Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? …”

Poor Zechariah.  He can’t believe his eyes or his ears.  The message has come as a bolt out of the blue.  It promises to turn the world upside down starting with the impossibility of a child in his own home.  How can we not empathise with his question, his plea for more evidence?  It is easy to imagine what follows in cinematic terms.  The angel, whose up till now veiled presence has still gripped Zechariah with fear, casts off his covering, draws himself up, towers above Zechariah with lightening crackling in the folds of his garments and declares, in response to his doubt “I am Gabriel, I’m sent from the very presence of God, and to punish your unbelief you will now be mute until this child is born”.

I like to think of it in more compassionate terms.  After all, seeing is one thing, but believing a message, especially one as outrageous as this, requires more.  It requires trust in the messenger, trust in the source and beyond that a measure of faith.  So, I imagine Gabriel’s response more like this.  “How can you be sure?  I’m Gabriel.  I‘m personally chosen and sent by God.  You could not have a more reliable messenger.  And the message I bring is from God himself, the very source of all truth and faithfulness.  It is good news, unbelievably good news, and at its proper time every word I’ve spoken to you will happen.  I understand it’s too good for you to believe either your eyes or your ears.  So, I’m giving you another sign, a sign you won’t be able to disbelieve because it will be part of you every day, a reminder every time you want to speak and find you cannot until the child you cannot believe will be born is lying in your arms.”

We are not, of course, told such additional details.  Perhaps elements of both are true.  We are, however, told that the worshippers outside were waiting a long time for Zechariah to emerge, so either the exchange or his recovery from it, or both, took far longer than the few words Luke’s record accounts for. When he finally emerged his silence was itself an eloquent testimony that he had seen an extraordinary vision in the temple, even if he could not yet explain its astonishing content.