Advent Day 22.

Music:
Simon Wester, Salt of The Sound 

Today, as we enter the fourth and our final week of Advent we move into Luke’s Gospel. This week we will walk through the Christmas story opening with Zechariah and Elizabeth and culminating With Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the angels and shepherds.
Luke’s Gospel gives us more Advent and Christmas themes than any other.
After his preliminary dedication to Theophilus, Luke begins his Gospel with these words: “In the days of King Herod.”
Luke’s story is set during the dark days when Judea was occupied by Rome and their king was a client of Caesar. Herod the Great (72–4 BC) was installed as the King of Judea by the Roman Senate in 37 BC as a reward for military service on behalf of the empire.
Herod was a daring general and a great builder, but he was also a corrupt and paranoid king capable of astonishing cruelty. After waiting so long for a king, Herod was certainly not the righteous king the pious of Israel had been praying for. As Luke’s story opens Herod has reigned for some thirty years, his dynasty is in place, and the hope for a messianic king seemed farther away than ever.
At the same time there lived in the hill country of Judea a humble priest and his wife—Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were blameless, but blamelessness had not led to blessedness, for Elizabeth was barren. They had prayed for a child for decades, but no child had come, and now they were getting on in years. Of course by this point in the Bible we see this as the foreshadowing of a special birth—barren women giving birth to great sons is a common biblical motif seen in Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and the wife of Manoah. And sure enough, when Zechariah is chosen by lot to offer incense in the Temple—a once in a lifetime opportunity—he encounters the angel Gabriel who tells him that his wife will bear a son, his name is to be called John, and he will prepare the people for the coming of Messiah.

Luke 1:5-25

Gabriel began his announcement to Zechariah by saying, “Do not be afraid.” Angels always say “fear not” because this is what heaven has to say to earth.
Then the angel says, “Your prayer has been heard.” Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying for a child for a long time, perhaps for as long as Herod had been king.
The answer to their prayer had been delayed so that God can give them more than a child—God will give them the forerunner of Messiah!
Sometimes the answer to our prayers is delayed so that God can answer them in a way greater than we could ever imagine. Among the instructions given to Zechariah was that John was to drink no wine. John the Baptist drinks no wine because he’s not the one who brings the party, he only prepares the way. The party begins when Jesus turns the water to wine at the wedding feast in Cana. John is Advent; Jesus is Christmas

Adapted from The Anticipated Christ 

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