Zechariah thought he had God pegged. He thought he knew how
things were going to turn out. He and Elizabeth were childless and that is how
it would be. He was a priest and probably had some sort of idea about political
revolution and the restoration of a sovereign state in Israel.
And then God showed up and spoiled things.
Yes, they would have a child. Yes, this child would be a
prophet and yes, God’s promises will be fulfilled. The Song of Zechariah, or as
it is often called, the Benedictus, is a song of promise and hope.
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, He has visited and
redeemed his people.” It is a song of light and redemption – but it is in
response to a very different set of experiences than Zechariah would have imagined
for himself. I wonder how often we are like Zechariah – we write the story of
our lives before we even give ourselves a chance to live them. We come up with
endings before we have even given God a beginning. Zechariah was struck dumb,
he lost his ability to communicate easily and was only released from this
burden when he made it clear that he had begun to understand by writing the
name on the tablet.
But what about us, we do not lose the ability to speak when
we wander off into our own narrative, so what does happen. Well, we might not
lose the ability to physically speak, in fact we might make a whole lot of
noise as we move away from God’s narrative, but we do lose our ability to
communicate where it matters, and that is with God. When we move ourselves away
from God’s presence, from God’s story, it is like shouting across a room, or
talking underwater.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer says,
“And what does the text inform us about the content of
discipleship? Follow me, run along behind me! That is all. To follow in his
steps is something which is void of all content. It gives us no intelligible
program for a way of life, no goal or ideal to strive after. It is not a cause
which human calculation might deem worthy of our devotion, even the devotion of
ourselves…..the disciple simply burns his boats and goes ahead.”
This is what Zechariah did. In order to return to himself,
to regain his voice, he simply wrote a name on a tablet, but it was an
unexpected name, a name which did not conform, a name from God. He believed in
promise but could not know where that promise would lead.
Even in the face of terrible things, times when being a
disciple seems hollow and even stupid, we are invited simply to let go of
everything we think should be, everything we have carefully built for ourselves
and follow, simply run along behind Jesus. As Zechariah says,
“In the tender
compassion of our God
the dawn from on
high shall break upon us,
to shine on those
who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our
feet into the way of peace.”
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