Luke
1:67-79 *
In
the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
Fast
forward forty five minutes. This service
is now over. You are gathering up the
things in your pew when you spot someone you need to talk to. You make your way out into the narthex and
wade through the people. As you approach
that person and open your mouth to speak, nothing comes out. Nothing at all. You don’t know how it happened, but somehow
you lost your voice.
You try again, but it doesn’t get any better. No amount of throat clearing can bring your
voice back either. In fact, you are
unable to make a sound for an entire year.
No talking on the telephone. No
hymn singing. No ability to tell mom or
dad or son or daughter, “I love you.”
Now imagine that it is one year later. Out of necessity, you have learned to adapt to your situation. You use a lot of hand gestures now. Your have to write things down. You aren’t happy about life without a voice, but you have learned to live with it. And then it happens. All of the sudden, with absolutely no warning, you can speak again. Your voice can be heard loud and clear.
If this were a true story, if this really happened to you,
what would you want to say with your newly restored voice? What would you want to be the very first
words to come out of your mouth? Maybe
you want to think about that for a while.
If you are looking for suggestions, you are in luck because this is a true story. This did happen to an old priest named Zechariah. Because he doubted the angel Gabriel’s promise that God would give him a son in his old age, he lost his ability to speak.
When the angel’s words came true a year later, eight days
after John was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth, Zechariah’s voice
returned. And Luke records for us the
first words that came out of his mouth.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Zechariah launched into a song, a song
whose title comes from the Latin translation of the first word: Benedictus.
Benedictus can mean
a couple different things in English.
The NIV translates it as “praise.” “Praise
be to the Lord, the God of
Today we meditate on the second great song of the Advent
season. With Zechariah, we sing…
BENEDICTUS = PRAISE = BLESSED
I. Zechariah praised God
II. Zechariah was blessed
by God
Zechariah had all kinds of reasons to praise God. After so many years, God had finally given
him a son. After so many months, God had
finally restored his voice. But when
Zechariah opened his mouth to praise God, neither one of those things came out
first. Instead he sang: “Praise be to the
Lord, the God of
If you have a New Testament handy, or if you are familiar
with the events of Luke 1, you might be thinking to yourself: “Hey. Wait a minute. If John the Baptist is eight days old, then
his cousin Jesus is still in his mother’s womb.
Technically, he hasn’t even been born yet, much less done anything to
redeem his people. So how can Zechariah
speak of Jesus’ incarnation and redemption as if they are accomplished facts?”
To answer this question, it is helpful to see how Luke
describes Zechariah’s song. He doesn’t
say “Zechariah sang” or “Zechariah proclaimed” or “Zechariah declared.” Luke says that Zechariah “prophesied.” As the promises of the Old Testament and the
fulfillments of the New Testament were about to collide, Zechariah prophesied
about the not-so-distant future.
Zechariah’s prophecy also recalled some of the promises God had made to his people in the past: “He has raised up a horn 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” (69-71).
One thousand years before Gabriel spoke to Zechariah, God
himself spoke to David. He promised
David that the Savior would come from his line.
He promised that this Savior would sit on his throne. He promised David that his kingdom would last
forever (II Samuel 7).
One thousand years before that, two thousand years before
Zechariah, God swore an oath to his servant Abraham: “to show mercy to our fathers 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” (72-75).
This day was a very special day in the life of Zechariah,
and not just because he got his voice back.
This was the day of John’s circumcision.
This was the day when Jewish males entered into a covenant relationship
with God. This covenant went all the way
back to Abraham (Genesis 17).
Circumcision was a physical sign of a spiritual relationship with
God.
As Zechariah’s son was circumcised on the eighth day, God’s
promises to Abraham were being renewed.
As Zechariah’s son carried out his special calling, God’s promises to
Abraham were being fulfilled.
Incarnation. Redemption. Salvation. Thousands of years of history, thousands of
years of promises, thousands of years of eager expectation were coming together
at this time and place in history. And
Zechariah could not help but “praise the
Lord, the God of
You can almost picture Zechariah holding his newborn son in
his arms. He is overflowing with joy. He
is bursting with pride. He is filled
with the Spirit as he looks down at John and says: “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” (76).
As a priest, Zechariah worked for God. But he never could have imagined that his son
would work with God. As a priest,
Zechariah would have been proud if his son had followed in his footsteps. But God had other plans. The Lord called John to be a prophet, a
prophet unlike any of God’s messengers before him, “a prophet of the Most High.”
What exactly does “a prophet of the Most High” do? Zechariah gives us a brief job
description: “You will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him” (76). God gave John a one-of-a-kind mission:
to prepare the way for Jesus, to announce the Savior’s arrival, to shine the
spotlight on the coming Messiah.
To carry out his one-of-a-kind mission, the Lord gave John a
one-of-a-kind message: “to give his
people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins”
(77). As a prophet, John’s
appearance was rather rough. As a
prophet, John’s message of repentance was rather rough. But beneath that rough exterior, John
preached a message of forgiveness. At
its very heart and core, John’s message was a message of hope.
Salvation was made possible “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, to guide our feet into the path of peace” (78-79).
Zechariah had been blessed by God with a son. Considering the circumstances surrounding
this birth, considering the role God had chosen for this child, Zechariah
didn’t expect anything more. But God
gave him more. God gave him much
more. In addition to a son (S-O-N), God
also promised to give him the sun (S-U-N).
Jesus was the “rising sun,” the “dayspring from on high
(KJV),” and he was about to break through the darkness. But the darkness didn’t want to let go. The prince of darkness was determined to
snuff out that light forever. And for a
few hours, it was dark. On Good Friday,
darkness covered the land. On Good
Friday, the forces of darkness had their way.
On God Friday, the Son of God died.
And it was very dark indeed.
But then a miracle happened, a miracle far greater than the
birth of John, a miracle even greater than the virgin birth of Jesus. The Son rose.
The rising sun rose from the dead.
Jesus Christ emerged from the grave with all the glory and splendor of
an Easter morning sunrise. The Light of
the world brought life to the world. The
prince of darkness was defeated. The deeds of darkness were forgiven.
As Zechariah gazed into the eyes of his one and only son, as
Zechariah gazed into the future and saw the supreme sacrifice of God’s one and
only Son, he knew that he was blessed.
Copyright laws are designed to protect the rights of authors
and composers. It is illegal to
reproduce their work without permission.
The Benedictus was composed by
Zechariah, but his song of praise is not copyrighted. In fact, I believe that Zechariah would
encourage us to use it as much as we want, to make his
song our own.
And why not? We have just as many
reasons to sing: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of
When we add up everything the Lord has done and continues to
do for us, when we look at the huge amount of the physical blessings that are
ours and realize that they are nothing compared to the spiritual gifts God
gives, when we humbly recognize that God doesn’t owe us any of it, it becomes
clear that we have one more thing in common with Zechariah. We are blessed.
Therefore, the song of Zechariah is not just an Advent
song. It is a song for all seasons. It is a song for all believers. And it’s simple one word title captures the
essence of its message: Benedictus = Praise = Blessed. Amen.