There are many parallels between yesterday’ Gospel from Matthew and today’s Gospel from Luke.
In yesterday’s Gospel of Matthew, the annunciation of Jesus’ conception is given to Joseph rather than to Mary. In today’s Gospel of Luke, the annunciation of John the Baptist’s conception is given to Zechariah instead of Elizabeth.
The major difference is the age of the couples. Joseph and Mary are young and ready to raise a family. Zechariah and Elizabeth are old and beyond the age of bearing children.
Even though they are old they prayed for a child. The Gospel tells us “Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.” Observing the commandments was a moral obligation and observing the ordinances was a ceremonial or liturgical obligation.
Zechariah was serving in the Temple and was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. An angel appeared and said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.” Zechariah had obviously been praying for a child because the angel tell him that his prayer was heard and proceeds to tell him that Elizabeth will bear a son and they will name him John.
The angel continues to tell Zechariah “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.” The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible explains that this last phrase means that the baby will be greater than all the prophets of the Old Testament before him.
In the Gospel of Mathew Jesus confirms this when he said “Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist”
The angel also tells Zechariah that John will “drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. The commentary explains that means he shall be a Nazarite, or “a separated one”. …. the Nazarite was a symbol of holiness; nothing inflaming was to cross his lips; no razor to come on his head; no ceremonial defilement to be contracted. Thus was he to be “holy to the Lord [ceremonially] all the days of his separation.” This separation was in ordinary cases temporary and voluntary: only Samson, Samuel, and John Baptist were Nazarites from the womb.
Zechariah doesn’t believe the angel because of their age when he asks ““How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” It’s so like our mortal nature that we pray for a miracle and then question it when it happens. Zechariah prayed for a child even though they were past the age of bearing children and then doubts that the miracle he prayed for can happen.
But God did provide the miracle in spite of Zechariah’s unbelief and John the Baptist was born to point all of us to the One who is to come. John said “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.”
John was a messenger who pointed others to Christ. Do we do the same in our lives? Do we point others to Christ by the way we live our lives?
