Luke 1.
Luke starts his story of Jesus, with another story. A story of an older couple who wanted to have kids, but never did. A man who was going about his everyday job, doing the thing that his probably done a thousand times before without incident, yet this time, this time was different.
Zachariah was a Jewsish priest, he was an older man, married to Elizabeth. One day Zachariah was going about his job and burning some incense. It was his turn on the rooster to do this. Today was different to other days as an Angel of the Lord appeared. Boo!
This angel lets Zac know that he is to have a son, and that his son will have the Holy Spirit from birth (what’s that mean?), he can’t let wine touch his lips (why is that worth mentioning?) & that he is going to change the way people think.
Zac’s response: “how? I’m old and so is my wife”. He doubts and disbelieves what the angel said, and possibly the strangest part of this exchange, the Angel gets annoyed and (for lack of a better phrase) “casts a spell” preventing Zac from speaking until the birth of his son.
Fast forward 6 months, Mary enters the scene. The angel of the Lord returns. “Confused and disturbed” Mary listens to what the angel has to say. “You’re going to have a baby, his name will be Jesus, he will save the world, etc, etc”. Her response “how can his happen? I am a virgin”. The angel informs Mary of the logistics (again including this Holy Spirit character?) & that her relative Elizabeth is currently 6 months pregnant.
Mary’s response is a little different from Zachariah’s: “I am the Lords servant. May everything you have said about me come true”.
So far the writer has introduced two sets of characters, one Zac & Liz who receive a visit from an Angel, doubt what is said & as a consequence, he can’t talk for 9 months, and Mary, whom questions the angels, but believes in what he said & hopes for the future.
The story continues, Mary decides to go visit Liz and when Mary arrives, it turns into a musical and Mary ends up writing a song of praise. We are told that Mary stays for 3 months then returns home. 6+3=9, which means she could have been there for the birth, but the next passage doesn’t seem to reflect that.
“When the baby was 8 days old…”
The baby was nameless for 8 days, and Zac still hadn’t been able to talk. It’s not until they name the baby John that Zac is able to speak.
I’m intrigued by the order of events, Liz is like “we will name him John”, the crowd are like “but that doesn’t fit in with the customs, the rules even, what’s Zac got to say about this?” The text says Zac wrote on his tablet (not his iPad, he must have been an Android user), “his name is John”. Is there a subtext of “whatever Liz says goes?”. The Angel had told Zac to name him John, had they discussed this over the tablet?. It was at this point Zac is able to speak! Hurray! The text says: “Awe feel on the entire neighbourhood”. This old man who couldn’t speak for 3/4 of a year, can now speak. How Amazing!
His first speech after regaining his speech back, a prophecy handed by the Holy Spirit (that name again).
Some questions:
Did Zac’s prophecy have more or less impact given this history of not being able to speak?
Both Zac and Mary were given their future direction handed to them by ‘the Lord’, would this feel liberating or restrictive?
Who is this Holy Spirit character that keeps on popping up?
Why was it important that John wasn’t to drink wine?
