Read: Luke 1:67-79
He has visited and redeemed his people. (v. 68)
Zechariah was an old man when he received the fulfilment of God’s outrageous promise. Zechariah had spent most of his life bearing a burden of unmet expectations. As a young man, he expected to receive children. As a priest of Israel, he expected God to rescue his people from the occupying Romans. Zechariah waited his whole life to receive a child. And he went to his grave without seeing the redemption of his people.
The biggest challenge of faith in Jesus is unmet expectations. We expect that life will get better when we give our lives to Christ, or that our lives will be better than the lives of people who don’t follow him. We expect to see our labor for Jesus bear abundant, obvious fruit. When these expectations aren’t met, we may be tempted to abandon the way of Christ.
Today’s reading tells us that Zechariah trusted God’s age-old prophecies about a promised Savior who would reestablish shalom. For Israel, shalom had unraveled precisely because they stopped trusting God. When Zechariah’s child was born, Zechariah didn’t praise God that the original peace of creation was instantly restored, but that Zechariah’s people would be reconciled to God by returning to God’s way (v. 68). Zechariah calls this the “way of peace” (v. 79). Advent is a season in which Christians celebrate the newborn Prince of Peace who reconciles us to God. Having received peace with God, we return to the way of the Savior—the way of peace.
As you pray, recommit to the Savior’s way of peace.
Ben Van Arragon is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church in North America. After twenty years of congregational ministry, he now serves his denomination as a pastor wellbeing consultant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
