In our text today, Zechariah has been speechless for 9 months, because he doubted the angel who promised he would have a son. So this song has been stored up for a long time.
Lets look at it verse by verse:
Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: 68“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
You might remember the image of Redeemer from the book of Ruth, where Boaz serves as redeemer for Ruth, marrying her when her husband died. In the same way, this is an image of God choosing the people of Israel, and providing for them in loving relationship.
69He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, 70as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
This obviously foreshadows Jesus' action later in the Gospel of Luke-but its worth noting that salvation, which we most often use in reference to personal sinfulness-speaks here of physical salvation from enemies, and from the hands of the enemies of Israel. This is the classic image of Messiah, that Luke will be turning on its head.
72Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, 73the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
e.g., Genesis 28:14-"Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring."
to grant us 74that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
This is a very priestly thing to say (which makes sense, as Zechariah was a priest). The image of holiness before God very much draws on the image of priestly service in the temple the very place where Zechariah was struck dumb earlier. In the temple, priests came 'before God' with the temple sacrifices, mediating between God and the people. For Israel, the holiest service to God was cloistered, engaging only the faithful pilgrams and the divine presence. Personally I wonder about this image of serving God without fear, since part of what I think constitutes service to God is going into places that might be scary, engaging with people outside our comfort zone, and reaching out to the ostracized and isolated, who are often found in unpleasant places.
76And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.
Here we connect salvation more closely to the forgiveness of sins. I like the way this gets phrased, however-to give knowledge of salvation, by the forgiveness of their sins. This is very much an image of education, rather than primarily a comment about proper belief systems. You have salvation, because your sins are forgiven.
78By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
My sermon this week is going to reflect a little further on the image of guiding our feet into the way of peace, so I won't fully unpack it here, but I love the images here-the dawn breaking over us, filling our lives with the beautiful light of the morning, so that we can see the way of peace that we missed in the darkness. At a time when the United States is escalating its involvement in the war in Afghanistan, I hope that we might as individuals, and as a world, might think about where the path of peace might leave us.
Do these texts draw any stories out from you?
SVS
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