Tales of Angels – Luke 1:68-79

A text – Luke 1:68-79 The Song of Zechariah

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his child David,
⁷⁰ as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
⁷¹ that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
⁷² Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors and has remembered his holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us 

⁷⁴ that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear,    ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness in his presence all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.
⁷⁸ Because of the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,
⁷⁹ to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

A reflection:

This week we don’t have a psalm, per se, but we have a song instead. Luke has three songs in the beginning chapters of his gospel: The Song of Mary (Jesus’s mother sang “The Magnificat”), The Song of Zechariah (the father of John the Baptizer), and the Song of Simeon (the old man in the temple who was promised by God that he would live to see the Messiah).

We know the song Mary sings when she sees her cousin/aunt Elizabeth. She has probably gone to Elizabeth to stay clear of her own family members who might have tried to clear the family name and honor of the stain of Mary’s child being born out of wedlock. She has heard the angel Gabriel’s promise of a son who would be heir to David’s throne, and she boldly claims in her that God will turn the world upside down with this baby (or, better, right side up). The poor will have food, the rich will go empty. In doing these things God is fulfilling all the promises he made to their ancestors.

Gabriel had appeared to Zechariah some months before. He had told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a son who would be the forerunner of the Messiah, a son who would change the world and be compared to Elijah. Instead of believing Gabriel’s message, Zechariah unhelpfully pointed out that old people don’t have babies. For his unbelief he was struck dumb for 9 months. He was still silent when Mary came to visit, but he heard her song, and he echoes much of her song in his song here. Do you hear it? From the start through verse 75, he is remembering the prophets that foretold this moment, the salvation of Israel. From verse 76 onward he is speaking tenderly but prophetically to his new son.

God is about to fulfill an old promise and also do a new thing, something with will change everything. And we in the world are about to see it, just as we have done every year for over 2000 years. Prepare for Advent, the time of waiting for the savior.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for the stories of your holy family and their relatives, their belief and bravery and their unbelief and normalness. Help us to believe this season as we hear the unfolding of your story this year. Amen.