friends, God let Zechariah back in the mix. This infant boy would not be named for his father as tradition prescribed. “His name is John,” Zechariah wrote on that tablet. And the first words we hear from this priest are a worship song as beautiful and inspiring as Mary’s. Note the family resemblance in the side-by-side paintings of Zechariah and John. God uses even skeptical, slow-to-believe parents to bring forth children who serve God.

Prayer
Lord, you have orchestrated our lives in such a way that often causes us to walk more by faith and less by sight. Grant us an unwavering faith in you that surpasses human understanding. Help us to quickly embrace your fatherly care and be strengthened by your all-knowing wisdom. To you alone be the honor and glory.
Amen.

Michael A. Longinow
Professor of Journalism

Zechariah with John the Baptist
Wall fresco, 11th Century
Monastery of the Cross, Jerusalem, Israel

About the Artwork and Monastery:
The Monastery of the Cross is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem, Israel. The monastery was built in the eleventh century. It is believed that the site on which the monastery stands was originally consecrated in the fourth century under the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Legend has it that the tree from which the cross Christ was crucified on, was grown on the property. Currently it is occupied by monks of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In this image, one can see the contrast of the richly appointed priestly garments of Zechariah with those of his son John the Baptist, who lived an ascetic life in the Judean desert, teaching and baptizing his followers.

About the Music #1:
“Praise The Name of The Lord”

Lyrics:
Praise the name of the Lord.
Give praise, O servants of the Lord,
You who stand in the house of the Lord,
In the courts of the house of our God.