Zechariah & Elizabeth

Luke 1

The Bible doesn't shy away from people who have a hard time believing. Look at poor Zechariah.

He's serving in the temple. He's a priest of God, and a well reputed one, if we can assume that from his role in offering the incense. He is actually in the temple when he sees an angel, or a vision of an angel. It seems to be apparent to him too, enough for him to be "shaken and overwhelmed with fear."

The angel tells him to not be afraid, and even be glad; his wife will have their long hoped-for son. Then he continues with a little speech about how important to God's plan this boy would be, this baby of this man of God. 

The story doesn't make Zechariah a faith hero though. He responds with a commonsense question that many of us would ask: "How can this be? For we are too old for children." A simple question. It was a little improbable, and Zechariah was probably in a bit of shock.

Not such a permissable question for the angel Gabriel though. He replies with a "Do you know who you're talking to?" angry line and "it was God who sent me with this news." Zechariah, for his part, is struck dumb until the baby is born.

It's such an unexpected event. He had been in the temple many times before worshipping and serving, but this had never happened before.

I resonate, perhaps unfortunately, with Zechariah. Not unbelief. But "are you sure?" Yes, I believe. But I need to think about it for a minute, I need to doubt a bit, I need to wonder and question, and that's how I believe.

I want to justify my unbelief. Hold on to it and justify it. I think if I let it go I would feel like a fraud, because it's so real to me, good or bad. I've tried to will it away before, tried to be a faith person before, but after a few weeks the facade wears off and I doubt again. To protect myself I allow doubt to be ok, doubt to be good, doubt to be normal. And if I let go of this I would feel depressed and like a loser. It's much easier to say that it's ok, and the faith-people are the aberrations.

Gabriel didn't accept such excuses. "How dare you question this? God can do anything."

Yet Zechariah is included in this story. He could have been edited out, or his unbelief edited out. But it's here, for ask to see.

Zechariah isn't a hero because of this day. He's a hero because of the subsequent days. His nine months of waiting. His giving his son to God, symbolized by his name and his Nazarite vows, but much more in raising this son to be the Prophet, expecting that this would all come true, and raising him so it would be true. It wasn't about Zachariah's response on that day, scolding notwithstanding. Zechariah did believe, much more deeply than we could imagine. It just took a while to get over the shock, to digest it.