Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:63 [Zechariah] asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.”

Zechariah has had nine months to ponder Gabriel’s words to him in the temple.  And for the last three Mary has been staying in his house, so he must have heard the details of her encounter with Gabriel too.  We’ll look tomorrow at how that has changed him.  But for today we join him as he anticipates the imminent delivery of his child.  Gabriel had told him he would be mute until the child is born.  Is he counting down the days until he can speak again?  Who could blame him?  But the child is born and still he cannot speak.  Nor the next day, nor the next, nor the next.  Indeed, on the eighth day, the day for his son’s circumcision, he is still mute.

Relatives and neighbours gather for the occasion, and doubtless in more numbers than usual.  Who would want to miss the celebration of this extraordinary event?  I gather that, as part of the ritual of circumcision at this time, a father would name his son and express his hopes for the boy’s future. How interesting then to read how those who gathered initially seem to have ignored Zechariah.  A biblical example of disability avoidance perhaps?  Instead, they ask Elizabeth what he is to be named expecting him to be named after his father.  Only when she replies that the child “is to be called John”, do they turn to Zechariah clearly expecting him to overrule her choice.  John means “graced by God”, which strikes me as a particularly appropriate choice in the circumstances, but evidently social convention required a name connected with the family … although it’s somewhat sad to think that no one in the family line had been “graced by God” previously.

Now centre-stage, Zechariah astonishes everyone by writing on the tablet “His name is John”.  And to their even greater astonishment, immediately his mouth is opened, and he speaks praising God.  Now comes the moment in the circumcision ritual for him to express his hopes for his son.  Outside the temple it was his silence that got the crowd’s attention; at this celebration his ability to talk again has the same impact as he declares John’s destiny.  Surely the occasion is the perfect timing, and it sets not just Zechariah but the whole neighbourhood talking.