The Mighty Hath Fallen

Reading: Luke 1:57-80

Luke’s gospel is often represented in the iconography of the Church by a bull or an ox. One of the reasons for this is that Luke begins in a sacrificial setting, in the Temple, where bulls would be sacrificed. We hear in Luke 1 the story of Zechariah, the priest who was appointed to go into the Holy of Holies and offer sacrifices for the people. Zechariah gets an unsuspected message in the midst of his service. He and his wife Elizabeth are going to have a baby! But like Abraham before him, Zechariah doubts that can happen at his age and he asks, “How shall I know this?” His question, his demand for proof, is answered with him not being able to speak until the baby is born. And so the gospel begins with the pattern we will see repeated throughout it: the insiders, the powerful, the ones who “get it,” demonstrate their unreadiness to receive the Kingdom of God, while the lowly, the outsiders, the ones assumed to not have it together, are invited in. Mary has just sung of this in the Magnificat a few verses prior, but she herself demonstrates this pattern as well. A poor young woman, nowhere near the temple, a sort of opposite of Zechariah, humbly receives the Word of the Lord and demonstrates she is ready for the kingdom.

But in this passage, we see Zechariah’s redemption, showing us that God’s kingdom is indeed also for and with those who do happen to hold power and privilege, provided that they humble themselves. For that is what Zechariah does - he humbles himself. He submits to the will of God in the naming of his son, not after himself, as the people around him would have expected him to do, but naming him John, as the angel declared.

And think just for a minute about the situation of John’s naming and how Zechariah had to humble himself. Family and friends had gathered for the baby’s ceremony of circumcision and naming. When it came time for the child to be named, Zechariah, who would have normally handled that part as the father in that culture, could not speak, so Elizabeth names their son. You can tell that the guests were not expecting this name, because the text tells us that they were incredulous that the boy wasn’t named after his father. They turn to Zechariah, almost ignoring Elizabeth’s naming as if it were of less value. But Zechariah confirms what his wife has said by writing on a tablet, “His name is John.” In the eyes of everyone there, he has just let his wife take the lead on the duty of naming their son, something very strange indeed in that culture. Now in reality, both Zechariah and Elizabeth are submitting to God together by naming their son John, a conversation they must have had many times over the course of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. But there is an aspect here of the perception of everyone else, that Zechariah is, in a very patriarchal culture, apparently letting his wife take the lead in this responsibility. He humbles himself, letting the expectations of those who have gathered take a back seat to what he and Elizabeth have been commanded by God.

And in that moment, his speech returns. The mighty one has been humbled, but by no means cast out. Zechariah gives for us a redemptive image of power and authority, power that submits itself to the will of God. Though he is not perfect, as none of us are, he learns from his mistakes and continues to seek and do God’s will.

How is God calling us to do his will today? What we learn from the story of Zechariah is that God calls us to humble ourselves. There are all sorts of expectations, responsibilities, and appearances that we have to keep, but are we willing to lay those aside in order to do what God has told us to do? It may be confusing or even offensive to others; it may cause us to lose status among our peers, but let us have the courage to be like our savior, as Paul writes in Philippians 2: “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus serves as our ultimate example of humility. Let us not be afraid to follow him.