Zacharias

Scripture: Luke 1:5–25, 57–80; 1 Chronicles 24:10

The priestly division of Abijah (Luke 1:5; 1 Chronicles 24:10), Zacharias (Ζαχαρίας, from the Hebrew זְכַרְיָה, Zechariah, "YHWH has remembered") was a priest of the division of Abijah. David had established twenty-four priestly divisions (1 Chronicles 24); the division of Abijah was the eighth. There were so many priests in Second Temple Israel that the divisions rotated through Temple service by lot. This was not the high priesthood; this was a rural Judean priest whose household served a week at a time. The priesthood was his calling, not his distinction. His distinction came from what happened during one particular rotation.

The burning of incense (Luke 1:8–12), "Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense" (1:8–9). The lot for the incense offering was among the most coveted in daily Temple service, and a priest could serve it only once in his lifetime. The congregation stood outside and prayed during the offering (1:10). Zacharias was alone in the sanctuary when the angel of the Lord appeared, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. "Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him" (1:12).

The annunciation (Luke 1:13–17), Gabriel's message was: "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared" (1:13–17). This is one of the most comprehensive prophetic descriptions of a person before their birth in the New Testament, John's character, his abstinence, his prenatal Spirit-filling, his Elijah-function, and his purpose.

The unbelief and the muting (Luke 1:18–22), Zacharias answered: "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years" (1:18). Gabriel identified himself, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news", and then: "And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time" (1:19–20). The congregation was waiting outside, wondering why Zacharias was delayed. When he came out, he could not speak to them. He made signs to them and remained mute. His assignment continued; the text notes that "when his time of service was ended, he went to his home" (1:23), a priest who had just received the most significant prophetic communication in Israel in four hundred years, walking silently back to his Judean hill country house.

Nine months of silence, Elizabeth conceived (1:24–25). Zacharias was mute throughout the pregnancy, throughout Elizabeth's hiding, throughout the visit of Mary and Elizabeth's Spirit-filled confession, throughout the Magnificat. He communicated only by signs. Everything Elizabeth learned about the annunciation, she learned from a man who could not speak it.

The release: the writing tablet (Luke 1:57–64), When John was born and the eighth-day circumcision came, the relatives and neighbors wanted to name the child Zacharias after his father. Elizabeth said: "No; he shall be called John." They turned to Zacharias. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote: "His name is John" (1:63). "And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God" (1:64). The precision of the release, immediately upon the written confirmation of the angelic instruction, exactly as Gabriel had said ("until the day that these things take place"), is characteristic of Luke's narrative precision.

The Benedictus (Luke 1:67–79), "And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied" (1:67). The Benedictus (named for its opening word in Latin translation, Benedictus dominus deus Israel, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel") is the canticle that follows. It moves through: praise for YHWH's visitation of his people in the horn of salvation from David's house (1:68–69), fulfillment of the prophets and the covenant with Abraham (1:70–73), the call to worship without fear (1:74–75), and then the direct address to his newborn son: "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 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" (1:76–79). The man who had been mute for nine months filled with the Spirit and prophesied. The nine months of enforced silence preceded the most sustained prophetic utterance in Luke's opening chapters.

Zacharias is a man who asked for proof and paid nine months for it. The Sanctum holds his Benedictus as one of the great prophetic canticles of the New Testament, spoken by a priest who had just come through the only enforced silence of his life, the silence Gabriel had placed on him not as punishment alone but as a marker for the moment when the words that were not believed would be fulfilled. When his mouth opened, he had nine months of stored-up prophetic understanding to pour out.