Luke 1:56-66 The Herald is Born

The Herald of Jesus and the Call to Anticipation

Of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filcik preaches from his series, King Over All, from the Gospel of Luke. Let's listen in.

Good morning, I'm Don Filcik, I'm the lead pastor here. And a special welcome to those of you that are visiting here maybe for the first time, checking things out. I recognize that it might feel risky coming and trying a new church for the first time, but I hope that you find your time valuable here.

I actually hope all of us find our time valuable here, not just the visitors, but that we grow in our faith as a result of gathering together. Our goal, of course, as a church, those of you that are around here hear me say this often, our goal is to grow in faith, grow in community, and grow in service.

And we believe that God has called us together as a community of faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, because, he's called us together, because we need each other. We are not made to grow in isolation any more than a plant is made to grow without light.

Plants flourish in the light, humans flourish in community. When we gather, we spend a good chunk of our time focused on God's word, because we believe that it is in knowing God, as he has revealed himself, that we grow in our faith.

That's what grows our faith, is coming in contact with his word. Faith comes through hearing the word, believing the word, and going out and living according to his word. This morning, we're gonna be back in Luke chapter one, and the start of Luke builds in slow anticipation toward the birth of Jesus.

It's a long runway, as I've said the last few weeks. Today, our text brings us into the scene of the birth of Jesus's cousin and herald, John the Baptizer, I like to call him. John was born to be an Old Testament prophet, who was the herald of the coming king, kind of born in the hinge between the old and the new covenant.

Old covenant still enacted, new covenant coming in, in Jesus Christ. And I think that there's something that, fundamentally, we might misunderstand about John. He might seem extra a little bit in the text, like what's he there for?

A lot is written about John the Baptizer, and it's like his significance might be lost on many of us, because we don't necessarily live in the day and age in which he came to live. And here's what you need to understand, kings never showed up in town without first a herald going, or a forerunner, going before them, preparing the town for his arrival.

In this sense, the only thing that we might be able to relate it to is the Secret Service showing up in a community before the president shows up in order to protect them and make sure that everything is prepared.

But it's like that. The town had to be prepared for the arrival of the king. You don't want to be standing out in your overalls and all grubby and dirty when the king walked through town. And so there was a preparation.

The herald came announcing the impending arrival of the king and preparing the people, and that was to be John's role. That's what he was sent to do. A significant and privileged role in their culture, something that's very misunderstood in ours in terms of instant communication.

John was a bigger deal to their culture than he is to ours. We live in a time and an era of instant communication. We barely understand the significance or need for a herald, but preparing a community for the arrival of the king and being selected to be the voice declaring his arrival was a distinct and awesome privilege in their culture.

And so in this passage, we see a narrative about the birth of John. All of this centered on really a longer section talking about the birth of Jesus Christ, but all of it building up towards that. So it's about the birth of John, but we also ought to give attention to the things that God is doing throughout this text.

In our passage, we see that God is a God who keeps his promises. We see that our God is a God who creates wonder in his people. And further, we see that our God delights to utilize anticipation in our lives.

Blessed are those, the scriptures tell us, blessed are those who wait for the Lord. Why is waiting valued? Why is waiting valued? And I believe it's because God is not a God offering instant gratification.

He works through wonder and through awe and through curiosity and even through a building anticipation. Is there any semblance of anticipation in your life regarding the things that God has promised that he will do?

The Christian ought to live with some sense of anticipation over our lives. And so I encourage us all as we get ready to read this, lean into that building wonder within us, lean into anticipation for the things that God promises that he will do.

And so let's open our Bibles or your scripture journals or your devices to Luke chapter one, starting in verse 56 through verse 66. Luke one, 56 through 66. If you turn over there, that way you can follow along as I'm gonna read God's holy word to us.

And like I like to remind us every week, recast, this is what God desires to communicate to you and me this morning. We get to hear from him through the pages of scripture. Luke one, starting in verse 56.

And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her.

And on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. And they said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name.

And they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, his name is John. And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke, blessing God.

And fear came on all their neighbors and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid up in their hearts saying, what then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.

Let's pray. Father, you do wonderful things. You do amazing things. Things that we could spend days testifying of the great things that you have done in our lives and barely scratch the surface because all of these historical things would be in there too.

All of these amazing movements that you, the ways that you move through human history to produce the right outcomes, to bring forth the Messiah, to settle our sin and the chasm between us and our Heavenly Father.

God, you have done so much for us and I pray that you would help us to be a people who are quick in our thanksgiving, just even as we think about this Thanksgiving season and we're moving quickly. It just seems like time just snap and Thanksgiving is this coming week.

And Father, I pray that you would be moving within us a gratitude and a thankfulness and a readiness to speak it, not just even just only internalize it, but to express it to others, to testify of your goodness and your mercy.

We see that all throughout the start of Luke, people experiencing your grace and your mercy on their lives and telling others and it's spreading throughout the countryside and all of the area of Judea, hearing about the mercy that you gave to Elizabeth and her sharing that and it's spreading and creating wonder and anticipation.

Father, I pray that we would be a people of anticipation, not of fear for the future, but anticipation, knowing the hope that has been secured for us through the cross of Jesus Christ. I thank you for the gospel, the good news, the good news that starts with the darkness of our sin, but ends in glory for eternity, reconciled with our Father through the blood of Jesus Christ, your Son.

And Father, that is the basis upon which we approach you in worship this morning. We don't have to sacrifice goats and lambs and doves and only one priest able to enter into your presence through the Holy of Holies, but Father, that has all been open and we thank you for your Son who has opened that to us that we can step before your throne now in praise and gladness, with hearts energized and fueled by the hope and the anticipation of the future that you have for us.

What you've done in the past, that we might praise in the present, looking forward to the future. We ask this in Jesus' name. Yeah, I encourage you to get comfortable and reopen your Bibles or your devices to Luke chapter one, starting in verse 56 through 66.

And if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes or use the restrooms, you're not gonna distract me, so take advantage of that if you need to. These narrative sections of the gospel of Luke are recorded accounts of real life situations.

These are not just stories or fables, but they are their true history. And from this standpoint, they all serve really two purposes as we're marching through narrative portions of scripture like this that tell a story.

The first is to tell us straightforwardly what actually happened. So this is an account. Elizabeth gives birth, they name him John. The people wonder and then fear strikes them as his dad. Dad's voice is restored back just at the right time and everybody's in awe about what's going on.

So it's kind of like there, I told you the text, could we just move along to the next one now? And from one standpoint, I mean, the narrative moves on and we're getting closer to the birth of Jesus. But Luke records this account for a deeper purpose.

This is shown by the way he matches up this narrative that we're hearing here exactly with the predictive promise of the angel Gabriel to Zechariah about the birth of his son from earlier in chapter one of the same gospel.

When we're reading narratives of scripture, when we're reading the historical accounts or the things that actually transpired, we ought always to look one level deeper to the question, what is this teaching us about God?

When we're encountering scripture, that should be a fundamental question that's in our mind. And for that reason, each point in my outline this morning is gonna follow the narrative movement but also the theological point of the section.

And so the first movement of the text is a herald born and God keeps his promises, verses 56 through 58. The second is a herald named, God creates wonder, verses 59 through 63. And the third is a herald blessed, God instills anticipation, verses 64 through 66.

So we'll start here in verse 56 with the idea of a herald being born that God keeps his promises. So we're seeing the birth of the herald of the Messiah, the forerunner, the one who was sent to prepare the way for the arrival of Jesus, John the baptizer.

God sent an angel to meet with a priest who had no children. This is a little bit of background here. He and his wife, Elizabeth, were getting up in age and they were beyond childbearing years, according to the text.

And the angel told Zechariah that his wife would conceive a son. The baby would be born. They would name him John and many would rejoice at his birth. And all of these promises come true in this text to a T.

Like they all are fulfilled. All the promises that were given to Zechariah through the angel Gabriel come to fruition. We serve a God who can make promises in a way that you and I cannot. Do you know what I'm talking about?

In a way that you and I can't make promises. We do, but my calendar has meetings several weeks out with some of you and I have told people here in this room that I'm going to meet with them, except that I might not.

I might get sick, I might forget, or worse yet, I might just croak between now and then. So we just can't make promises like God can. To be human is to not know the future and certainly not to be in control of the future.

So that we're even told we ought to say, if God wills, when we make plans, right? If God wills, and it's not a technical thing that we ought to tack on like a mantra at the end of everything we say about the future, but we know that to be reality.

But God, our God, applies His sovereignty, His power, His omniscience, and His faithfulness to the making of promises and to the keeping of promises. Amen? He sent an angel to Zechariah to tell him of what would happen, and now in our text it happens.

Wouldn't you know it? Just like God said. Mary, who came to visit her cousin in our text last week, the reason I'm starting back in 56 is it kind of just, it's just kind of like, it's a little bit of movement.

Last week was all a song except for verse 56 and I just tacked it on to the start of this. You'll notice that I read part of the last paragraph. But it's to highlight that she stayed through the birth of John.

Mary is here in this account. You go, she arrives to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, and she's six months pregnant, and then she leaves three months later. There's, there you go. And there's no way that she waited until just the point where her cousin was about to pop and then left.

So she definitely stayed through the birth and I think we're meant to think that. But I want to point out that verse 57 is no small thing. Despite it being stated in simplistic terms, the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son.

Simple statement, right? Any of the ladies here who have given birth know that there's a little bit more to that than just the simple statements at face value. Here in this text is the process of labor and delivery.

With no modern medicine, no heart rate monitors, no surgical suite prepped for an emergency C-section should the need arise, no epidurals, no knowledge of the value of a sterile environment, women died in childbirth.

Many, many, many, many babies didn't make it through this process in the ancient world. But God here is being sure that this one does. God is keeping His promise to bring mother and baby through this travail with gladness and joy being the outcome as promised.

And it's a boy, just like the angel said. They didn't have ultrasounds. They didn't get a chance to look in advance. But the angel told her she was going to have a boy and last time I checked, it's about a 50 -50 chance.

The angel was kind of rolling the dice, no, he knew and God planned this, it's a boy. And the neighbors and relatives rejoiced with her just like the angel said that they would. Everybody's happy with her.

And their community identifies what is happening here and it's a beautiful thing that they see happening. They see this conception in birth for what it truly is according to the text. The neighbors and the family and the relatives and everybody gathers around and they recognize that God is showing great mercy to this formerly barren woman.

I think that's probably pretty much what they're rejoicing about at this moment. They don't quite know all the ins and outs of who He's going to be or anything. They're just celebrating with a friend.

They're like, wow, you had a baby and you've been trying for years and unable and then all of a sudden, boom, and then here we are. But according to verse 25 of this chapter, Elizabeth, you can look back at verse 25, it says this, thus, the words of Elizabeth, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when He looked on me to take away my reproach from among, my reproach among people.

Elizabeth had faced reproach prior to this among her people. They had been unkind to her regarding her lack of offspring. She was not fulfilling her societal responsibility according to cultural standards of the day.

And I mean, I think we know this to be true. People were cruel back in the past. People are cruel today and people will continue to be cruel in the future. And she was a recipient of that cruelty. And yet that has all turned to an acknowledgment among the people with awe and wonder that God has seen fit in His mercy to give this older barren woman a child here in this text.

God is keeping His promise to her. And in His promise, He is ticking off, He's really killing two birds with one stone. And I mentioned this in the first message way back a few weeks ago when we first started Luke.

That actually is the second message, but that's just that He's bringing forth the herald doing two things at the same time. He's bringing forth the herald to prepare the way for the king. The king is on the way and here's the forerunner.

But He's also doing something smaller than that. He's removing the reproach of Elizabeth, this woman. He is actually concerned for her personal life while also being concerned for the big picture of what He's doing on an epic historical scale of sending forth the forerunner and the Messiah and salvation and eternity for us that comes out of that.

And so as the people rejoice, I consider this week that this model of celebrating the victories of God in our lives is a significant theme here at the start of Luke and it happens to land on the week of Thanksgiving, going into Thanksgiving.

And I just wanna point out, God is active. We thank Him, we tell others, and then they rejoice with us as the pattern that we see here at the start of the Gospel of Luke. This is a life pattern and ought to be a life pattern for us, so much so that I feel like a broken record a bit here at the start of Luke and talking about us testifying to His glory, testifying of His mercy and His grace in our lives.

But as Luke is recording the account of the birth narratives, praising, rejoicing, and celebrating over the things that God is doing is a consistent message here, one that God wants to keep driving home to us week after week after week because that's the message of these texts.

And let me ask us, what about our neighbors? What about our relatives? Look again with me at verse 58. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her. Neighbors and relatives heard about God's great mercy to her, what about our neighbors?

Will they hear of the mercy? What about our relatives? Will they hear of the mercy of God toward you? Will they be called to rejoice over the things that God is doing in your life? Have you received anything from the hand of God that you didn't deserve?

Then you ought to be talking about it. Rather than, and I've heard a lot of this discussion, I've heard a lot of discussion about fear, about political conversations entering into Thanksgiving and Christmas, and anybody got a little bit of that in you?

No one, okay, nobody wants to admit it? I don't know, like I've talked with some of you in the room and you didn't raise your hand, so come on, you know, throw me a bone here. No, many are nervous about that, and maybe you're just nervous because I mentioned politics, right?

Like you're just like, okay, that makes me nervous, I don't even want to raise my hand about whatever you just said. But what would it look like for us to go into Thanksgiving armed with a couple of stories about the way that God has blessed us in 2024?

About the things that he's done? Or maybe be the one to initiate that, like let's just share a couple stories about how God has blessed you and give thanks to him. I love Thanksgiving because it begs a question.

Every Thanksgiving, it's one of my favorite holidays, might actually be my favorite holiday. And it's not just because of turkey, I just love that we have a day of thanks, but it begs a question, does it not?

Thankful to who? Thankful to who? Who are you thankful to? Has he given you anything worthy of praise in this last year? Why not make that a point of discussion when people ask you how you're doing? When people ask you how you're doing, talk about the good things that he's done for you in this past year.

Tell them a quick story about God's goodness and encourage them to thank God with you. And I'm not trying to be overly simplistic here because I know that some of your relatives don't believe like you do.

Some of my relatives don't believe like me. But thankfulness, I believe, can go a really long way in a conversation with people. Telling positive and encouraging upbeat stories in a way to give light to a potentially dark mood is a blessing.

Be salt and light, let your neighbors and relatives hear of the ways God has blessed you in this past year. Elizabeth obviously spread the news. And maybe God would have you be the one at your Thanksgiving gathering to initiate this to say, hey, let's go around and say one thing that we're thankful to God for this year.

Maybe that's you, maybe he's tugging at you to be the one to offer more Thanksgiving to him. Once again, God proves himself to be faithful to keep his promises. And so be sure your positive stories don't end with you.

Be sure that they point back to the faithfulness of God, not your prowess at work or your athletic achievements, but really ultimately giving him thanks and glory. Point to his faithfulness, your unworthiness, and his great kindness.

Talk up God in thankfulness and thanksgiving to the one who keeps his promises. The narrative moves on from the birth to the rite of circumcision eight days later and the naming ceremony. And in these next five verses, we see a herald named God creating wonder, or God creates wonder, verses 59 through 63.

According to the law, in Leviticus 12 .3, Jewish boys were to be circumcised on the eighth day. And in this case, it's obvious that the circumcision event was tied to the naming of the baby boy as well.

By the way, as much as we might wanna make points about that, and I've heard people say, well, they wouldn't even name them before they were circumcised because they weren't sure they were gonna survive or things like that.

There's just not much documentation for some of those myths. So when it really comes down to it, all that we know is that that's what they did in this circumstance, but we don't see a pattern and there's not really historical precedent for this that they named them at the circumcision, but they did here today.

This was a religious event and not merely a medical procedure. That's clear from scripture. The circumcision of Jewish boys on the eighth day hearkens back to the covenant that God made with Abram way, way, way, way, way back in Genesis, like between chapter 12 and 17.

It was a reminder that God is a covenant God and that the Jews were supposed to be a covenant people, committed to him as his people and him committed to them as their God. The communal nature of verses 59 through 62 seem pretty stark to our individualistic ears.

I don't think there's a person in the room that quite doesn't bristle a little bit at the brass of these neighbors and relatives who are ready to name the baby. Like how many of you just kind of go like, wait, what?

Like you don't get to say what my kid's called. Are you kidding me? And the neighbors are like all up in their business. And I mean, anybody else kind of just like, that doesn't jive with me at all. Like the way I was raised, I was like, you suggest a name, I'm calling him something different.

Like that's the way my heart was raised. So why is this entire community present at this circumcision? But even more stark is why is this entire community brash enough to suggest names to Elizabeth? The community was geared up to name him.

They already had a name for him. He's Zechariah. Maybe they've even been calling him that already. They're ready with Zechariah. This is a barrier, by the way. This is an intentionally put up barrier to the promise of God in this text.

Well, Zechariah was already told to name him John. We know that from the text and the interaction with the angel, but they've gotta go against the community. To follow through on God's promises, they have to go against their community.

They have to go against their family. And this, by the way, would not be, they weren't raised like you and me. This would be a really tough call. This is a difficult thing for them to do. They don't have the individualism that strikes our hearts.

They have a communal nature to the way that they've been put together. And they are eager to please others and to join in with the community. And the community says, Zechariah, and the angel says, you name him John.

But Elizabeth disagrees, and she does. She stands, she takes a stand. And she disagrees with the relatives and friends gathered and stands her ground and says, no, he will be called John. Are you guys ready for this?

The crowd's insistent. She names him to them, and the crowd and the people gathered are, they're celebrating with them, but they're insistent. The gall of this group is amazing. Mom says, we're gonna call him John.

And the group says, why? Are you kidding me? They challenge her. Can you imagine challenging the name given to a baby on a birth announcement? You get the birth announcement in the mail and you write them an email and go, I don't like the name.

I think you got it wrong there. Are you kidding me? That's what's going on in this text. They even come with reasons. In verse 21, nobody in your family's named John. Come on, come in line with our culture.

Come in line with the way that we do things around here. You've been a part of our community your entire life. Just name him Zechariah and be done with it. None of your relatives are called John. What are you doing?

You can't do that. There's a lot of cultural expectation here coming out in our text. Even today, there's some expectations that might be on the naming process. We obviously have a lot more individualism, but there are many who name their kids after family members.

As a matter of fact, all three of my own children carry a family name as either their first, middle, or both. And so, a lot of us do that. Many of us don't. But Elizabeth insists that he will be called John, which means God is gracious.

Now, the choosing of this name would call attention to that meaning pretty substantially. The sudden and jarring name of this child outside of societal norms calls attention to the meaning. Clearly, the name is being chosen to communicate something beyond family affiliation, and that's what needs to be highlighted about the name Zechariah.

Zechariah means God remembers, which would be a perfectly good name to remember the promises of God. So, why don't they go with Zechariah? Why don't they just go, that just kind of basically means the same thing.

God is gracious, or God remembers, and by remembering, we're talking about his faithfulness, and his commitment to keep his promises. But what would the community think if they went with Zechariah? Well, they're naming him after his dad.

That would be the end of the thought. It's because of family affiliation. So, arresting the naming process from that family affiliation and from the culture is actually driving the significance of the meaning.

They all have to think, why would you name him John? Why would you name him God is gracious? And they have to think about it. The meaning is significant. God is voicing his graciousness through the birth of this forerunner of his son, who will come to save his people, who will be king over all kings.

But back to the narrative, the family and friends are challenging Elizabeth to her face, and so they go, okay, mom, you're out. Let's see what Zechariah thinks. Let's see, does he vote team community, or does he vote with his wife?

Oh, Zechariah's in a tough spot all of a sudden. Now, it's not at all usual for a man to be silent over these matters. As a matter of fact, we might have wondered before this if we didn't understand the full story, why in the world is Zechariah not spoken already?

Men certainly participated in the naming of their children during this time, so we might be surprised at his silence if we hadn't started reading from the beginning of Luke, understanding that Zechariah has been rendered mute.

He can't speak. And it isn't until we reach verse 62 that we also find out that he's quite likely been rendered deaf as well. A little bit of a misunderstanding, and one particular Greek word. But he's probably both deaf and mute during this nine months of pregnancy.

He doubted the words of the angel earlier while he was in the temple serving as the priest, and the angel came to him and told him he was gonna have a son. He doubted that, and so he asked for a sign.

And so the ironic twist was that a sign was given by the angel. The angel said, yeah, sure, you get a sign, and the sign is that you're not gonna be able to talk, and you're not gonna be able to hear until the boy is born and named.

And once those things come to pass, you will be released. The word for mute in Greek is a catch-all term that can mean both unable to speak or unable to hear, or any combination of those two. Translators would probably do well to identify him as both mute and deaf, because the people make signs and hand motions to him to ask him what he wanted the baby to be called.

You don't need sign language for someone who isn't deaf. If he can hear, but he just can't speak, well, they could just talk to him. But one thing is for sure, Zechariah has had nine months of time out to sit maybe in the corner with his own thoughts and consider what God is doing.

At least his life slowed down quite a bit during that nine months, and unable to communicate. But we will see next week that he's had a lot of thoughts waiting to get out, and they're really good thoughts.

So that's gonna be, we're gonna see the words of Zechariah's praise next week. But they handed him, I'm sorry, in two weeks. Next week is the Thanksgiving thing, and you're gonna get a chance for open mics and stuff.

So it's actually in two weeks. But they hand him an iPad with an Apple Pencil, and he writes out his name. It says tablet right in the text. I mean, come on, I'm not, you know. He writes out his name is, his name is John.

Well, it wasn't an iPad, but it was probably a wax-covered slate, a piece of rock with wax over the top of it that could be melted and reformed. But what he writes is definitive, isn't it? His name is John.

And by the way, the Greek construction here indicates that he doesn't perceive himself to be naming the child. He's not naming him. He's not naming him. He's declaring what his name already is. He is declaring what has been true from before his birth.

His name is already John. It is. This is actually an act of faith on Zechariah's part. He who had doubted the message of the angel is now acting on it. God had promised that he would be mute until the baby was born and named, and here in this moment, snap, he regains his speech.

Why is this account recorded for us to be discussed here this morning in 2024 in Matawan, Michigan? It exists to serve as one more testimony to the miraculous and unique nature of the arrival of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And God produced a desired result and the family and friends gathered to celebrate on this day, they are all moved to wonder. Says in the text, they're moved to wonder. Like awe, like surprise, and curiosity about these things.

The things that God is doing here in the text are really unique and the accounts are arranged in a way that they're widening the circle of wonder. Our God is a God who likes to surprise us. I think he's glad when we delight ourselves in the quirkiness and ironies of life.

And have you seen some of those? Twists that's all of a sudden, and have you ever been impressed by the perfect timing of an unforeseen encounter with an old friend? You ever had that happen where it's like, you're here, are you kidding me?

Same concert, how does this happen? And you haven't seen him in years, and all of a sudden, boom, they're right there at the coffee shop with you, or you're just like, what, how, and what do you say, like, is this coincidence?

Or is there a God who's orchestrating these things? Have you ever pondered the bad things that missed you by minutes or inches? You ponder those things and think about it. Have you ever wondered at the wide and awesome expanse of the skies or the intricate details of a fallen leaf?

Wonder, wonder, wonder. God has created and crafted a world full of wonders and then placed us here as the wondering ones. I watch my cat, my cat doesn't wander. It wanders, but it doesn't wonder. Animals, they do animal things, right?

Primarily get food and reproduce, and that's it. But we ponder, we reflect, we consider, and we are curious about our world. We wonder, and he crafts the awesome surprises. A barren old lady gives birth.

She goes off script and names him God is Gracious. And they all are left wondering, curious as to what these things might mean when suddenly Zechariah says his first words in over nine months. And then in this next section we see the third movement of the text, a herald blessed God instills anticipation, verses 64 through 66.

And note what Zechariah does first. What's the first thing that he does when he regains his speech and his hearing? He praised God immediately. What do we do first when God shows his mercy and kindness to us?

I'm convinced that we're in a season and time of social history in which it is more important than ever that the church rejoice and celebrate together, that we do this well. Much of our culture is lost in darkness and despair and rot without much to celebrate about at all.

Are we not called to bring light and preservative, salt and light into a dark and rotten world? We must celebrate together and celebrate in the world, not gloat in the world, but celebrate the good news as our only hope.

Jesus Christ, our only hope. Zechariah's impulse after plenty of time to contemplate is praise. The result of his alone with his own thoughts is to praise God. The wonder on the part of the gathering from verse 63 gives way to fearful awe in verse 65.