10 Layers
10 Layers
Luke 1:5-25
Let’s go on a careful walk through our text this morning…I think you’ll be surprised at just how many layers of meaning there are to explore.
“During the rule of Herod…” Those words alone would have sent chills up and down the spines of any group of believers. For a people who had suffered through an astounding number of bad kings, Herod was one of the worst. He was a paranoid, power-hungry, murderous tyrant. He was the personification of how power can destroy a human being and how that destruction can spread. He was also the father of the man who would kill John the Baptist.
And Elizabeth and Zachariah, the couple we meet in our text? They were as righteous as Herod was corrupt. Their consciences were clear. They loved each other. They loved God. Sadly, though, they, unlike Herod, had never been able to have a child. This absence must have tormented them. What had they done that would make God deny them that joy? Surely others who looked upon them would quietly torment them, too: “Maybe they’re not as good as we think?” There were the glances. There were the whispers. People said Elizabeth was “barren,” such an awful word. Whether they were tormenting themselves or someone else was tormenting them, the lurking suspicion was that God must have taken offense at something they had done. In a world where a woman’s only role was to produce children, the finger would have pointed straight at Elizabeth. That’s a load of guilt and shame to shoulder…
The third layer? Well, you’d think that the “good” people who pointed their finger at Elizabeth, or any other woman who had trouble getting pregnant, might have actually remembered the scripture that they all supposedly loved. Did anyone remember Sarah and Abraham? Abraham was the “father of faith.” Yet, for most of his life with his wife, Sarah, they, too, are not able to have a child. Then, one day, in their old age, an angel comes to them announcing that there is a baby on the way. Abraham basically says, "I seriously doubt that!” Sarah just falls to the ground, laughing. The angel says, “No really!” Then, they had a baby. Of course, they named the son, Isaac, which meant, “laughter.”
The foundational story of the birth of the people’s faith rested in the story of a man and a woman who had trouble giving birth. This couple was God’s choice to become the father and mother of faith and God achieved this by helping them to become a mother and a father, first. So, instead of judging those caught in such struggles as being punished by God perhaps they should have realized that folks like this are the kind of people God sometimes approaches with a high calling. Maybe the calling isn’t always, “Have this child!” Maybe the calling can be to faithfully love some other child or a whole group of children as their own. My point is simply that if we judge folks who struggle to have children as “out” then we need to remind ourselves about the childless couple—Sarah and Abraham— who were “in” before anyone else.
Fourth layer…consider Zachariah and Elizabeth from a different point of view. They are not only faithful and childless, their roots can be traced all the way back in the people’e history. Elizabeth is a descendant of the daughters of Aaron, Moses’ brother—the brother who was supposed to have come up with the bright idea of making a golden calf to worship while Moses was up on the mountain. Zachariah is a descendant in a long line of priests who could trace themselves back to the appointment of King David. The blood of some of the most vital leaders in the history of Israel ran through Zachariah and Elizabeth’s veins.
Fifth layer…now focus on Zachariah. He’s a priest from a long line of priests. That meant he worked at the temple. However, that didn’t mean that he was some powerful religious scholar or leader. All indications are that while Zachariah was a part of the organized religious world, he was likely just a “grunt” in that hierarchy. His life was probably made up of ordinary tasks and routine religious practices. There would have been a whole lot of other people who were also priests, just like him.
Sixth layer…this was Zachariah’s lucky day! Once in every average, run-of-the-mill priest’s life, each priest got to enter the holiest of holy places, the inner sanctum of the temple where it was thought that God resided. Over time, God’s “address” had grown more and more narrow. Long ago, God had created the whole world. Long ago, God had walked with the people through the wilderness. Long ago, God had brought the people into the promised land. However, more recently, the people built a really beautiful temple. When it was done, everyone knew that this was God’s new home. And in that beautiful temple, it quickly became clear that God wouldn’t reside where the common people walked and worshiped. No…God would want a special place inside of this special place. Eventually, only a handful of people would be given access to that place—the powerful people, those who were holier-than-thou—and an occasional, run-of-the-mill priest who was having his lucky day.
7th layer…Often, the last person who expects to have a spiritual experience of the presence of the living God are priests and pastors. I know that’s weird but bear with me here. I’m worshiping with you this morning but I’m also responsible for whether the internet connection is working, wondering how long the light bulbs will last before they burn out and listening carefully to that pinging noise that the boiler is making. Making things happen at church and during worship is my job! It’s really easy to forget to make room for God. It’s really easy to just keep ticking things off my list.
This is why I feel empathy for Zachariah. Sure, he must have been excited to get to go to the one area of the temple that he had never been allowed to enter. Who wouldn’t be curious? Who wouldn’t want to see? If the worker from the warehouse gets to see the board room, they’re probably figuring the tour will be fun. Maybe they think they’ll get to sit down and bounce in a chair. However, they’re probably not expecting to be greeted by the CEO with the message, “Have we got news for you!”
Of course, it’s not the CEO who greets him—just Gabriel, the angel of God, (the CEO’s messenger). The angel appears and Zachariah is terrified—which is really pretty funny! The crowds are burning incense and praying. Zachariah would have been right there on a different day, maybe selling them the incense or leading the prayers or just cleaning the room afterwords. He would have been doing everything he could to assure the crowd that they were in a holy place and that God was hearing their prayers. However, the last thing he was expecting was to have his own genuine spiritual experience of the presence of God.
Maybe this strikes me as extra funny because I’m one of those “run of the mill” priests/pastors who can forget that we have to make room for mystery and for the extraordinary, even though I’m supposedly in the “mystery and the extraordinary” business, myself. I, too, have been terrified by the surprising presence of God and been left slack jawed. I, too, have shaken my head and said, “Who is this? What is this really?”
Layer 8… The angel gives Zachariah some really good news: he and Elizabeth are going to have a baby! Not only are they going to have a baby but the baby will be a son whose name will be John. That baby is going to become an amazing man. He won’t drink what everyone else drinks. He won’t eat what everyone else eats. He won’t look or sound like anyone else. However, he’s going to change everyone he touches. He’s going to prepare the way for a whole new experience of God.
This layer prompts two insights. First, all of the people listening to this account would have recognized the locust-eating, wilderness-wandering, John the Baptist in this description. He had baptized so many of them. The way this story was told, they must have made the connection that if Elizabeth and Zachariah were the new Sarah and Abraham, then John the Baptist was the new Isaac. John’s role had been ordained from before his birth. History was repeating itself, and that was the plan from the start.
Second, it is a delicious twist that Zachariah, the “company man,” the common priest, was going to be the father of the man who would challenge everything about his father’s highly organized religion. John’s life stood in opposition to the temple. He wasn’t a rabbi but he did everything a rabbi would do. He wasn’t in a temple. He stood in the wilderness and baptized the people in a river. And yet…what would matter was not the holiness of a building or certification by the authorities but the struggle to help people discover that God was present everywhere, for everyone.
Layer 9… The angel Gabriel gets a little irked that Zachariah doubt’s this good news. As a result, Zachariah’s “lips are sealed” until his son is born. So, a religious leader is forced to exist in silence, which is a real reversal for any priest or pastor because we are used to filling any and every open space or moment with words: “Zachariah…just be quiet for a while.” While this might seem harsh, any pastor/priest/rabbi will tell you that silence can be such a gift. You see, what came before our words was the profound experience of standing slack-jawed and staring at a sunset or at a baby or at the reconciliation of two people who only a moment before were deeply divided. Call such moments “spiritual” or “mysterious" or just “overwhelming.” Silence is often the most faithful response we make when we discover ourselves standing in the presence of God.
I suspect that a lot happened for Zachariah in that silent time. He thought about things and then thought about them in a new way. He listened to the people around him. He had time to just take things in. And having been silent for a while, I suspect he was more than ready when it became time to speak again. And, while he was silent, his wife, Elizabeth, found her voice and spoke up!
Layer 10… Consider all the unexpected things that God is doing. Who would have ever expected an elderly couple to have a child? Who would have ever expected God to actually show up in the temple? Who would have ever thought a priest would be silenced? Who would have thought that a woman who was supposed to be silent would speak up? Nothing is unfolding according to the religious rules and practices. However, God is a part of everything that is happening.
In a few decades, Herod’s son would kill John. Before that, though, John would indeed prepare the way for a whole new experience of God’s presence in this life. His words would be a wake-up call. And, just so you know, according to those who were there, at the moment when Jesus died on the cross, the temple curtain that divided God’s little sacred place from common people and the rest of the world was torn in two. God’s place was now everywhere and every person could stand in the presence of God.