Luke 1 67-80 Advent 1 – “Hope!”

The story behind this prophetic praise hymn, is of Zechariah and Elisabeth longing for a child until they became too old and gave up hope; then God sent his angel to tell Zechariah it was going to happen. Zechariah didn't believe it, so was struck dumb until, sure enough, Elisabeth became pregnant and eventually gave birth to a baby boy who was called John. In the meantime, Elisabeth 's young cousin Mary had arrived, saying that she too was expecting a baby; but this baby was the son of God. When John was named, his father Zechariah 's speech was restored and this psalm of praise giving a divinely inspired commentary was the first thing Zechariah said!

The point
In the events of the last nine or ten months, Zechariah sees not just a miraculous answer to his own prayers over years of desperation, but God at work to “visit” his people. It's happened! The time has come!   God has “Visited“,  come to take care of his people  “Israel”.  It has happened.

There's a verse in Psalm 119 where the writer talks about feeling like a “wineskin in the smoke” (Ps 119. 83). New wineskins would be cured for a while by being hung up in the rafters of the house, where smoke from the fire would drift around them and preserve them. And used wineskins that were being kept would be stored in the same place. To anyone looking up at them they looked abandoned and useless. Zechariah and Elisabeth waiting for a family to come along must have felt like “wineskins in the smoke”, and those waiting for God to “visit” his people, must have felt like “wineskins in the smoke”

Photo by G Lilly 

But that waiting time is over. God has done it. He has visited his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation. All the strength of a bull or a ram is focused in its horns, to lethal effect. So the Old Testament idea of a “horn of salvation” refers to a person or persons in whom all the strength and power of God is concentrated. This wasn't Baby John: Zechariah's family were not from the house of David. But Zechariah obviously knew about Mary's pregnancy and the predicted birth of her baby, the Messiah.

The first thing Zechariah expects as God “visits”, is “salvation from our enemies” (v 71, 74). The first thought on many minds as they heard these words, would be political: the obvious enemy was the Romans. But as Marshall says, “Political need and spiritual need are closely linked.” These enemies prevent Israel from “serving God without fear” (v. 74)

But it's not just a matter of freedom from the Romans. The tone of the song changes in verse 6. This is where baby John comes in. He is to be the “One crying in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord.” ( Isa 40:3 ) As he lived and grew and served and preached and baptised, he fulfilled that prophecy. Not the One who would save, but the one who would prepare the way... level the paths, get a people ready for their God.

The Second thing Zechariah expects as God “visits”, is a cleansing and forgiveness process. God's people experience “the knowledge of salvation” (not just head-knowledge) “through the forgiveness of their sins” (v. 77). Because the hope and vision of Israel was nationalistic. and narrow; because they saw that hope in terms of political rescue from national enemies... because they were smug and blind to their own sin, they needed someone to prepare the way, to cause them to face up to the reality of their own sin and the possibility of salvation. And this,  in repentance, and a refreshing, enlivening experience of God's forgiveness and grace, is where we always have to start in any experience of revival or renewal.

Sunrise at HuaLo by Handyhuy

The Third thing Zechariah expects as God “visits” is captured in the words “the rising sun will come to us from heaven” (v. 78f) The word translated rising sun (NIV) or dayspring (AV) or Sunrise (NASV, Message) literally means anything that rises or grows upwards or springs forth: it can mean the sunrise or it can mean the shoot of a plant. It looks as if Zechariah has at the back of his mind prophecies like Jer 23. 5: “I will raise up for David a righteous Branch” but is mainly thinkin
g of Mal 4:2 (NASV )  “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” Salvation isn't just political or personal, it's total. It brings healing, (cf Isa 53. 5)  “by his wounds we are healed,”  It renews strength Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength (Isa 40.  31) and freedom and joy. It starts with forgiveness; but it doesn't stop there. It brings with it peace, "shalom", that is not just the end to war but the experience of salvation in every department of life. (“Peace, peace, to those far and near,”) ( Isa 57. 1 9)

That is what's happened. That, says Zechariah, is the salvation that has arrived. Not waited for any more. No more are God's people like wineskins in the smoke. God as visited his people. It's happened. Boom.

But there's a problem.
This “promise” is for Zechariah entirely a Jewish thing. It's focussed on “Israel” (v. 68); what God has done “for us” (v. 69); he has remembered his holy covenant (v. 72) with “our father Abraham” (v. 73), and plans “to give his people the knowledge of salvation” (v. 77) and to guide “our feet” (v. 79).   Zechariah has no interest in anyone else. He does not take the Gentile world into account.

The Difference ...
How wonderful that Luke the Gentile can write so lucidly about this very Jewish event! The thought is Zechariah's. Its very Israel-centered nationalism is its mark or authenticity. But the language is Luke's. For example, referring to God speaking through "the mouth of” the prophets (v. 70; cf Acts 1. 16; 3. 18, 21; 4. 25; 15. 7). He uses forms of language that just subtly remind us that he's there.

Luke understands then whole of gospel history, from before the birth of Jesus to beyond the birth of the church, including the life ministry death resurrection of Jesus and the coming in power of the spirit, as the arrival of the kingdom, the beginning of the fulfilment of the messianic hope, to be completed when Jesus returns.   It's as if he is looking back at this event, able to understand and smile tolerantly at the dullness and narrowness, because he knows that God's plan was bigger than Zechariah could ever imagine.

Maybe the hope of Israel was, at the time of Zechariah's prophecy, quite limited and nationalistic. That didn't prevent them from having a hope, however narrow; and it didn't prevent God from having his plan and purpose, however large. If we will let him, God will respond to our little narrow vision and hope, by sending his vast, broad, vision and hope!

So what does that look like?   It means
Confidence.  We live expecting the interventions of god as though they had already happened.  That's not a shallow optimism but a statement of faith.  Desmond Tutu " I am not optimistic but I am hopeful"   Jurgen Moltmann is a German theologian who came to faith in Christ in a PoW camp in Kilmarnock. He says “Only abandon hope at the gates of hell"
Cleansing  We know and experience repentance and forgiveness process; that does not mean wallowing in our sin and failures; but letting God deal with our rubbish!
Connecting.  We live a “joined up” life that recognises  the effects of salvation in every department of life. We connect with all the healing, strength, joy and peace of god's Kingdom.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spent many years in a Soviet labour camp. There is a story of how one day he reached the point of feeling he could go on no longer, threw his shovel down and waited to be beaten to death: it had happened to other prisoners. But before the guards responded, another prisoner ran over, scratched a cross on the ground, and went back to work. Somehow Solzhenitsyn found the strength to pick up his shovel again. When the Gospel touches us it changes all of life.


Moltmann says "The knowledge that Christ alone is Lord cannot be confined to faith. It must encompass the whole of life."

What does your hope/vision look like?

© Gilmour Lilly December  2013