“…because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
- Luke 1:78-79
This year we are in the Gospel of Luke! All year long! That’s what happens when you do only two chapters a month! Yet, it is also nice to slowly work through a book of the Bible and allow our hearts, minds, and souls to be saturated by the mercies of God on every page. Let alone, if we are a community dedicated to the sharing of the Good News, what better way than to devotionally study a Gospel, one written around the stories of key eyewitnesses.
Chapter 1 of Luke brings us to about 400 years after the last stories in the Old Testament. Stories about the return, the rebuilding, and the re-establishment of a king in Israel. No doubt there were many human attempts to accomplish this, but none of that would thwart God’s amazing plan that starts with a teenage virgin and an old priest.
Zechariah:
We’ll start with Zechariah because that’s where Luke starts! Zechariah is an older priest who serves in the Temple in Jerusalem. He’s on his regular rotation following all the customs of the priesthood. He draws the short end of the stick and is sent into the Holy Place to burn the incense for an hour of prayer. While he is in there, the angel, Gabriel, appears to the right side of the incense altar, and Zechariah is terrified!
Gabriel comes bearing important news! Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, are going to have a child in their old age. Having been childless their whole lives, yet righteous in all their ways, God chose to bless them with a son who will be filled with the Holy Spirit! They are to have a son and name him John! That’s right, the Baptist who lived in the wilderness and made waves in Jerusalem politics! Most importantly, this is what Gabriel had to say about John…
…to make ready for the Lord a people prepared!
Prepared for what though? War? Revolution against Rome? A new earthly king? None of that. Yet, John would call people to repent of their sins, and believe in the one to come who is even greater than John!
Zechariah had a hard time believing all of this, as amazing as he thought it was. So as a result of his faithlessness, God closed his mouth and made him unable to speak until their son would be born and named John! When all this would pass, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophecy:
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.”
- Luke 1:68
Mary, humble servant:
Then we also meet Mary, a young and lowly girl living in Nazareth, a nobody’s town. Certainly not a place for any future king or prophet. Yet, it is there that Gabriel meets Mary, and they have a similar conversation that Zechariah and Gabriel had. However, there is one big difference. Zechariah asked how things would happen in a way that had no faith that it could actually be done, which is crazy to think that he was a lifelong priest and lacked faith. Yet Mary, a teenager asked how this would happen in full faith, and readiness to do God’s will.
Mary, though young, unmarried, and could have been justifiably ostracized by others in accordance with the Law, was ready to obey God. In her faithfulness, she was filled with Holy Spirit, overshadowed by God’s presence to be pregnant with Jesus.
After this happens, Mary runs off to Elizabeth, yes, Zechariah’s wife. Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant with John at this point and Mary only just found out from Gabriel! When Mary greeted Elizabeth, Elizabeth felt John kick hard and she was filled with the Holy Spirit, extending praise that Mary is the God-bearer. Then Mary sang a song of praise:
“And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation…
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy.”
- Luke 1:50 and 54
Lord of Mercy:
Zechariah, the faithfulness old priest, would raise John the Baptist, and pour forth a Spirit-filled prophecy of John and Jesus. Mary, the faithful young servant, would raise Jesus, and pour forth a Spirit-filled song of Praise about Jesus. Both of them highlight various overlapping themes, but the only one I want to focus on is mercy.
Both of them praised God for His mercy. Mercy, he promised thousands of years before them, and now personalizing that mercy for them and achieving God’s big picture as well. This is not a God of wrath, but a God of mercy. A God who desires to restore the wicked and the broken to what is good! Mercy that blesses the faithless and the faithful. Mercy that rains on the powerful and the weak.
It is a mercy that makes a pathway of light to return to God! No matter how far into the darkness and sin you may feel you are, the light reaches you. God made sure of it through Jesus.
Final Blessing:
May this be a year we rest in His mercy; we look to that pathway of light He made for us and we walk it steadily and faithfully. Like Zechariah, go from faithless to faithful. Like Mary, we be humble servants. In all, giving praise of His mercy!
Now may the Lord of Life and Redemption be with you in every step, every breath, and every heartbeat of your journey!
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