Zechariah: A Song of Faith
For Meditation
Over the next few Sundays, we’ll be looking at four of the great “songs” that Luke records in the first two chapters of his Gospel. These are the original Christmas carols, songs surrounding the birth of Christ that the church has sung over the centuries. This week we’re looking at Zechariah’s song in Luke 1:67-79, what is often called the “Benedictus,” taken from the first word of this song in Latin. To this day, liturgical churches recite this song every single day when it gathers for Matins, or Morning Prayer. What’s amazing about this song that is that it sums up the whole history of salvation, putting John the Baptist and Jesus in the context of the great story of Israel.
To understand the depth and power of this song, we need some background. About four centuries before the birth of Christ, Malachi the prophet spoke to the people of Israel and his words were recorded in the book that bears his name. In fact, his words are the very last words in the Old Testament, which ends like this: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6). Just like that, the Old Testament concludes. What is this promise all about? The prophet Elijah died hundreds of years before this passage was written. People were left wondering, what does this mean? Will Elijah come back from the dead? Will another person who is just like Elijah come? God’s people are left waiting, wondering, watching.
Waiting, wondering, watching … for 400 years. After Malachi spoke these words, there were no more prophets and no more revelations of God for 400 years. Total silence from heaven. There is only one turn of the page for us between the Old Testament and the New, but for God’s people at that time, God’s silence was deafening. And during that time, things got really bad for God’s people. They were taken over by foreign enemies and subjected to oppression and poverty. In their minds, it looked like God had completely abandoned them. God’s silence was terrible.
But finally, God spoke. The messenger Gabriel came to Zechariah and said that now is the time for God to fulfill Malachi's promise- that one like Elijah is coming, who will prepare the way for God’s Messiah to deliver God’s people forever. Interestingly, because Zecheriah does not initially believe the angel, he is struck silent. For the nine months of his wife’s pregnancy he was left silently pondering the angel’s words, mirroring the centuries of silence as God’s people waited for deliverance. Finally, when his son John is born and Zechariah’s mouth is open, he sings this song of praise and thanksgiving to God who fulfills his promises even after so many years of silence.
Advent is a time of silent waiting. Often it appears that God is silent. We don’t see God acting in our lives, we don’t see God acting in our world. But in Advent, we look back and remember how God fulfilled his promise after so many years of silence, and we sing in faith about how God will fulfil his promises to us again. “For you, O Lord, our souls in silence wait” (Psalm 62:5).
Luke 1:67–69
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.”