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When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
The relatives had their own name planned and ready for the child. In one way it was a nice nod of respect to the father. It was a way of saying that they were so fond of Zechariah that they wouldn't mind another from the same mold. But Zechariah had already managed to communicate to Elizabeth that the child was not going be quite so mundane or familiar, not simply more of the same.
"No. He will be called John."
She was set on obedience to the angel who had told Zechariah that the name of the child would be John, a Hebrew name meaning, the Lord is gracious and merciful. Her relatives pushed back, willing to override the mother's choice in the absence of any word from the father. They were looking for a name that was already in use among the relatives of Elizabeth. They seemed to desire something predictable, something easy to interpret that would readily fit into the patterns of life in their community. But John was to be anything but familiar and predictable. Surely, they thought, the Father would concur with their desire to show him honor by naming the son after him?
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name,"
and all were amazed.
Zechariah and Elizabeth had decided to put their trust in the plan communicated by Gabriel for their child, not in their own instincts, much less in the suggestions of the crowd. Just as it was doubt in that plan that rendered Zechariah speechless so now it was his assent that opened his mouth and freed his tongue.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Zechariah was like a microcosm of Israel, for whom the voice of prophecy had fallen silent due to a lack of covenant fidelity, but was now again to be unleashed upon the world. And his canticle, blessing God, was certainly prophetic. But it was to be in John that the full return of the prophetic voice was to be found.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
The neighbors had preferred comfort and predictability. The unexpected entrance of the action of God in their lives led to an unsettling fear for it meant, if nothing else, that change was coming. They had tried to avert this possibility by controlling the name of the child, by closely regulating what speech was allowed and what was prohibited. But God was unwilling to let his plans be hindered and thus found those few, holy and righteous, that would agree with his word and allow his desire for the redemption of the world to find a voice.
Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
We tend to think of the coming of Jesus, and therefore too of the coming of John, as something sentimental and sweet, something tame to the degree of being trivial. We therefore tend to forget the earthshattering reality and the full ramifications of God's desire to come some close to humankind. We often try to keep such control of our lives and our world as to leave God no room to act. But the incarnation demonstrates that, although Jesus comes to us in a way that makes us trust and love him, it also opens us and makes us vulnerable to the ways in which he will be a complete surprise and a challenge. But this is important. If he had come any other way we probably would have figured out a way to stop him before he even arrived. But by being born as a child he demonstrated a desire for reciprocal trust and mutual love. This love would go a long way to make us willing to receive his work of refining and purifying us, like gold or silver, that we too might offer to the Lord our due sacrifice. And what sacrifice is that? Right praise, like that of Zechariah, who spoke, blessing God.
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