December 10 Advent

Today we move along to Zechariah’s song! That’s right, after all of his silence, he too, get’s to praise God! It isn’t until after he takes the bold step of faith to name his son John (which was not a family name, but instead, the name given by Gabriel) that this happens. 

Side track: I wonder if there was a deeper meaning to the angel’s request... I wonder if the name was based on the fact that the angel knew John would be a martyr, and that giving him a family name would not carry on Zechariah’s legacy. I wonder if they ended up having more children after John was born? I mean, isn’t it also common today that after infertility results in a pregnancy, that the woman tends to be more firtile and able to get pregnant? After all, God opened her womb... Maybe THAT child got to carry on Zechariah’s name... who knows! These are just my thoughts as I try and pull the story to life.

Anyway, Zechariah’s song!! Zechariah’s song is ALSO in two parts. What is interesting, is that both Mary’s and Zechariah’s songs start by praising the coming of their savior. The first seven verses (before Zechariah utters one word about his own son) are all a praise story to the coming of Christ. Because you see, now that Zechariah knew and did not doubt the angel’s words, he has come to realize the fullness of what they mean! If his own son is to be the Elijah...then that means...THE SAVIOR IS ACTUALLY COMING!!

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn [strong king] of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors
    and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
    and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. (Luke 1:68-75)

It is an interesting song, because although the entire thing is filled with scriptural truth, we can assume (or at least I am) that Zechariah mis-understood a part of his own prophecy. Given that he was one of the servants of the temple, we can assume his values of a Christ-savior would have stood similar to those of the teachers of the law. He likely thought that the line “salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us” meant literal deliverance from the Romans. We know now today that this verse was referring to the spiritual forces who hate them. The evil that oppressed them. NOT the Romans... Thankfully, Jesus Christ was his nephew, so as Christ’s ministry continued on, I am sure Zechariah learned the truth and praised God for it!. He knew this full-well because of Mary’s own prophecy’s and the immaculate conception. After all, Mary did stay with them during her first trimester 

Super side-track: I think it’s unfair that women of the bible got to just hide the entire puke-session of their pregnancy in seclusion/doing nothing and instead we have to carry on as if nothing ever happened, and pretend we are NOT pregnant at the same time. I think they were on to something there...Heck! Elizabeth took 5 months to herself! Hmmm.... someone ought to inform the government! Haha!

But back to Zechariah’s song! The first thing Zechariah does is give God the gory for the entire event that is about to occur. He Speaks about the events of christ’s life yet-to-come with SUCH FAITH you would think they had already happened! In fact, they had not! Zechariah’s mouth was JUST opened in the temple during John’s circumcision when he declares his song. Jesus hadn't even been born yet.

Zechariah’s song has many words about the victory of Christ over their oppression/separation from God. Zechariah declares that God has remembered his holy covenant (as if God had forgotten it... don’t we do this to God all the time as well, accusing him of forgetting, when really he just has different timing than us).

 And then as Zechariah closes this first half of his song, we can see that he really DOES “get-it” when he says that Christ is coming “to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days”...This has profound meaning coming from a servant of the temple who just performed the “highest honor” of lighting the incense before the lord. Zechariah praises God, that people will be able to serve him both without fear and all their days! This is huge! This is the exact freedom we have in Christ. We no longer require a priest to come to God on our behalf. We don't have to wait till a certain time of the month to approach God. His holiness is available to us 24/7 anywhere we are! Whether we are clean or unclean in the eyes of Jewish law does not matter. God declared all his children clean when Christ died on the cross as our sacrifice. We are no longer slaves to the laws of the old testament. This is exactly what Zechariah’s song declares, whether he knew it or not! 

I don't really blame Zechariah though. How often do we sing songs or pray prayers without fully grasping the entirety of what they mean to God? I mean, isn't that half the beauty of hearing a child sing a song with potent lyrics? The innocence yet sincerity? I think Zechariah’s heart was in the right place and his song was honoring to God. The words he spoke were truth, and ultimately he “got it”.

Do we “get it”? Do we understand the fullness of the songs we sing during this time of year? Do we know why we exchange gifts? Do we worship Christ in each and every tradition we carry out on the day of his birth? Or has it become more about ritual than praise? Perhaps we need to check our hearts. Unlike Zechariah we are not innocent in our mis-conceptions. If we are not “getting it” that is because we are not “seeking it”. Zechariah’s heart was right, and he was seeking God fully. His song was one of praise and truth to God. What are our songs sounding like to God this Christmas? Do they rise up to him from a sincere and praise-filled heart? Or are they songs that take his incredible sacrifice for granted? Because then these songs sound more like a “resounding gong or a clanging symbol...”

Let us all spend some time checking our hearts today, and every time before we sing God’s praises during this holiday season. Let us have hearts like Zechariah. Let us strive to “get it” since we have all the resources available to us, in order to fully comprehend the words we sing... but if we are limited in our time, and cannot put the time and research into our understanding, let us also approach each moment of praise with a heart that says “I will worship you with all my heart, even if my understanding isn’t fully formed on what the words of this carol represent.”

Dear God, thank you so much for this Christmas season. Thank you for the grace you showed to Zechariah and how you used him to bring your glory to the temple. God we thank you that we can know this whole story, and know your glory as we can look back and see the whole story, unlike Zechariah. Lord we ask you for the time necessary to research in worship. Help us comprehend the words we sing to you, and please draw our hearts and bring us to a place of sincerity in worship. Lord give us the opportunities to prepare our hearts for worship toward you. Please forgive us of our callousness and lack of care already this season  when we have sang worship songs from an in-sincere heart.  Help us change our hearts to be more like Zechariah’s heart of faith. Thank you for your forgiveness and for making a way for us to be with you any time anywhere.

In Jesus Name,
Amen