From Long Waiting to Loud Singing
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
September 25, 2016
If you could go back in time to France in early September 1945, that is, just after the war was over. And you lived in a rule French village, you might have started to hear rumors, rumors that the war had been won and things were about to change. You might have even heard people start to sing again. In v. 65 of our passage, it says “all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea.” In other words, there was a buzz around town about what God was doing. Mary and Elizabeth and Zachariah and John and Jesus were trending. And after long years of hardship, two joyful songs of victory hung in the air.
Scripture Reading
I’m going to read our passage. Then I’ll pray, and we’ll study these two songs together: Mary’s song and Zachariah’s song. If you have a Bible, please follow along with me as I read Luke 1:39–80 (page 971).39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”46 And Mary said,“My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear himfrom generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
Prayer
This is God’s word; thanks be to God. Would you please pray with me? “Heavenly Father . . .”
1. Waiting Long
Harrisburg Sign
We spend large, long portions of our life waiting for things. This passage is often taught at Christmas time, which we often wait expectantly for—especially as children. Young children also wait for summertime when they can be out of school and free! And parents, by the end of the summer, can’t wait for school to start again.We also wait for results of tests, maybe an academic test or perhaps a medical test result.We have a number people in our church who are engaged, or they were engaged and now are newly married. During the engagement, they are often stressed by all of the details and the planning and the waiting. So, frequently, I find myself telling these couples that “engagements are not meant to last.” A marriage, yes. But an engagement, no. It’s a period of waiting.Three years ago, our family moved here from Tucson, AZ. And from the first moment that we left Tucson, traveling south through Vail, AZ and then on to Las Cruces, NM, our children were waiting to get out of the car. It was 2,398 miles.The other morning at breakfast, I asked my family what they remembered from our long road trip. They said the blown tire going 80 mph in Texas (that’s the speed limit, by the way). And then building “forts” for Hudson in the hotel rooms. While we stopped at my parents’ house in Arkansas, there was a huge snow storm, and we putting kitty litter under the tire and made my mother drive our van while all of us, children included, pushed the van out of the snow. And then driving for 8 hours in the snow at 35 mph.I remember all of those things, too. But I also remember a certain sign. We took a picture of it as we drove by it. I don’t even remember exactly where that one is at; I know we were coming from the south, so it’s somewhere south of Harrisburg.That sign meant a lot. It meant things that had long ago been put in motion were nearing their fulfillment. And I don’t just mean the 7 days of driving across the country. I could go back further; at the point we saw that sign, it had been almost year since the first phone call from Jason about potentially coming to be a pastor at Community. And there were those interviews: on the phone, over Skype, in person. Then there was the candidating week. And then telling my former church and leaving Tucson well and selling my house. All of that took almost a year.But I could go back further. There were those five years of seminary and volunteering in a church and then looking for a role where I could preach and help lead a church, all in the context of a team. I wanted to be part of a team.And I’m sure I could keep going back further, but you get the idea. Seeing the sign that said, “Harrisburg,” meant a lot.Waiting is hard. But you know that already. And like all faithful Old Testament believers, Mary and Joseph, and Elizabeth and Zachariah had been waiting for a long, long time. They were waiting for victory and redemption and freedom and peace. They were like French citizens occupied by Germany waiting for evil to be overthrown. Consider these song lyrics from the Old Testament.
Psalm 6:2, 3, I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD - how long?
Psalm 74:10, How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
Psalm 89:46, How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?
Psalm 90:13, Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants!
You hear a common theme? Those four psalms—those four song lyrics—come from four different eras of Israelite history and are sung by four different authors: David, Asaph, Ethan, and Moses. But they all are singing gritty laments. They are all singing the blues. How long, how long, how long, how long, O Lord?To put in perspective the type of waiting that Mary and Zachariah were experiencing, you don’t measure their waiting with a stopwatch. You measure their waiting with history textbooks. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century . . . and generation after generation, empire after empire rose and fell and still time crept on . . . but always the peopled waited.Of course, here and there the people of God got small glimpses of what of what it would be like when the Lord visited them; those were joyful, hopeful moments.Consider some of the passages we read earlier in the worship service. We read Genesis 3:16, which promises the coming of someone who would crush the head of evil. That’s hopeful. Later, we read Genesis 17 about Abraham and God’s covenant with him and how Abraham would be the father of many nations—not just the one nation of Israel, but many nations. And we read in 1 Samuel 2 of Hannah’s longing for and being blessed with a son who would be a great prophet to lead God’s people. And we read about the covenant promises that God made to King David in 2 Samuel 7, that God would build for him a “sure house.” These were joyful, hopeful moments.But what of these promises? That promise to David was given around a 1,000 BC. I’m not sure how much you know about biblical history, but at the time of the first-century, there is not a king from the line of David who is ruling with power and might. Instead, the people languish, and it appears that the covenant promise of a Davidic dynasty has been forgotten. And Hebrew people sing out, “How long, how long, how long, how long, O Lord?”But the faith—at least the faith of some—is not extinguished. Men like Joseph and Zachariah and Simeon, and women like Mary and Elizabeth and Anna, still have faith that burns, even if faintly at times.And how do I know they are waiting faithfully? That’s the issue, isn’t it? Not just to wait, but to wait faithfully. The text tells us they were waiting faithfully. First, it says this explicitly. Look at what is said of Zachariah and Elizabeth in v. 6,
6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
And then in chapter 2, to steal a bit from the passage next week, we read of Simeon and Anna. Look at v. 25 and then vv. 36, 38,
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
36 And there was a prophetess, Anna . . . . She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. . . Speak[ing] of him [Jesus] to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
But we also can see their faithful waiting not only by what is said about them but also by what they actually say themselves. What do I mean by this? Let me put it like this: when Mary and Zachariah are squeezed, out comes the Bible. While they were waiting, they were soaking in the Bible—which is what the faithful do!When the weather is nice on Saturday afternoons, in my neighborhood there is a man who plays the bagpipes. I’m not sure I’m the best judge of bagpipe music, but I’d say the guy is really good at it. The other day, my son told me how he built this little hiding place in our backyard among the trees near where the man plays.Mary and Zachariah are like bagpipes filled with Scripture. When they are squeezed, out comes beautiful songs full of Scripture. In Mary’s short song, there are over a dozen references to Old Testament passages. In Zachariah’s there are over 16 references.1 Amazing! They were waiting faithfully.And consider the state of Zachariah before he begins to sing his song. Do you remember last week’s message? This week we read about the writing tablet and not being able to talk, possibly not even able to hear (cf. v. 62). What’s all that about—this not being able to talk and hear?Well, in the passage Jason preached last week, we learned that Zachariah had been disciplined by God for a moment of doubt. Sometimes when our children disobey, we send them to their rooms. And the attitude of their hearts when they come out of their rooms tells us so much—are they repentant or are they recalcitrant, that is, further hardened?Look at it like this, Zachariah had been in his room without supper because he disobeyed, and he had to stay there for 9 months! But what happens as soon as he gets out? He starts singing the promises of the Bible! Therefore, we might say something like this: That whole time in his room, he wasn’t pouting, he was reading his Bible, he was warming his heart. He was faithfully waiting.
2. The Covenant Remembered
Now, let’s talk for a bit about what they were waiting for. They were waiting for the covenant promises of God to be fulfilled. But what does that mean—covenant promises?A covenant is a solemn agreement to uphold a promise. In the Bible, there were several covenants that God made with his people. And each time, God was declaring that he would bring something to pass, or perhaps many things. Covenants were solemn but also beautiful things. And as we listen to the songs of Mary and Zachariah, we hear their words bursting with these covenant promises.Picture a piñata bursting open on the ground and the excitement as children dive for all of the goodies. And it’s not cheap candy. It’s a piñata filled with king-sized candy bars and Godiva chocolate and homemade sweets.In Mary’s song, look at this lyric in vv. 51–53 to see how God cares for the humble.51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
God’s people were oppressed by evil—the evil rulers around them and the evil within their hearts—and God was sending it away.And look at this lyric in v. 68 of Zachariah’s song to see God’s power.68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
That’s a strange metaphor for us: horns. But horns symbolized power. This Messiah would not be a weak savior. Last spring my family made a trip to Lake Tobias and went on their safari. Among other things, we saw this huge cow from another country with these huge horns. The cow came over to the safari bus, which has a top that has been cut off so you can get close to the animals. And children stuck their hands out to pet those huge horns. The whole time I’m thinking, “That cow better not shake its head or we’re in trouble.” It could have ripped through steel like it was hot butter.But Zachariah says this power of the Messiah, this horn, will be used for the good of his people, to protect God’s children.And consider just one more theme. It shows up on both songs: the forgiveness of sins.46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior . . .
And Zachariah sings,77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
3. Loud Singing
I said that people were waiting long and they were singing loud. And their loud singing was certainly not the gritty laments of the blues. Their loud singing was joyful. One pastor pointed out this joy came from pointing people to Jesus.2 That’s what everyone in this passage, in a sense, is doing. They are remembering that God does keep his covenant promises and this promises are bringing about the visitation of the Messiah—and that’s something to sing about!
Conclusion
Let me close with a short reflection on the meaning of the word “covenant.”In the beginning of the sermon, I mentioned that we have several engaged couples and newly married couples here at church. This year, I’m setting a personal best for the number of weddings officiated and attended: officiate 5 and attend 2 others. And the more weddings I officiate, the more I reflect on the difference between “consumer relationships” and “covenant relationships.” If you’ve heard me talk about this, I apologize, but I think it will be a helpful way to close talking about this briefly.When we talk about consumer relationships, what do we mean? They are one-sided relationships where, as long as the other person keeps doing his or her part, then we will do our part. We have these relationships all the time. For example, I really love Chipotle, nothing against Qdoba or Neato burrito. My first Chipotle burrito was on May 25, 2002 in Fort Collins, CO, and until the last year, I think every month since then, on average, I have enjoyed a chicken fajita burrito with corn salsa and some other garnishes. That’s around 175 burritos or $1,200 worth. If you prefer to measure in calories, that’s around 175,000 . . . but who’s counting?The hallmark of a consumer relationship is this: as long as they—the other person (or Chiplote)—holds up their end of the bargain, then I’ll hold up mine. If they change their product quality or if something happens, well, I’m free to do what I want; it’s my money. And there is nothing wrong with that. The problem in marriage comes when the couple brings this consumer view of relationships into their marriage, which is to be a covenant relationship.A covenant relationship, however, is not focused on whether or not the other person delivers the goods. No, a covenant relationship is one based on a solemn vow to hold up your end of the agreement regardless of whether the other person does.It’s God’s intention that marriage would be this type of relationship—one not based on what the other person does, but rather, through “better and worse, sickness and health, richer and poorer,” the marriage holds. These sentiments, which are so often included in wedding ceremonies, wouldn’t make any sense in a consumer relationship.And the reason that God has designed marriage to work this way is that it displays to the world the way God loves people in the gospel. Covenant love is the heart of Christianity. Christians do not believe that God loves us because we are lovely and perfect; that would be a consumer relationship. Rather, at the heart of Christianity is the covenant, unconditional love of God.Mary and Zachariah understood this. They believed that the covenant love of God was visiting them in Jesus. Look at v. 68.68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited . . . his people.
This language of “visitation” shows up several times in the Bible, especially in the Exodus story when God’s people were enslaved in Egypt, God “visited” them to save them (Genesis 50:24; cf. Jeremiah 29:10).Zachariah’s point is that God was doing something special in the birth of Jesus. God was coming to visit his people. Later in the gospel of Luke, we read something sad, however.
41 And when he drew near and saw the city [of Jerusalem], he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! . . . 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side . . . because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
They, on the whole, didn’t understand the visitation of God. Most of them missed it. But not Mary or Zachariah or thousands of others.A covenant relationship with God is the most beautiful of all relationships because it means that you can be truly known—known in all of your glory, but also known in all of your depravity and shame and failures and insecurities—and not only known but still loved. This is the meaning of unconditional love: truly known and dearly loved.The question I would put to you is this: Do you know the visitation of the covenant love of God in the person and work Jesus Christ? Do you know the hope of the gospel? They were waiting faithfully for it. And when they saw it, they sang.If you know this same love, then let not only your words but also your life sing the song that you are loved by God.
1
Walter L. Liefeld and David W. Pao,
Luke: Expositors Bible Commentary Series
, 64, 69.
2
D. A. Carson,
.
