Christians are called to prepare our hearts both for the celebration of Jesus’ birth and His return.
The season of Advent is a time when we are supposed to prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus. The prophet Isaiah often gets quoted during this season. “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3
Those words appear in our Christmas Cantata this year and they were in last year’s cantata as well. When we think about preparing for Jesus’ birth, the story is not really complete without thinking about the birth of John the Baptist as well. It too, was surrounded by the supernatural.
John’s father Zechariah, was a priest, an old priest. The priests of the day, were chosen to burn incense in the temple of God, by lot. That simply means it was totally by chance. But, of course, we know that there is never coincidence where God is concerned. This situation would be no exception.
Zechariah went into the temple to burn incense and an angel of the Lord, Gabriel appeared, standing at the right side of the altar. The text says he was “startled and gripped with fear.” Luke 1:12
I’ve noticed that humans are often terrified when they see angels. Angels often tell them, “Do not be afraid.” That’s what Gabriel told Zechariah. I always thought he was afraid because Gabriel was huge and glowing and scary looking. Maybe he was. But, last Sunday, our pastor put a different spin on Zechariah’s fear that has fascinated me.
Our pastor pointed out that Zechariah was an elderly priest, a man of God, why would seeing an angel frighten him? His take was perhaps that Zechariah wasn’t frightened by the actual physical appearance of Gabriel, but by what Gabriel represented.
My pastor said that when angels appeared, the waters got stirred. He would have known the Old Testament stories by heart. When an angel appeared to Abraham, he and his 90-year-old wife, had a baby. When an angel appeared to Jacob, he wrestled with it all night long, got his name changed to Israel, and walked with a limp for the rest of his life.
Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were old and had no children. They had likely made peace with that fact. My pastor thinks that the appearance of that angel signified that life was about to change.
We often don’t like change. Even if we aren’t particularly happy or fulfilled, we humans like to stick with what we know. The unknown tends to frighten us.
Perhaps Zechariah was no different. He was right. Gabriel told him that Elizabeth would have a son and he would bring many of the people of Israel back to God. John the Baptist did just that.
God hasn’t changed since He sent Gabriel to Zechariah all those years ago. He’s rarely satisfied with the status quo and doesn’t expect us to be either. He invites us to celebrate the birth of Christ as well as to prepare the way for the second coming of Jesus.
Both simply require us to open our hearts, to pray, to listen, be obedient and to share the good news with others. That can sometimes upset the status quo.
Yet, that is what Christians are called to do and when we do, as the Bible shows us repeatedly, the miraculous can happen.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂