1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we begin our Advent Midweek series, “The Nativity: Songs of God and Men,” is taken from Luke 1:67-80, it’s entitled, “The Song of Zechariah,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Not every song has a tune, is literally set to music, or is even literally sung. There’s a song that parents like to teach their children, a song they sing—if not literally, but still loudly and clearly—to prepare them for life and to teach them how to find happiness. The lyrics differ a little bit from parent to parent, but the substance of the song remains the same: “Live for yourself and pursue your own passions, because the primary reason for your existence is to build up your own glory, not the glory of God.”
3. So, people teach their children to be selfish and prideful. They teach their children to believe that what matters most in life is their own uniqueness and success. When parents discover that their children possess certain gifts or talents, they teach those children that these things should be the focus of their entire lives, often at the expense of everyone and everything around them. If a star high school quarterback wanted to quit the team to let his backup have a shot, his parents would sing a lament to him, saying, “This is a kind gesture, but someone else’s success is not your problem. You have your own future to worry about.” If a high school valedictorian decided to forego college to feed the hungry throughout the world, her parents would very quickly sit her down and sing the same lament: “That’s a nice idea, but go get your own life established before you start worrying about other people’s problems.”
4. Sadly, Christians often find themselves singing this same song to their children, teaching them that Jesus should always be the center of their lives until he gets in the way of something they need to achieve maximum glory. Go to church, unless sports or dance or some other event gives you the opportunity to put your talents on display on Sunday morning. Chase righteousness unless you can enhance a 2.8 percent chance of a college scholarship.
5. Talk to people about Jesus. Make a bold confession of faith, unless doing so harms your public reputation or your upward mobility at work. Believe what the Bible says, within reason. But don’t actually give away everything you have to follow Jesus. Don’t be so forgiving that people can walk all over you and make you look weak. Don’t sacrifice earthly respectability for eternal righteousness.
6. These are the songs we sing our children. And, of course, we teach them these songs because this is what we believe ourselves. Sure, we believe that glorifying God is very important, but very much second place to building up our own glory—our own wealth, our own honor and comfort.
7. In Luke chapter 1, Zechariah teaches us a much greater song, which is rather amazing when you consider the circumstances of John’s birth. Zechariah finds out about his son’s upcoming birth from an angel, an angel who tells him that his aged wife is going to have a son, a miracle similar to Sarah giving birth to Isaac in the Old Testament. And this angel tells Zechariah that his son is going to be a prophet like Elijah—tells this to a man whose people haven’t seen a prophet in three hundred years—a prophet who is going to pave the way for the long-promised Messiah, the Savior of the world. So let’s face it, no matter how great the accomplishments of our children, they are nothing compared to John the Baptist. When you look at everything going on, Zechariah should have a much harder time than we do telling his son that he must decrease and that Christ must increase.
8. And yet, that’s exactly what Zechariah teaches John. When his son has been born, all these people are gathered around trying to figure out what all this miraculous stuff surrounding John means. They want to know what kind of amazing future this son of Zechariah has in store for him. But it’s in this moment that Zechariah begins to speak for the first time since his mouth was silenced for doubting Gabriel’s promise to him. And with those freshly opened lips, before he even speaks about his miraculously born son, he sings the song of Christ.
9. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant” (Luke 1:68–72). Zechariah sings of the redemption that Jesus is going to win with his blood. He sings of Jesus as the horn of salvation from the house of David, the one who is going to rule from David’s throne forever in peace and mercy. Zechariah begins his song not by praising his son but by praising the Son of Mary. He praises her Son as the one who is going to deliver his people from their enemies, from sin, death, and the devil.
10. And then he goes on to tell his son, John, that his job will be to prepare the way for this Savior, that his goal in life will be to get people ready to receive the love of God that Jesus is going to bring: “You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:76–77).
11. And Jesus brought us that salvation. Walking the road that John the Baptist prepared, Jesus reached out to us and grabbed all those sins that earned our condemnation, all that pride that had us loving ourselves and our money and our accomplishments instead of loving God and our neighbor. Jesus took those sins as the sacrificial lamb, and he drowned them in his blood, erased them, forgave them. Walking that path prepared by Zechariah’s son, Jesus led a perfect life, without sin, so that when he died and rose again, he could welcome us into his kingdom, so that he could bring us by his side as he ruled from David’s throne forever. Walking that path, Jesus cast out demons and raised the dead on the way to crushing the serpent’s head beneath his foot when he went to the cross.
12. On this path, Jesus forgave your sins, triumphed over your enemies, and gave you the gift of everlasting life. On this path, Jesus took people who were unfaithful parents who raised our children to be selfish and prideful, and he made us into faithful parents who look much more like faithful Zechariah. And even more so, on this path prepared by Zechariah’s son, Jesus took us, he took people who were sinful, idolatrous children of the world, and he made us into the holy, beloved children of God. From the cross, as he cried out, “It is finished,” Jesus sang for us the song of pardon and peace, the song of mercy and healing. He sang the only song that could open the doors of heaven to us, and it did.
13. So if you want to know true glory, and if you want your children to know it, run to Christ. If you want to thrive in this life and want your little ones to do the same, go with them to the feet of the one who walked the path prepared by John the Baptist. If you want your children to possess unfathomable treasures, and if you want to possess them as well, hear the song of Zechariah and go where it leads you—to the Lamb of God, who covered you in the righteousness of God and gave you every treasure of his kingdom. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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