Amy C Walters

Zechariah and the Angel – Luke 1:5-17

This story takes place during the time of Herod, king of Judea. Luke’s purpose in writing this gospel is to build his readers’ confidence that what they had heard about Jesus was true. And so he connects this gospel of Jesus to other historical events, other historical characters that his audience would recognize.

The main characters of the story are Zechariah and Elizabeth. We’re told that Zechariah belongs to the priestly division of Abijah. So, Zechariah is a priest coming from a priestly family. In fact, we get down all the way into the division of the family that he’s in, which is Abijah, and that’ll be important for determining when he goes to serve at the temple.

We also hear that Elizabeth is from a priestly family. She’s a descendant of Aaron, and Aaron was the very first high priest–priests of Israel descend from Aaron. So both of these, Zechariah and Elizabeth, come from a priestly family.

But they have a really big problem: they have no children. 

And not only do they have no children, they don’t even have the physical possibility of becoming parents anymore. We’re told that Elizabeth is barren, and that they’re “well along in years.” We learn in other parts of the story that Elizabeth is even past the age of childbearing. She’s postmenopausal. 

They have no children. They’re not physically capable of having children on their own. This is a sad situation.

At that time, children were extremely important. For one thing, the children are kind of the social security system. Once you get old, it’s your children that take care of you. So they don’t have anyone to care for them in their old age.

It’s also really important to carry on the family line. It’s an honor to have children and to be able to pass your heritage along to them. So to not have children was a shameful thing.

So how do you think it felt for Zechariah and Elizabeth in their old age and yet without children?

It was heartbreaking, no doubt, to not have this thing that they had wanted for many years.

Young women in those days typically got married in their early youth, probably in their teens. Here Elizabeth was past menopause. It’s potentially 40-something years that they had been praying for a child, and the answer that they got was “not yet.”

How else do you think Zechariah and Elizabeth were feeling? Maybe alone. I’m sure they were surrounded by couples their age who had children, maybe even grandchildren at this point.

Maybe there was even some shame in it. Because having children was such an important thing, when somebody didn’t have a child, there was an assumption from people in the culture that they had done something wrong, that this childlessness was judgment from God. And so people might have looked on Zechariah and Elizabeth scornfully, looked down on them. “You must have done something wrong, and that’s why you don’t have a child.”

But Luke tells us that “both of them were upright in the sight of the Lord, blamelessly observing all of God’s regulations and commandments.”

Now, does this mean that this couple was perfect? No, we know that that’s not possible, that there’s only been one person that’s perfect, and that is Jesus Christ himself. 

Why then did Luke say that they were upright and blameless? I think the point that Luke is trying to make is that this was not judgment or punishment from God. God had another bigger purpose in mind for what he was taking them through.

And this couple, they had a decision. They had been praying for 40 plus years for a child. And God’s answer was “not yet.”

How could they have responded to that situation? They could have grown bitter. They could have grown angry at God for not answering their prayers. They could have given up trying to follow God’s commandments and regulations. They could have said, “What’s the point? We’re not getting what we want.”

But Zechariah and Elizabeth did not make their obedience contingent on God doing what they wanted him to. They continued to obey. They made the choice to faithfully follow him, even when his answer to their prayer was “no” or “not yet.”

What an incredible example they are of faithfulness in following God! 

I bet there were also times in their lives as they’re praying that it felt like God just didn’t hear them. It probably felt like they were being ignored.

Have you ever felt that way? Like your prayers are maybe just bouncing off the ceiling, that God wasn’t listening? 

But what do we see later on in this story? When Zechariah is in the holy place of the temple and the angel is there visiting him, what does the angel tell him? “Your prayer has been heard.” You’re not being ignored. God is at work.

How incredible is that?

Now, it’s going to take a miracle for God to answer this prayer, but the key truth here is that God always hears his children.

Even when it feels like you’re waiting too long, even when it feels like you’re being ignored, we need to remember the truth that God hears. He may have another purpose in mind for saying “wait.” He may have another purpose in mind for saying “no,” but it doesn’t mean that you’re being ignored.

God hears.