Christmas 2023 – Part I – Zechariah

November 29, 2023

We’ve got four Wednesdays for blog posts before Christmas and this year I’d like to spend just a few minutes on different people surrounding the account of Jesus’ birth. Nothing theologically surprising or deep, just a few insights from God’s Word.

Sarah and I had the opportunity to visit San Francisco several years ago around Christmastime. I’ve got lots of photos from that trip, some I may share in future posts. This one picture, which I call Christmas Trolley, means a few things to me.

Not only is this trolley (called a cable car in San Francisco) decorated to the hilt for Christmas, it is also a working cable car. The cable car system in San Francisco is alive and well. There are three routes each taking you to various sights in the city. This car is part of the Powell & Hyde Line. Not only are the cars part of an essential transportation network, they are at the heart of having fun in the city.

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The fun parts include the open-air experience of traveling up and down some of the steepest streets in the nation. The views of the San Francisco Bay and the city can be breathtaking. The essential parts include getting visitors and residents to places that are difficult to get to if you’re walking. We walked many of the hills and believe me, taking a cable car ride is much more efficient.

But what does this have to do with Christmas and Zechariah?

You see, Zechariah was an old guy. I’m not sure how old but Luke tells us he was “advanced in years.” This leads us to believe he and his wife were both well past child-bearing years. The Bible doesn’t say anything to make us to believe that Zechariah trained his whole life to become the father to a man who would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17, ESV)

In fact, as best we can tell, Zechariah was simply going about his day as a priest when he learned the news that he and Elizabeth were going to have a baby.

Just like all the other priests, Zechariah participated in the random choosing of duties by casting lots. Turns out on this special day, God chose him to burn incense in the Holy of Holies. I say God chose him because we know God is in control of everything. What appeared to be a human casting of chance was actually determined by God.

There are said to have been twenty thousand priests in Christ’s time, so that no priest would ever offer incense more than once.^[1]

It was during this very special “once-in-a-lifetime” event that God sent an angel to give Zechariah the good news.

“And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, 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 the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:11-17)

Like Zechariah, who found himself doing his daily duty and at the same time being tapped to kick off very beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the cable car finds itself not only providing a necessary means of transportation, but also a joyful Christmastime experience.

You and I can be encouraged to know that the same God who tapped Zechariah for his role, is the God who is involved in our lives today. What might seem like just another day can be a day when what we view as randomness, is God’s calling for us to serve Him in a special way.

I pray for you as you look for those opportunities this Christmas season.

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^[1] Marvin Richardson Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 1 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887), 255.