Luke 1:1-38
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Devotional
I can still remember, over 20 years ago, the time when God spoke to me.
I was in my first year of Bible College on a weekend prayer retreat at King’s Fold Retreat Center in Alberta, Canada, and I was experiencing the all-too-common crisis of faith that meets many first-year Bible College students as they realize that the Triune God—Father, Son, Spirit—and the cosmos and the cross and the story he has been writing and the faith that he calls us to is infinitely bigger, higher, wider, and deeper than what I had understood in my youthful enthusiasm and piety. As I began to drown in the realization of all that I didn’t know, I began to question if there was even anything to know.
How could I be certain that any of what I believed was real?
In response to my doubts, God had an answer… sort of.
In today’s gospel reading, the author, Luke, begins by stating that he is writing “this orderly account” so that the reader may know the “certainty of the things” they have been taught. Luke then leads off with one story of two separate but similar foretellings. And when I say similar, I mean strikingly similar. The kind of similar that is so similar it invites us to look closer to see if we can spot the difference and then consider what that difference might reveal to us.
Two similar visitations from the angel Gabriel…
Two similar announcements of imminent pregnancies…
Two similar questions—“How?”—regarding the plausibility of these pregnancies…
And then the first obvious difference: the angel Gabriel’s response.
To Mary, the angel responds with what seems to me a patient answer, like they’re saying, “Good question! Here’s how…”. But to Zechariah, the angel responds with what seems to me almost like offence, like they’re saying, “What’s the matter with you?” And not only that, but there is a consequence to Zechariah’s question: “Now you’re not going to be able to speak until the baby is born because you didn’t believe me.”
Why such a difference in response to such similar questions? There are likely many answers to that question, perhaps you already have some of your own thoughts. Good storytelling—good art—does this. It causes us to lean in, to wonder, to share with each other and, in our sharing, come to new depths of understanding. The Word of God is full of moments like these, thanks be to God!
The different responses from Gabriel must mean that there is a difference in the questions and, sure enough, when I revisit their words here is what I see:
Mary: “How will this be since I am a virgin?”
Zechariah: “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
Mary wonders. Zechariah wants certainty.
Mary’s question makes sense. As far as she knows, a baby being born to a virgin is a new thing. There are no stories in scripture about this—her God hasn’t done this before. Yet, she meets this unknown thing with wonder: “May it be…”
But Zechariah… well, actually, I think his question makes sense too but for different reasons. Unlike with Mary, God has done this before. Zechariah was a Jewish priest, and he would intimately know that God had once promised Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age (Gen. 15 & 17) just as God was now promising the same to him. Yet, he meets this with skepticism, perhaps because he’s afraid to hope… and I get this.
Hope is a risky, vulnerable thing. We’ve likely all experienced the pain of hoping for something that didn’t happen and it can be devastating. To believe in something that runs the risk of not actually coming to pass can feel foolish… more than foolish, it can feel reckless.
Which was why, on that prayer retreat some 20 years ago, I was having a crisis of faith—I was afraid. I was afraid of putting my hope in something that would let me down because what if this gospel is, in fact, too good to be true. What if I spend my life on this and the promises come up empty? And so, as I once again ran through my litany of complaints and doubts, I finally cried out, “How can I believe in you if I don’t even know that any of this is real?!”
Unlike Zechariah, I wasn’t deprived of speech for nine months, but God did speak a word (several words, in fact) that brought silence—silence to my doubts, silence to my complaint—not because the answer gave me certainty, but because it invited me to true faith. A faith that believes without needing to see (John 20:29). A faith that is confident in what (and who) it hopes for even if what lies ahead is shrouded in unknowing (Heb.11:1).
I think it’s interesting that Luke begins this account by saying that he is writing it so that the reader can be certain of the things they have been taught as though reading about it is enough to make us certain. Zechariah read the stories, he knew the stories; but, when the story came to him he still needed more proof. The problem with stories is that they fade into antiquity—they become a thing that happened then. But as those living now, what we struggle with is knowing what comes next.
This tells me that the certainty Luke wants to impart is not the certainty I often seek. I often want to live “in the state of having no doubts at all.”1 But just as you probably can’t have courage without fear, I don’t think you can have faith without doubt… or maybe you can, but I can’t.
Mary asked, “How?” and the angel Gabriel responded. To be honest, I don’t know how much his explanation of the mechanics of this virgin birth might have helped her - it probably just raised more questions (I know it does for me). But the last thing Gabriel says to her is maybe the only thing that needed to be said: “For no word from God will ever fail.”
We might never get the answers we are looking for or the proof that we need to know without a shadow of doubt. But our lack of understanding doesn’t change who he is. Will we choose to trust God even if we don’t understand?
Mary, with hands open to the mystery before her said, “Okay,” and New Life began to grow within her. May it be so for us as well.
[1]https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/certainty
Pray:
- Meet me in my doubts and struggles, in the places I lack certainty.
- Give me the courage to hope in impossible things and eyes of faith to see with wonder those things that I don’t understand.
- Reveal to me your Goodness so that when all else fails, I may trust in that.
- Teach me to abide in your presence that, come what may, I may know your strength and companionship.
Author Bio
Shawn Baran is the Worship & Communication Arts Pastor at
Redwood Park Church in Thunder Bay, Ontario where he lives with his wife, Sara, and their three daughters. He loves movies at the theatre, night walks listening to dream pop, reading books while drinking coffee.
Luke and Acts taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
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