Zechariah’s Song – Luke 1:67-79

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So the reading is from Luke 1, verses 67 to 79. And if you want to follow it in your Bibles, it's on page 1027, Luke 1 67, 79. Zechariah's song. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he's come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he said, through his holy prophets, long 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.

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, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the path of peace. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

We're going to try.

This one isn't working. Which it doesn't appear to be. Oh, it is. You can hear it. Oh, excellent.

Fantastic. Great. Shall we just pray, Father God, we know that you come to us and that you come to us wherever we are. And we ask, Lord, you will come to us now and you will touch each and every one of our hearts as we listen to what you have to say for us, which may be different for every individual here. But we know, Lord, that you speak.

Help us to listen. Amen. Amen. One of the many things I love about our book, the Bible, is that it is full of characters who get things wrong, who misread situations, grieve God, in essence. They mess up.

And that's really comforting because we all mess up. And yet God uses them, and he uses them powerfully. And in today's passage, we see another example of this. Zechariah was a man who got it wrong. And yet this song, this beautiful piece of poetry, has echoed down the centuries because he got it right.

Known as the Benedictus, it's been used since the middle of the 6th century in Lords, in Roman Catholic services, or matins, or morning prayer in the Church of England, because it praises God for his faithfulness and his deliverance. So how did Zechariah get it so wrong and in the Psalm of Praise get it so right? Well, we need to look earlier in this very, very, very long chapter of Luke to when Zechariah was first told in news he was going to become a dad For a bit of his background, which you may know, but Zechariah is a priest and one with rather impressive credentials. Both Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth are descendants of Aaron. Now, Luke deliberately tells us they were righteous in the sight of God, blamelessly following his commandments.

However, this impressive couple were also childless, which was quite a thing in those days. And like all Israel, were waiting for the promised Messiah. They've been waiting a very long time. The last time God has spoken to his people was through the prophet Malachi, who prophesied, but for you, who revere my name, the Son of righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings. And I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me.

Both of these are referenced in Zechariah's song. But whilst there had been many changes in the 400 years since God had last spoken, including, amongst others, the establishments of the first synagogues and the change from biblical Hebrew to Aramaic, there had been no prophets raised up. God had not spoken. It seemed that God was such silent. And now here was Zechariah, an old man, a faithful priest, doing this once in a lifetime service in the temple, faced with an angel who was telling him his old wife was about to give him a son.

And the role that that son was going to play in the salvation of Israel, a child who was actually the fulfilment of that last prophecy. Now, it's easy to criticise, but you have to admit it's no wonder. He was pretty freaked out about it, or as the Bible says, was gripped with fear. And then he had to try and explain what had happened. Now, kids, I'd like you to have a go at explaining to your dads or mums or other people around you that you've seen an angel, but you can't talk.

What would you do?

Not the easiest thing in the world, is it? No.

Now, not only does the angel Gabriel say that Elizabeth will bear a son, but. But just listen to the following promises that the angel lists. He will be a joy and delight to you. Well, most children would hopefully be a joy and delight. Many will rejoice because of his birth.

Well, I'm sure many of their family did rejoice because they weren't Expecting this. He will be great in the sight of the Lord. Whoa.

He will be filled with the Holy Spirit before he is born.

Now that's pretty amazing. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will make ready a people prepared for the Lord. This is what the angel told Zechariah. Now, we all want our children to be successful, but this must have been quite overwhelming. And Zechariah, in spite of all he knows about God's promises, what happened to Sarah and to Hannah, who bore children in their old age, finds it hard to believe.

And then the angel makes him mute. So that's the background now, over the last. Over the nine months, I guess. Zechariah did an awful lot of thinking. He obviously wasn't talking.

His wife might have liked the silence, so you never know. But Zechariah had time to think. Finally, Elizabeth bore a son. Now, eight days after they go to the temple to have him circumcised as per the custom. But there's a bit of confusion about his name.

Elizabeth declares he is to be called John, but that's not what's expected. The expectation is he'll be called after his dad, Zechariah. And all eyes turn to Zechariah, who then writes, his name is John. And immediately he's able to speak again. Now, names are important.

I'm sure the Christmas family, Ben and Hannah, not Mary and Joseph, spent ages thinking about the name of their new son, whom they called Malachi, which means messenger of God. Zechariah actually means Yahweh remembers, which in the light of this passage, is quite significant. Jesus or Yeshua means Yahweh saves. And John, well, John means Yahweh is gracious.

Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit and words come pouring out of him. Luke consistently makes the point with the births of Jesus and John that everything to do with those births were of the Holy Spirit. The power and the presence of the Spirit was evident in everything that took place. And it's a song born of the Spirit that Zechariah sang. As we've seen, it's divided into two praises to God for his faithfulness and prayer for his infant son.

And it's absolutely full of Old Testament references.

Throughout his Gospel, Luke uses these. It's really noticeable in certain passages, including this, about the promises of Yahweh to his people. Now, when I was younger, quite a bit younger, I wondered why Luke felt it was so important. After all, Luke was a Greek or Maybe Hellenistic Jew, we're not sure. And he was writing primarily to a gentile audience.

And then I realised, of course it's because the promises that God made right from the time of Abraham were for all people, not just Israel. And therefore the history of Israel is our history. The promises made to Israel are promises made to us as well. And so Zechariah's song is really, really relevant to us. Tom Wright expressed this very well when he published in his commentary.

At point after point, Luke links his story to the ancient biblical record of Israel, to the patriarchs, kings, prophets and psalms. He's writing of the moment when the centuries old story was going to come round a corner at last, out of darkness into light. Luke never forgets this larger perspective. Everything that he tells us about Jesus makes sense as the fulfilment of God's ancient promises.

John was born in a time of great uncertainty. They had lived through war, the destruction of the temple and now living under occupied rule as part of a ruthless empire. And yet, in the realisation of the angel's promise, Zechariah's faith was rejuvenated. He once again believed in his heart that God was active in the world and that his promises were being fulfilled. He sings that God has come to his people and redeemed them.

Salvation is the work of God. It is God who comes, it is God who saves, it is God who accomplishes it. It is God who raised up a horn of salvation, a symbol of hope and power. In Psalm 18 you read, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation.

Secondly, while Jesus is not specifically mentioned in Zechariah's prophecy, his person is described. There's no mistaking it. This horn of salvation is from the house of David. As we've already mentioned, Zechariah and Elizabeth were both descended from Aaron, from the tribe of Levi, but Jesus was descended from the tribe of Judah through David.

Thirdly, Zechariah just can't stop glorifying God who keeps his promises. All that God said he would do, he has begun to accomplish. Zechariah emphasises that what God was doing fulfilled what he spoke by the mouth of the prophets in ancient times. But God was remembering his holy covenants that he swore to our Father Abraham, which we know is part of our history. Then Zechariah addresses his son, this miracle baby who prepared a way for the Saviour, participating in God's mission of salvation by calling people to repentance for forgiveness of sins.

Zechariah must have been aware that to be a prophet of the Most High was not going to be an easy path, although I doubt he foresaw what would happen to John in the same way that Mary did not foresee what was going to happen to her son. But here, Zechariah pinpoints the central message of the Gospel. God's mercy, salvation, forgiveness and peace, which he refers to in this song. He reminds us of our need to not only turn to Christ, but to prepare for his second coming in this period of Advent. That is what we are thinking of.

Zechariah's song is a beautiful reflection of the Gospel of fear and doubt giving way to trust and belief, of anticipation of salvation being fulfilled, of God bringing people back to himself. Because God is faithful to his promises, it's not simply a way to announce the birth of John the Baptist, but rather to proclaim God faithfulness, his salvation and his peace. So as we draw near to this end of the season of Advent and look forward to Christmas, as we await the birth of the Saviour of the world, we can pray together with Zechariah. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to his people. Redeem them.

Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much, Claire. We've been thinking, haven't we, about Jesus is coming back.