Last week I shared that there are roughly 50,000 registered Christmas songs and I introduced you to the a kick off Christmas song called, Born is the King (It’s Christmas Time). It was a song that speaks to the heart of Christmas. That the whole point of the Christmas story is to bring hope and joy to the world, because God himself descended to his creation so that the power of sin would be broken and the path to everlasting life would be opened.
This week I want to share with you a different type of Christmas song. It’s a song by a guy named Kirby Brown. If last week got you excited for Christmas, this might make you feel the opposite. The song is called Shepherds’s Lament; take a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhjbL8n1IUU.
Not everyone has joy at Christmas, and there can be a lot of doubt that follows the Christmas story. And it’s that doubt that we’re going to talk about today. So if you have your Bibles, we’re going to look at Zechariah’s exclamation in Luke chapter 1, starting in verse 67.
And as we open up to Luke 1:67, let’s talk about last week. In the first week of our Christmas series we looked at Mary’s song and the events that led to it. We saw Mary’s reaction to the angel’s words that she was going to bear the Son of God. She accepted her role, but sought a confirmation of what the angel said through her relative Elizabeth. After meeting up with Elizabeth, Mary saw that the angel’s words were true, because the angel had also said that Elizabeth, who was barren, would be pregnant, and sure enough she was.
Mary’s song then points us to the God who looks out for the humble, takes away from the proud, and fulfills his promises. And so we walked away from last week with the uplifting understanding that Christmas is promises fulfilled, which gives us assurance that God will fulfill his promise that Jesus will return again.
This then brings us to another song that is interwoven with the Christmas story, Zechariah’s song. Let’s read Luke chapter 1, starting in verse 67.
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Now you might be thinking, where’s the doubt in Zechariah’s song. It sounds really similar to Mary’s song. It has praise to God, just like Mary’s song. It has a focus on what God has done in the past, with emphasis on God fulfilling his covenantal promises to Israel. So where’s the doubt. To answer that, we need to go back to the event that proceeded Zechariah’s song, the event that led to the joyous exclamation.
62 verses early we get Zechariah’s story. We find out a few things about Zechariah. He’s a priest, and so is a descendant of Aaron. He’s also married to a woman named Elizabeth, spoiler, she’s the same Elizabeth that we talked about last week. And were told that both of these individuals are considered righteous by God because they walk “blamelessly in all the commandments and status of the Lord (v. 6).” So these are pretty faithful followers of God.
We also know that Elizabeth is barren, she has no biological children nor any adopted children. This we know plays a huge part in Mary’s story later on. Which gives credence to the idea that sometimes God allows us to go through hard times, so that we can play a role in the life of someone else.
Now that we have the backstory for Zechariah, we’re told that his division of priest were serving at the temple of God and Zechariah, “8 was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.”
This was a huge honor, and most likely was the most important moment of his priestly life. This is because there were thousands upon thousands of priests, so not every priest got to go into the temple. They had to be chosen and the most fair way was to cast lots, which is akin to drawing from a hat. So they would choose two priests a day to perform this specific ritual; one in the morning and one in the evening. Once you were chosen for one of the rituals, you couldn’t do anything again. It was literally a once in a lifetime moment.
And what would happen is that a priest would go into the temple in Jerusalem, light the incense which was right before the curtain that separated the holy of holies from the holy place, say a brief prayer, and then come out and give the blessing from Numbers 6. But when Zechariah went in, it took longer than usual, and the people had to wait. That’s because, when he went in an angel appeared to Zechariah standing next to the incense alter. And here we can start seeing similarities and differences between Zechariah and Mary.
Both encounter the angel, Mary is said to be troubled at the greeting, where Zechariah falls down in fear at the mere sight of the angel. Both are given assurance by the angel to not be afraid, and both are told about a brith. For Zechariah, the angel encourages him that his prayers have been answered and that his wife would bear a son in her old age. And like Mary being told the name of her son, Zechariah is told that his son will be named John.
Zechariah is also told that his son will be great in front of God, will not drink wine or any strong drink, and will be filled with the Holy Spirit even in the womb, something we see when he meets Mary. Zachariah’s son’s job will be to turn people back to God and prepare the way for the Savior in the vein of Elijah.
But here’s where there’s both a parallel and a divergence in Mary and Zechariah’s encounter with the angel. Mary’s response to the angel was, “How will this be…since I am a virgin (v.34)?” While Zechariah’s response was, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years (v.18).”
Both make ask questions of how the angel’s statements would work out. Both are questions of physical ability, one being a virgin, and one being old. Notice he doesn’t call his wife old, just along in years, this is a smart man that’s been married a while. But both questions seem to say the same thing, yet Zechariah is met with a rebuke from the angel, and Mary’s is met with an encouragement. Why? I think it’s because of the heart. Zechariah, though he is a priest, though he is righteous before God, though he walks blamelessly in the commands of God, is held back from trusting in God. He asks, how can I be sure what you’re telling me is true?
Mary’s question doesn’t come from a place of non-trust, but from a desire to know deeper things. Whereas Zechariah’s question seems to come from a place of non-trust. Sure he believes it all and is willing to do everything that is asked of him from a ritual religious perspective, but something is holding him back from believing what the angel is saying.
So because of this lack of trust in what the angel said, the angel makes it so Zechariah can’t speak. And that last around nine months. From this moment until the day his son is circumcised, Zechariah doesn’t speak, but had to communicate through hand gestures and the like.
Fast forward to after Mary is met by the angel, and after Mary came to see Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth, all the way to eight days after his son’s birth. This new born boy is being circumcised and is to be given his name, and Elizabeth states that the boy’s name is John. To which her relatives question, because not one of her family members has that name, and it’s only when Zechariah confirms that this name is John by writing on a tablet that it says, “his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God (v.64).”
And that’s when we get Zechariah’s song. A song that praises God for his redeeming work. A song that recognizes that God is bringing the Messiah into this world. A song that recognizes that God is fulfilling his promises. A song that understands that God has given Zechariah and Elizebeth a son who will make way for this Messiah and that sin will be forgiven, mercy will flow, light will show into dark places, and it’s all because God is good.
Zechariah’s song comes from a man who, though did everything right religiously, still doubted. He doubted that God could do something that seemed impossible. Sure he must have read that God did such a thing for Abraham and Sarah, when God gave them their son Issac when Abraham was 90, but how could it be possible today for God to do such a thing for just some random priest? Sure Zechariah had been praying for a child, but for how long? How many days had gone by, how false positives did Elizabeth have? The cruel reality of so long without a child, must have hardened Zechariah’s trust that what the angel said was possible, and so he needed more proof that it was going to happen.
But for nine months, as that baby, who he didn’t think was possible, was growing in his getting along in years wife, this praise was welling up inside of him. And the moment he was able to speak it gushed out by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Christmas is that! It says that the God, who has done marvelous things, is still doing marvelous things today. A woman who wants a child but can’t have one, can still be blessed. A family going through hard times can still come out of it. A person who feels lost and alone, can find a loving family. Bodies can be healed, addictions can be broken, relationships can be mended. Christmas says there is hope for the hopeless of humanity. There is a praise for the lament, joy for the despair, and certainly for the doubt.
It doesn’t matter if your Mary who trusts in God fully and follows without faltering, or Zechariah who doubts the words of God, Christmas says, your welcome at the manger of the Savior. Christmas says, come anyways. Bring your doubts, your hurts, your waining faith to this Jesus who came from heaven to bring peace to all mankind.
Christmas isn’t just a celebration of the greatness of God wrapped in humble baby cloths, but a cure to what ails the human race. To truly celebrate Christmas, is to celebrate God who sees our plight and says, I’m not giving up.
My challenge for you this week, if you’re struggling with something. Doubts about your faith, fear of the social or political landscape, broken relationships that seem to far gone, family or friends or neighbors lost in themselves or addictions, be silent for ninety minutes. Stop talking, questioning, or fighting with God and just sit there and seek him to speak to you. Zechariah was forced to not speak for nine months, I think we can voluntarily not speak for an hour and a half.
Because too often we question and talk to God, but rarely do we take a significant amount of time to allow him to talk with us.
This Christmas season, let’s not think that we have to have it all together to celebrate Christ’s coming, if that were true then there would’t have been the first Christmas. Instead let’s seek God in our doubts, in our failings, remembering that it was at the manger that the perfect God took on the flesh of his creation, to walk perfectly with us, to then lay his life down for us, so that we may be resurrected with him someday. And though we may feel discouraged, depressed, or in a perpetual state of disaster, God is still true to his word. Amen.
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