Welcoming Jesus: Hope

Context

advent a season of expectation.

Gospel of the year: Luke.

Unique infancy stories which help us to engage with the sense of expectation that the season of Advent invites us into.

Luke offers us a pair of couplets.

Prophecy of John the Baptist’s birth.

Prophecy of Jesus’ birth.

A glimpse of how John will point to Jesus.

John’s birth.

Jesus’ birth.

We will look at each in turn.

Up first, the prophecy of the birth of John the Baptist.

Setting. 1st century. It has been about 500 years since the great prophets spoke the word of the Lord. The Romans were in control Jerusalem. In some quarters of the Jewish population there was hope that the day of the Messiah, who would bring the kingdom of God, was near.

Text

Luke 1:5–25 ESV

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

Introduction

Hope = an feeling of expectation and desire that a certain thing will happen.

Driving home from NC this week, heading toward Jacksonville. I hope the traffic won’t be too jammed up.

I hope I’ll find a job or get a raise this year.

I hope my health holds out for a little longer.

I hope that my children will be happy.

I hope this treatment plan will work.

I hope my spouse and I can fix it up.

People are naturally hopeful.

We hope all kinds of things. It is painful when our hopes don’t materialize.

I had hoped I would get into this school, but I didn’t.

I had hoped that this treatment would work, but it didn’t.

As Christians are to be hopeful especially in God. We are hopeful — we feel desire and expectation — that his promises will be fulfilled in our lives and for the world.

Our hope can sometimes sag. Advent, and this story in particular, calls us to have renewed hope in God.

ancient problem

Zechariah and Elizabeth are a devout couple. Both descended from the line of Aaron, meaning they knew the temple worship well. Knew their Scriptures and walked in their counsel blamelessly. Model Jews, and being elderly, had along track record of faithfulness.

Yet there is a blemish. They were barren. They had no children. They had been praying for years for a child. But no.

Zechariah is on duty. He was a member of one of the 24 divisions of priests who took turns serving in the temple.

He was chosen by lot — kind of like a rolling of the dice — to go into the holy place, where only the priests could go, to offer the incense to God. The incense represented the prayers of the people that go up to God, like the smoke.

The rest of the priests and the community remained outside in prayer.

When Zechariah entered the space he proceeded to the incense burner, expecting the place to be empty, but there was someone there.

An angel of the Lord. Standing to the right side of the incense burner. Standing in the place where prayer is offered and heard.

Zechariah immediately knows it is an angel. Troubled and fear fell upon him.

In a moment we will learn along with Zechariah that this angel is none other than Gabriel. One of two named angels in the Bible. An Arch-angel. Highly exalted and “stands in the presence of God”. Gabriel has the honor of communicating God’s good news to mortals. Last time Gabriel appeared in the book of Daniel, almost 600 years previously, to announce deliverance of Jews from exile during the Persian dynasty.

This time, Gabriel again has good news. He has been sent from the presence of God to tell Zechariah:

Your prayer has been heard.

Your wife, Elizabeth, will conceive.

But there is more. The answer is to more than the prayers of only the aging couple. The answer is for the prayers of many for the day of the Messiah to come. “many, will rejoice at his birth” — not because he is the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, but because he signals a new action by God for all people.

Gabriel describes who and what the child shall be.

His name shall be John — God is gracious.

Gabriel alludes to Biblical prophecies that Zechariah would have known well.

The ancient prophets, such as Malachi, said that the Messiah would be preceded by a herald. The forerunner would be like a new “Elijah” — who was a mighty servant of God, who had never died but had been taken up into heaven in a fiery angelic chariot. It was believed that Elijah would return and prepare the people for Messiah.

So, here is Zechariah, in the temple, face to face with an Angel, with Gabriel, he is told his prayers have been heard, that the prayers of many have been heard, and that he and his wife, despite decades of infertility, will have a son who will be the forerunner of the Christ.

Zechariah ‘s response: How can I be sure?

This response tells me that as faithful and pious as Zechariah was…his hope had burned out.

we can try to understand. Zechariah has been serving as a priest for his whole life.

Day after day, telling others to trust God with the desires of their hearts, teaching them to pray, seeing God bless them, but not receiving a child himself.

Now the decades have passed by, and it is too late for he and Elizabeth to have a child.

I’ve been praying about this for years, and now I am supposed to believe in an answer after it is too late? No, my prayers have not been heard…I don’t think my prayers CAN be answered now.

current problem

I had a friend back in my grad school days. He had always wanted to get married. In grad school people were pairing off or marrying their hometown sweethearts. He kept finding himself alone, though. Not like he wasn’t marriage material. Just didn’t come together. He prayed and prayed about it. He went on in ministry, I went on in ministry. Years later, I saw him at an event, though I felt a little awkward about it, I asked what his relationship situation was. He confided in me that he had given up on finding a relationship. He felt like maybe it was just getting too late for him.

I said I would join in praying about it for him…but he said no. Don’t. I’ve given up on that. I don’t pray about that anymore.

He was an effective minister. Godly man. Yet there was pain around this topic, a loss of hope…if not for others, than at least for himself.

Hope delayed can cause our hope to diminish…not because we aren’t faithful, not because we don’t love God,…but because hope delayed burns out the wick of expectation.

We pray for a relationship, for salvation for a loved one, for relief from sickness, for a child, for a turn in our circumstances, and our patience reaches a precipice…and fatal fall: therefore there is no hope for us, not even if an angel appeared would we believe.

It happened to Zechariah and it happens to us.

hinge

Gabriel does not leave Zechariah in doubt. Intervened with a sign.

ancient solution

I am Gabriel. Zechariah learns who the angel is. Signal that something is about to go down.

I have been sent to you. This is good news.

Since you do not believe….you will be mute until my words are fulfilled.

Gabriel takes away his power of speech.

On the surface it is a punitive sign. A punishment.

no more articulating doubt, not to me, not to your spouse, not to yourself.

But on a deeper level it is also therapeutic.

Zechariah emerges. The people wonder why he has been gone so long. They can tell from his face something has happened. They ask him.

Zechariah cannot speak. Zechariah cannot tell them what happened. He cannot give them the blessing that the priest normally gave when coming out of the temple.

Since he would not believe the good news, he is relieved of sharing the good news and this progressively rebuilds his hope as he witnesses God work around him.

Now all the people are in expectation.

Now he and his wife, do conceive.

Now Elizabeth praises God for hearing her prayer.

For nine months, Zechariah watches his hopes, the hopes of his wife, and the hopes of his people swell….and his own hope comes alive again.

At the end of the chapter when Elizabeth give birth to the baby, Zechariah all but bursts to give him the name John and extol how he will prepare all the people for Messiah.

Zechariah’s prayers were answered even more than he had prayed:

to have a child- yes.

for the Herald of Messiah to come - yes

for these two to be the same person - yes

to have his hope restored - yes

current solution

Our prayers are always heard.

God always answers our prayers, sometimes when and how we hope, other times in greater measure than we dared to hope.

Friend who couldn’t find a relationship. Years went by. Then one day I found a text on my phone.. I found my soulmate, let’s talk! Her husband had died. She had three young children. He adopted them. Deepened his pastoral ministry because God the Father adopts us all in Christ. He and his wife now opened their home to foster children. He thought he would always be alone, but now his marriage and ministry meant more people in his house than he ever would have dreamed, and it led other parents to take in foster children as well!

God did not give up on my prayer, even when I did!

I see Christ everywhere now! All their faces, in my home, in my church, in the world.

God hears all prayers and in the fullness of time answers them in ways that only God can…and in ways that draw us toward Christ.

He may give you the child you pray for…or something more.

He may give you the job you ask for or one you did not ask for, but that opens up a whole new set opportunities to serve him….

healing…our peace to accept mortality and the hereafter…

The school you want to get into, or a time of questioning that brings you closer to your true path…

However God answers prayer, it is always connected to Christ, the one he wants to give to us and the world.

God always preparing the way for Christ.

Just as God gave Zechariah and Elizabeth John, who connected them to Jesus, so also God is at work in your life, connecting you to Jesus.

Hope is a virtue that helps us to welcome that greatest of all gifts.

Cultivate hope by voluntarily adopting the practices that Gabriel imposed on Zechariah.

check our negative outlook and speech…hear the good news.

look around and see God at work in other people’s lives.

Notice how desirous we all are for the thing that God wants most to give us: Christ.

conclusion

Advent is a season of expectation. Hope.

We are a people who need hope. We are a world that needs hope.

We can always have hope, because God has given us Christ, is preparing the way for him today, and he will always come to those who hope in him.