1:13-17 — 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 give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 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 from birth. The people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
The angel responds to Zechariah reaction to its presence with the words of assurance, "Do not be afraid, your prayer has been answered." What prayer the angel had in mind is not mentioned. The straightforward way it was said, and Zechariah's failure to ask what prayer it was that the angel was referring to suggest that—if Zechariah had doubts that he was already beyond the age of bearing children—it remained foremost in his mind so that he understood what the prayer referred to. Luke's introduction to Zechariah and his wife and their barrenness, and the remainder of the angel's proclamation confirms it does, also inclines towards this understanding.
This proclamation opens with a promise: "your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son"), followed by an instruction ("you shall give him the name John"), and a prediction-proclamation of the fate of the son ("he will be a great joy and delight to you . . . etc").
The sentence "your wife (wife's name) will bear you a son and you will call him (son's name)" first appears in the Bible, though in Hebrew, also to another barren couple: Abraham and Sarah (Gen 17:19). That promise opened an entirely new beginning for Abraham and for the salvation of the world. A new beginning is being heralded in by this promise to Zechariah too, only that this is the beginning of the end. The first inaugurates the birth of Israel, this one heralds in the birth of the church. That one is the promise of salvation, this one its fulfilment. In between these two promises (one already kept, the other to be fulfilled) God had ushered in countless other new beginnings for all sorts of persons who found themselves in deadends and needed new beginnings. This God is an expert at crafting new beginnings.
This God is an expert
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The instruction to name the child is a call to immemorize the moment; John is the Greek form of Hebrew Yachanan, short for Yehochanan, "Yahweh is gracious." The name is not new; at least a dozen persons went by this name in the OT.
As with the promise of a son to Abraham, so now the promise of a son to Zechariah is followed by a proclamation of what the son will be; not only will he bring great joy personally to Zechariah, "many will rejoice at his birth" because "he will be great great in the sight of the Lord." Some men are, by the force of their character or the magnitude of their accomplishments great in the eyes of men. John belongs to an entire category altogether. Whatever the phrase "great in the sight of the Lord" may mean specifically," John's greatness is superlative. This greatness is both reflected in and clarified by John's later behaviour in the presence of Jesus. John would speak of Jesus as he "the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie" (Mk 1:7). John's greatness consists at least in his ability and readiness to acknowledge with such deep humility the greatness of another. "He must increase and I must decrease," he says of Jesus, reflecting the nature of his greatness (Jn 3:30, NRS/NKJ). If John is "great in the sight of the Lord" and he could and would say what he said of Jesus, how great must the greatness of Jesus be! That John would do this to magnify Jesus is the measure, and definition, of his "greatness in the sight of the Lord".
John was also never to take wine or other strong drink. This is both a statement about John as well as instruction for Zechariah and his wife. While no explanation is given here for this abstinence or prohibition, there is no doubt that Zechariah understood its significance and implications. Most famoulsy in the OT, Nazirites, those who wished to live a life of particular sanctification by being set apart for God, abstained from drinking anything from the grape vine. Of Nazirites, it was said, "Throughout the period of his separation he is consecrated to the Lord (Num 6:8). By this statement John was to be set apart for God.
John, furthermore, "will be filled with the Holy Spirit." While the idea of being filled with the Holy Spirit is pervasive in the NT, Luke is the only one who uses this expression. For Luke the most significant event in the life of the church was the day when the gathered congregation was filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4); it signaled the inauguration of the eschatological community of faith. By being the first to be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from birth, John stands as the agent par excellence of God who would herald in that age of salvation fulfilment.
Finally, John will fulfil the great promises of God concerning the coming day of salvation. Ancient Israel had long looked forward to the day when the Messiah would come. Seven and a half centuries before Zechariah, the prophet Isaiah had spoken of a herald, a voice calling out to prepare the way for the Lord (Isa 40:3). Three and a half centuries later, Malachi would clarify that the great day of the Lord was coming when the "sun of righteousness would arise with healing in his wings" (Mal 4:2) and that, before that day arrives, God will send forth his prophet Elijah to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children" (vv5-6). John, the angel says, is the fulfilment of those promises, though the angel also clarifies that it is not that the original Elijah that was coming but John going forth "in the spirit and power of Elijah." But his mission is clear: John was simply there to "make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2017