From Silence to Singing
From Silence to Singing by Rev. L. John Gable
December 4, 2022
I imagine many of you don’t know my story; even I wasn’t able to tell it for many months. My name is Zechariah. I am a priest in the order of Abijah, and a descendant of the High Priest Aaron. My wife’s name is Elizabeth and we come from the hill country of Judea. We are rather simple, God-loving, God-fearing people who live blamelessly before the law. Life for us was very good, save one thing. We had no children and were getting well along in age. I will admit to you, that brought more than a little heartbreak to our lives, perhaps more so to Elizabeth than me as you might expect, but it is something we had come to accept.
One day though, a most incredible and unexpected thing happened that both tested and strengthened our faith. My division was called up to serve the temple in the capital city of Jerusalem and I was chosen by lot to offer the incense at the altar of the Lord. That is a great honor, and a tremendous responsibility, to enter the presence of the Lord on behalf of the people. On this particular day, as was the custom, I entered the sanctuary of the Lord to pray for the people while they waited outside.
As I approached the altar to light the incense, suddenly, out of nowhere, an angel of the Lord appeared before me. As any of you who have ever encountered an angel can attest, I was understandably terrified. I had only heard of such appearances, and while I believed them to be true, I never, in my wildest imaginings, believed it would ever happen to me. But there he was standing on the right side of the altar, and quite naturally, I bowed down before him, in fear and great awe.
As I’ve heard from others who have had encounters with angels, this angel’s first words were “Do not be afraid”, which up to that point seemed to me a rather ridiculous greeting. How could anyone not be afraid? But quite remarkably, it had a calming effect, and, to my surprise, I was not afraid, at all. He then said, “Your prayer has been heard”, and I quickly began to think through my most recent prayers to try to figure which prayer he could possibly mean. Then he continued, saying, “Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you will name his name John.” Believe me, while that was most assuredly our most heart-felt prayer, it was not our most recent one. We had long ago given up any hope of having children, but the angel was convincing.
He said, “You will name him John and he will bring great joy to you and to many for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will never drink wine or strong drink, and even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. In the spirit and power of Elijah, he will turn the hearts of many and prepare the way of the Lord.”
I was so overwhelmed by this angel visitation and announcement that I asked, “How will I know that this is true? Elizabeth and I are rather old, you know.” I thought that to be a reasonable question, but apparently the angel took offense at my asking. He said, “I am Gabriel, one of seven archangels, sent as a messenger of God. Since you did not believe my words, you will become mute until the day these things occur.” And with that the angel Gabriel was gone, and I was left speechless, literally.
I am not sure how long I was in the sanctuary, but apparently it was longer than the people expected it took to light incense. When I reappeared to them, they were wondering why I had been delayed. When they saw that I was unable to talk, much less to pronounce God’s blessing over them, they knew I had had a vision in there and they were in awe. But I could tell them nothing of what happened to me, or what it meant.
My time of service at the temple ended, so Elizabeth and I returned to our home. Sure enough, just as the angel had told me, Elizabeth conceived. Imagine that. You can add our names to the list of Abraham and Sarah and other octogenarians who quite unexpectantly were with child. I wondered how Elizabeth would respond to all of this, but she was thrilled. She felt as though her disgrace had finally ended, and, as she said, “the Lord has looked favorably upon me.”
Those months became times of silence and expectant waiting for both Elizabeth and me as we wondered together what God had in store for us and this child she was carrying.
Just when I thought life could not become any stranger for us, we had a visitor to our home. A young woman named Mary, one of Elizabeth’s cousins, from over in Nazareth in Galilee, and it turns out she, too, was pregnant. However, her circumstances were even stranger than ours. Mary was not married, although she was engaged to a good man named Joseph. She told us that she too had had a visit from the angel Gabriel who told her that even though she was a virgin, she would conceive by the Holy Spirit of God and bear a son who would be the promised Messiah. Now, of course, no one would believe her, but we did. We knew all about God doing strange and miraculous and unexpected things in people’s lives.
A most remarkable thing happened when Mary first arrived at our home. When she heard the sound of Mary’s voice, Elizabeth said our child she was carrying literally leapt in her womb. It is almost as if our child recognized her child! Then, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and began praising Mary and giving thanks to God. Mary quickly joined in, singing praise to God for His goodness in blessing these two women with children and for the hope and promise they carried within them. It was quite a sight to behold, although I will admit I wondered at the time what it all meant.
Mary joined our ritual of expectant waiting and watching and ended up staying with us from Elizabeth’s sixth month until the time when our son was to be born. Which turned out to be a good thing really. You can imagine two pregnant women together. One too old, the other too young, both the topic of much gossip, I’m sure. It is good that they had one another. And it didn’t really matter that I couldn’t talk. I wouldn’t have been able to get a word in anyway.
As was our custom, on the eighth day after our son was born, all of our friends and neighbors gathered for the circumcision. This is a wonderful time of celebration in our tradition, during which the child is named and claimed in the covenant of God’s people. Everyone fully expected that we would name him Zechariah, although I certainly had never said so. So they were shocked when Elizabeth said, “His name will be John.” They all started questioning, “John? Why John? No one in your family is named John.” I felt so badly for Elizabeth, trying to defend our decision, but there was nothing I could do. So finally I asked for a writing tablet and everyone watched as I carefully wrote, “His name is John!” As they turned away to continue their debate, suddenly my mouth was opened and my tongue was freed. I cried out, “His name is John. His name is John!” In that instant, I went from silence to singing, as my time of waiting ended and God’s promise to us was fulfilled.
For weeks on end, the people in our little community talked about us, about Elizabeth and me and our new born son, about all that had happened to us, and what it all meant. You know how people talk. But what was most remarkable about this gossip was, it wasn’t really about us at all, it was about God. It was about how God had done a remarkable thing in our lives from the time of my angel visitation in the temple, to Elizabeth’s conception, to the birth of our son, John. The people kept saying, “What will this child become? Surely the hand of the Lord is with him.”
Then one day, quite unexpectedly, as I was standing, just staring down at him as he was quietly sleeping, the Lord put a message in my mouth, a prophecy that I later told to the people and they wrote it down. I said,
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has looked favorably on His people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty Savior for us in the house of David, as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us. Thus He has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered His holy covenant, that oath that He swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
I knew that God’s hand was on John, that he would grow to be someone great. Through the years Elizabeth and I talked a great deal about what that might be and what he might do. But I couldn’t get out of my mind the child that Mary was carrying, also a son who she later named Jesus. Curious, His name means “Jehovah saves.” I wondered how these two boys would interact and how their lives would play out together, the elder and the younger. I knew our John was to be great in the service of the Lord, but something told me that Mary’s son Jesus would be greater still, and I wondered what all of that could possibly mean. When the boys were born, I thought our time of silently waiting had finally ended, but as it turned out, it was only just beginning.
As John grew we knew the Lord was with him. He was wise beyond his years, and when he finally came of age, he left our home and went out into the wilderness. He knew it was there that he could best prepare for his service to the Lord, and we did, too, so we blessed him in his going. It was difficult for us though, after waiting so long for him, we heard nothing from him for many years. Until one day he appeared publicly to Israel, saying, “Repent for the forgiveness of your sins and prepare the way of the Lord.” We knew his time of silently waiting had come to an end, as well.
Many wondered if perhaps John might be the promised Messiah, but he assured them he was not. He was not the way, he came only to prepare the way. Years later, Jesus would say of our son, John, “Among those born of women no one is greater than John.” I’m glad He said that, but truth be told, I’ve said the same thing about him all along, except for that time when I didn’t say anything to anybody.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN