This Advent, we’re giving you a weekly gift from Darrell Johnson’s new devotional, Awaken Wonder: Daily Devotions for Advent. Each week, we will share one devotional featuring a short reading, reflection, and prayer: a moment of pause in the midst of the season to make room for the wonder of Christ’s coming and promised return.
This week’s excerpt, from Week Two: Sunday, invites you to sit with the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth as you begin your Advent journey.
Read
Luke 1:1-25; Luke 1:57-80; Matthew 1:1-17
Reflect
Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth loved God with all their heart (Luke 1:6-7). Such love, however, did not insulate them against the pains of life in a broken world. All their married life they had wanted children, but they were unable to make it happen. Each passing month and year deepened the pain. Then one day, as Zacharias, who was a priest, was praying in the temple, an angelic messenger brought him tremendous news: “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John” (Luke 1:13). And then the angel went on to tell him about who his son would be (Luke 1:14-17).
To say the least, Zacharias was startled by this encounter and message. In fact, he found it all hard to believe: “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years” (Luke 1:18). Zacharias, understandably, needed some tangible sign of the validity of this promise.
God responded, and made Zacharias unable to speak until the day the child would be born (Luke 1:19-20). He got more than he bargained for—nine months of no speaking! Finally the day came, and Elizabeth delivered a son; when the boy was eight days old, the extended family gathered together to circumcise and name him. And Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, his mouth was opened, his tongue was loosed, and his heart burst forth in praise, singing his powerful “Benedictus.” Oh, how he sang!
His song is not just the boasting of a proud father. Yes, Zacharias rejoices in the role John is given: he is to be the forerunner, the one who prepares the way for the Lord. But Zacharias’s song is not primarily about his son, John. Indeed, by the end of the song, his son is outshone by a great Son (Luke 1:78). Zacharias’s spirit soars in praise because he sees, in the One who comes after his son, the coming of God!
Zacharias’s great insight is that his son will announce the advent of God! “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us” (Luke 1:68). Zacharias realizes that Christmas is all about God’s visitation of the world.
“God has visited us!” That is what causes Zacharias to sing for joy. In the birth of his son, the living God has begun a process whereby God is entering history in person. This is not to say that God has been absent from history up to this point—quite the contrary. But Zacharias came to realize that the birth of his son was the prelude to a totally unique event, a history-dividing event—the Living God visiting the world in person.
Two words capture God’s motivation for visitation. The first is faithfulness. God had made specific promises to specific persons of the past. Zacharias refers to the prophets, to the ancestors, to David, and to Abraham. Zacharias sees, in the births of his son and Mary’s Son, God’s fulfillment of those covenants. Christmas declares the faithfulness of the Promise-Maker: God did what God said he would do. This great truth is affirmed in the Hebrew names for those involved in the Christmas Story—Zacharias means “God has remembered,” and Elizabeth means “God is oath” or “God is the absolutely faithful one.”*
There is an even deeper motive for God’s visitation. Driving God’s faithfulness is God’s mercy. Twice Zacharias sings of it: God has visited us “to show mercy toward our fathers” (Luke 1:72), and “because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us” (Luke 1:78).
The God of Christmas is not the God of the philosophers, the unmoved mover, lost in lofty contemplation of the Divine self. The God of Christmas is the passionate God, who sympathizes and empathizes, who feels our hurts and longings and fears. The God of Christmas is full of tender mercy. Again this truth is affirmed in a Hebrew name for one of the characters in the Christmas Story, for John means “God is merciful.”
Faithfulness and mercy—that is why Christmas happens. The Living God has made covenants and is keeping them. The Living God feels for human beings in bondage and darkness and is doing something about it. What thrilled the heart of Zacharias is that Christmas is not an afterthought, but the fulfillment of promise that emerges out of the depths of Divine compassion.
Pray
Wise God,
thank You that Christ’s incarnation
was not a quick reaction to surprising circumstances
but part of Your eternal purpose,
the unfolding of Your long-ago decreed will.
To think that my salvation is part of Your grand eternal purpose
leaves me stunned with joy-filled awe. Amen.
*Philip F. Reinders, Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2012), 75.
If you enjoyed this reflection, consider getting yourself a copy of Awaken Wonder to continue your journey through Advent, to gift to a friend, or to revisit in the years ahead.
